July 30th, 2010
Friday link – good advice
Hi, this is from Ask the Publishing Guru – great advice on writing like a pro.
Happy writing
Perry
June 18th, 2010
Writing site – 750words.com
Last night I was introduced to 750words a site for writers to get the juices flowing
The idea is to write 750 words every day and you’ll find the rest of the writing easier. You can write whatever you want, it doesn’t need to be a story or a scene.
When you write you graduate through the process of egg to turkey to penguin to … well you need to earn the points to get there. The fun thing is that you get all kinds of statistics and analysis of your writing.
I recommend you try it out, what the heck it’s a tool and we all have those days when we can’t seem to get going.
Perry
Don’t forget the great pricing contest $2.99 romantic fantasy or $6.99 dual version of a paranormal fantasy.
February 4th, 2010
Thinking about 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
January 26th, 2010
Writing a series
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