Should Authors have a Marketing Plan in Place before submitting the Novel?

My friend from Brevard, NC, Pat Davis, was back home in the mountains recently and we shared lunch at City Lights Cafe in Sylva. Pat writes fiction and has been shopping around a manuscript for a while now. She had good news to share with me. Two publishers have shown interest.
One of the publishers wanted to see the marketing plan Pat had for this book. This certainly makes the point I have harped on for some time. The author must have a plan to sell the book, even before the book is accepted by a publisher. Writers must do the business of writing if they expect to be published.

I was happy to introduce Pat to Chris the owner of City Lights books. Writers and bookstore owners need to know each other and help each other. Without writers there would be no need for bookstores. Without bookstores, where would we be as writers?

City Lights has a few copies of my poetry book, Now Might as Well Be Then. Look for the ones with the ribbons hanging down on the Poetry shelf.

Pat has a couple of good blogs. This is her newest one - Single Life and Love after Fifty - not about writing so much, but about single women over the age of 50. I find it quite interesting.