WRITE WHAT PEOPLE WILL PAY TO READ

AY, NOVEMBER 9, 2014

This is a previous post from November 8, 2014, by a dear, departed member. Fred, you're never forgotten.

 By Fred Fields

To my mind, there are two types of writers, those who write for their own pleasure, and those who want to be read and to sell books.

This blog post is for the latter group.

When we were in school, our teachers had to read whatever we wrote. God bless them. That was probably true suffering, considering many of the essays they were forced to grade.

Nobody has to read what we write today. In fact, for us to be successful, our readers must find us, be spurred to interest, and be inspired to buy. That's right, they must be induced to pay for the privilege of reading what we have written.

For us to motivate a reader's investment, we should consider what people would like to read. What kind of fiction is selling? In whose biography might they be interested? What would they like to learn?

More than that, we must encourage the potential reader to believe that he or she will enjoy what we have written. This can be difficult. A book written by Stephen King offers some idea of its quality. A book written by Regina Farina, not so much. Nobody ever heard of Ms. Farina nor have they read any of her output.

My suggestions for getting people to buy your books:

          A. Pick a subject or a genre of interest to a large segment of the population.

          B. Title your epic with an attention grabbing-name.

         C. Write with a style that is easy to enjoy with good dialog, real movement of the story, and clever, intelligent, even funny stories and observations.

          D. Learn how to market your efforts to be found by the largest possible segment of the population.

Most important of all, know the specific audience you are targeting.

It's fine to write for your own enjoyment, but not necessarily profitable.