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Entry tags:
Musings
I've been reading--well, starting--a ton of books from Instafreebie lately, looking for that one book in a hundred that intrigues me enough to be an insta-buy. And so, so many of them start so, so boring. I have read paragraphs and pages and, a few times, chapters* of bland, indistinguishable characters dispensing worldbuilding or story setup to each other before the plot kicks in.
* First, I read fast. Second, in the chapters cases it's because there was something about the book's description/blurb that caught my attention enough to think that it might be worth it. Alas, optimistic as I am, it has so far never been worth it.
I'm wondering if some of these authors are the same ones asking on Reddit and other places why their books haven't taken off and how they can get reviews: they've dropped the money for a good cover, they've set up a mailing list, they're giving the first book away for free in order to lure readers in to climb a pricing ladder from free to $.99 to $1.99 to $2.99, they're running ads in places, trading blog appearances, maintaining a social media presence...and nothing's translating to sales.
They're doing all those things right, and yet they forgot to make sure their book was good.
This thought brought to you by a couple of Reddit comments from a post asking about what to avoid in the opening chapter. The first comment below is responding to someone asking what "opening the story too soon" meant:
* First, I read fast. Second, in the chapters cases it's because there was something about the book's description/blurb that caught my attention enough to think that it might be worth it. Alas, optimistic as I am, it has so far never been worth it.
I'm wondering if some of these authors are the same ones asking on Reddit and other places why their books haven't taken off and how they can get reviews: they've dropped the money for a good cover, they've set up a mailing list, they're giving the first book away for free in order to lure readers in to climb a pricing ladder from free to $.99 to $1.99 to $2.99, they're running ads in places, trading blog appearances, maintaining a social media presence...and nothing's translating to sales.
They're doing all those things right, and yet they forgot to make sure their book was good.
This thought brought to you by a couple of Reddit comments from a post asking about what to avoid in the opening chapter. The first comment below is responding to someone asking what "opening the story too soon" meant:
If you were opening at a bar, you don’t need to talk about the staff wiping down tables, doing the drink order and then unlocking the doors to let the protagonist inside. Your reader knows that bar staff have set up, so your protagonist can walk in and start that bar fight without all the preamble.It was followed up by someone posting this:
The man arrived with a purpose. No one knew what that purpose was until he punched the hostess in the face.No shit, I'd totally read on.