I know all of you will be writing for pleasure, but I guess many of you will be wanting to sell – you may even be hoping that you can make a decent salary out of your writing. A question you will need to ask yourself, if that is the case: ‘What makes you and your book stand out from the crowd?’
I have been working with a thriller writer who’s done very well selling his self-published e-books, so much so that an agent has sought him out and signed him up. His first book was a medical thriller – and swiftly became a bestseller of that sub-category on Amazon. His second book is still perfectly competent, but it contains much less of the medical techy stuff that made his work stand out. He was looking to up his game, but I felt it was important that he didn’t change it. His ‘pharma dramas’, as I call them, are his USP. Were he to join the general melee that is the thriller-writer rat race, he’d be just another set of scrabbling claws.
So what quality marks you out, I wonder? I’ve just read Nora Roberts’ The Witness. I was impressed with how she’d managed to pull off an engaging hybrid – a mixture of the nestle-up-with-a-box-of-chocs love story and pacy gangster thriller. Of course plenty of thrillers contain a love story – but it wasn’t just that: the tone that underpinned the whole was one of honeyed comfort. I hadn’t read anything quite like it before – there was nothing particularly new in the story, but there was something fresh and appealing in the hybrid.
Agents are longing for authors who can create a niche for themselves, especially if they can offer a series of books that readers can get glued to. If you’re wanting that annual salary, then plan ahead and think smart.
Ah, how to make your story stand out amongst a field of erotic fiction and airport test thrillers. As we all probably know, a book is generally judged by its cover. After all those months of shutting yourself away in a quiet room (something I always find difficult as I often crave company) don't just rush off a cover and description with an over-zealous announcement, think long and hard. The title is incredibly important, and. I hate to say it, would be better if it was short. My new, and first self published book is called, "The Awakening of Adam Capello". Whilst this reflect the book well, it fails on two counts.
1) Too long... For any eye grabbing headline name that can be set over a dramatic photo, it needs to be 1 or 2 words. 'Misery', or 'Mischief' or 'Insidious' or 'Truama' grab the eye. For me though I am emotionall attatched to my title, maybe I will relent in a few months time, desperate to get more downloads
2) It has an unknown name in the title and a name can get muddled with the author's name if he/she too is unknown. Therefore I ended having to put 'By' M W Taylor to keep it clear, but feels a little clumsy.
At least being a photographer I was able to get the image right, but need to re-edit the font to look a little glossier.
No 'effing dwarfs' in it though.
‘I hadn’t read anything quite like it before – there was nothing particularly new in the story, but there was something fresh and appealing in the hybrid.’
That quote reminds me of an amusing story on the subject of originality
C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien were in an informal literary group at Oxford University called, The Inklings.
Members would get up to read a passage of their latest work.
Tolkien finished reading his piece.
Lewis said, ‘No, no my dear Tolkien, not another effing dwarf.’