PaperBox Books

Hi, there are any number of conversations going on around the blogsphere and the tweet world, and I’m sure off line in that old fashioned medium of voice conversations about this subject. Sue and I have had these conversations off line, too. It comes down to why would an author choose to work with an indie publisher rather than self publish, especially e-books.

We think it comes down to quality and reputation. I have bought some e-books recently, not so much because I wanted entertainment but to research. I’m not going to name names but here are some observations.

First, I bought books from Amazon.com and Smashwords, to ensure I had something from both ends of the spectrum.

What did I see?

1. Stories that hadn’t started by the time I hit delete on my iTouch. So many of the books I read gave a ton of back story.
2. Stories that had inconsistent point of view, or a point of view that allowed the author to tell the story, not show it.
3. Stories with lots of ‘stage direction’ – character stops the car, turns off the ignition, opens the door, crosses the lawn, climbs the stairs, takes out the key, unlocks the door, opens the door, and walks in. (I’m not exaggerating)
4. Stories with stilted dialogue. The big trigger is to look at the grammar in your dialogue, not even English teachers speak in correct and complete sentences all the time.

When it comes to uploading your book to Smashwords or to Amazon, you can pretty much do it with a click of the mouse. If you only revised with your own opinions, you won’t have seen what needs to be done. If only your mother, or sister, or friend, have read it, you won’t have professional advice on making the book readable and compelling.

An indie publisher will work with you to make the final changes to your manuscript to make it a marketable book. The readers for indie publishers aren’t reading for enjoyment – although that’s a nice bonus – they are reading to see if you have grabbed your reader enough to make they want to read to the end, they are looking for structural issues, and the last thing they will look for is grammar and punctuation.

If you think you need to work with someone who will give you advice on story revising and polishing, check out our submission guidelines at PaperBox Books

Happy writing.

Perry

1 Comment | In: Industry, Opinions, Submissions | tags: audience, editing, publishing, Writing Tips, Your reader. | #

Yes, that’s the person who reads your work, not a device. Lately our author discussions have revolved around audience. Who is going to read your book and what can you do to make your book better for them?

It is clear when you are writing for YA or children, you use specific language – or more correctly, don’t use specific language. No sex!  Entertain, don’t Preach! And your themes need to connect with what your age group is focused on. Or, perhaps the next age group up.

When you write in a genre, you must work with the conventions of the genre. No mystery reader is going to buy your second book if you don’t solve the crime. Although the bad guy doesn’t need to get punished, but the reader needs to know who did it, and usually why. And, if they don’t get punished, if the detective walks away from the final closure, you have to have a compelling reason.

Science Fiction seems to get the most buzz about conventions in story – there’s that group of readers who put more emphasis on the Science and the group the places more emphasis on the Fiction. And the group in between who want a good story with some science.

What we advise our authors is to make sure they understand the conventions of their genre or age group. Then if they need to break them, do it skillfully and with purpose. If your reader thinks you’ve made a mistake in your writing, you’ve kicked them out of the story. If you are skillful in changing conventions, they will be intrigued and captured in the story.

How do you get to know your audience?

The best way is to read what they read. If you do that, you can see the conventions and you will ride the knowledge as you write.

The second best way is to buy and read a book about writing for the age group or genre.

My advice – do both. Start with a book on how to write for that audience to see what you should be including, then read books in the genre/age group so you can see how well it’s done, or how badly.

I wish you good writing.

Perry

No Comments | In: Industry, Writing Tips | tags: audience, writing, Writing Tips, Your reader. | #

Here are a few things to keep in mind when you are planning out or writing a series. While e-publishing has blasted through the genre barriers, it hasn’t touched demographic factors.

Age groups are based on cognitive ability and maturity. There are a few exceptions to the rule, but they are largely consistent regardless of economic and cultural background.

When you write a series your goal should be to create a following. A core group of people who enjoy the world you’ve built world and the characters within it.  Ideally, they can’t wait for your next installment to read what happens next.

For a series, building an audience is very important. There are certain consistencies that must be observed. If you don’t satisfy your audiences expectations from one installment to the next, they will become frustrated and stop buying your books.

One way to ensure you keep your audience is to have a clear picture of who they are in your mind.

If your first installment in your series is written for teen boys who love science-fiction, make sure all your new stories in this series are written for them too. Even after your series is established, don’t mess around. You can add layers, but don’t sway from your original audience.

Think about Star Trek, the story lines are consistent and the audience’s expectations are met every time, regardless whether it’s a new TV series or feature length movie. Can you imagine what would have happened if the first Star Trek movie had an R rating – half of the established TV audience wouldn’t have been allowed into the theatres. The franchise would have suffered. (for the record it was rated PG for mild language)

Over the years, Star Trek’s target audience has changed slightly with each new spin-off series. Some are slightly darker, some focus on relationships more than the space adventure, but the core of the story has remained the same. The main factors that drew the original audience, is consistent with each new spin off.

Harry Potter is the same. Even though the characters have grown up, the books language and content have remained consistently targeted to a younger audience. You’ll recall, the young language it didn’t stop adults from reading it too, they knew what to expect and weren’t disappointed.

Jeffery Deaver is also very clear on who his audience is. Each time I pick up his newest Lincoln Rhyme mystery, it’s like I never left and the adventure continues.

This is good advice, even if you’re writing stand alone novels.

Make sure the language and storyline is consistent from start to finish. Even if your character ages, your audience won’t (at least within the few hours it takes them to read your book). Keep your language and level of mature content the same.

From a marketing perspective:

If you plan on writing several non-series books. Write the first few for the same audience, then once you’re established as an author, you can branch out to other genres and audiences.

In a series it’s normally not a good idea to branch out to different audiences – I can’t think of one instance where this has worked commercially.

I hope this helps

Sue

1 Comment | In: Awesome Links | tags: audience, Harry Potter, Jeffery Deaver, series, Star Trek, target market, writing, Writing a series. | #