This week's Quick Tips are all about meeting reader expectations to satisfy their literary cravings.
Tip #1: Put the hook on page one!
Tip #2: Check your pacing.
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Welcome to the AuthorWeal podcast. I'm Megan Haskell, award-winning fantasy author of the Senyari Chronicles and the Rise of Lilith series.
Speaker 2:
And I'm Greta Boris, usa Today best-selling author of the Martian Murders and the soon-to-be-released almost true crime series. Together we are the AuthorWeal. Our goal is to help you overcome your writing roadblocks so you can keep your stories rolling. We like to say we've made the mistakes, so you don't have to. We also like to get straight to the point, so let's get into this week's quick tips.
Speaker 1:
Absolutely so. One of the things we've been talking a lot about lately is how challenging it can be to understand what your readers are looking for. As new authors, we often put everything we love into the stories. We don't always think about that person on the other side of the page, and surprise reading is a team sport. We don't normally think about it that way, but it really is so. It's that junction between what we want to write and what readers want to read. What we put on the page they interpret. So it is a communication between two people across space and time, and we can get all metaphysical about it.
Speaker 2:
Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 1:
So this week's quick tips are designed to help you meet your readers' expectations, so that they feel satisfied when they pick up your book.
Speaker 2:
So quick tip number one put the hook up front. So readers are looking for a clue, they're looking for something that is going to pique their interest and grab them right away. People are in a hurry these days. You can do that in a number of different ways. Sometimes it can come through the genre messaging, like if you're writing a romance and you make it obvious that you're introducing one member of the romantic duo and what their problems are right away. Or sometimes you're doing it through a trope. Sometimes it's the pacing of the story or even just the sense of danger or intrigue, or it even could be the setting.
Speaker 2:
If you're writing a haunted house story and you start with the creepy looking house and the creaking door and all of that kind of thing, it sends that signal to the reader. This is that kind of story and so whatever it is that's going to grab that reader's attention, it needs to be right up front on the first page, ideally even in the first sentence or first paragraph. It's what you call the promise of the premise. So I'm going to give you an example. I am currently rewriting what used to be the Seven Deadly Sins series and turning them into an almost true crime series. So what I've realized in going through my old books, which were when I was a newer writer and had less experience, is that readers weren't always going to feel the threat right up front. I wasn't always throwing that sense of danger or intrigue or the murder in the very beginning of the story. Sometimes it was more important to me to try to write like fancy prose and pretty sentences, which most thriller readers are not looking for. Fancy prose, no, no.
Speaker 2:
They're looking for dead bodies Exactly, they're looking for the gun on the mantle, they're looking for the threat, and I didn't always do that, so I am learning a lot by rewriting my own books which is kind of amazing.
Speaker 1:
I mean, it's one of those things we don't often do after they're published. I mean, some people do go back and they'll rebrand their series or maybe they'll do a light edit or something like that. But what you're doing is far more in depth and far more targeted, because those initial books, especially those first two to three in that series, really weren't, as on point for the target reader, for the messaging of that target. Like, I remember, okay, my favorite story, one of my favorite stories, as we were at a conference, one of our first conferences we were teaching at, and we had this big poster of margin of lust, the first book exactly, and it was funny because, well, this story is funny because then we walked by a group of nuns. Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2:
I was waiting for you to mention the nuns.
Speaker 1:
The nuns are kind of the key point to that specific story. But it was a title that didn't really match what your readers were looking for.
Speaker 2:
No, and in fact I got some bad reviews because people were expecting some spicy stuff and there ain't no spicy stuff. So, yeah, it was just completely I was sending the wrong message to my readers and so I was picking up some wrong readers, people who weren't going to like it, and I was losing some readers who would have liked it but thought it was something else that they that wasn't. The messaging was wrong. So the new title is going to be the Cliff House and if you combine that with a nice scary looking image, it already works better. Like, oh, what could happen in a cliff house? It sounds scarier and it's definitely less of the spicy romance right, you know spicy romance per se in that.
Speaker 1:
And so, really, what you've done with the re-brand on this one, besides the rewrite with the true crime podcaster frame for the story, in addition to that, you've put the hook not only in the first chapter, you put it on the cover with this one.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, absolutely, is letting people know.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and so it's. That hook is on the cover, is in the first pages, is in the new rewrite with the new podcaster, and that is so key to finding and grabbing those readers early on.
Speaker 2:
Yes.
Speaker 1:
But quick tip number two actually kind of takes that another little step further, I guess, because one of the things that I find or have found in my career as being the most important for finding the right kind of reader is in the pacing of the story. So fantasy is kind of a unique genre in that the subgenres span such a broad range of styles, because there's everything from, you know, lord of the Rings style long drawn out epics to action packed thriller based where it's the only real fantasy element might be that it has vampires and werewolves or something like that, to you know, dual point of view, spicy romances, and then also like cozy mysteries with a fantasy twist right. All of those are subgenres of fantasy and they're all fantasy and they're all targeting different readers. And so one of the biggest factors that I think defines these subgenres is the pacing of the story, how quickly the reader moves through the chapters and the length of the book. And you know what kind of style of writing you've chosen Long descriptions, beautiful prose, those kinds of elements that slow down the story are really key for epic fantasy readers.
Speaker 1:
They love that kind of stuff, they're the traditionalists of the fantasy world, and so the longer that that kind of book is the better for them. They want to just sit in and explore that world. But quick one-on-one fight scenes with snarky dialogue and short chapters, that faster-paced action style, that's going to lend itself really well to more of the urban fantasy readers or the action fantasy readers who want that quick adrenaline rush, because that's really what it is. It's whether you want the relaxing atmosphere or your heart rate to go up a few beats per minute.
Speaker 2:
Those are two very different kinds of readers, which you found out to your detriment.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I did my mistake. That this one comes out of was my original series. The Scenery Chronicles was more of that action-oriented, fast-paced style of fantasy. It wasn't quite urban fantasy because it was a secondary world, but it was that same feel and style. It had that kick-ass heroine and it was her adventure. I wrote that series and then I was like I'm going to write this epic fantasy that's going to tell the history of the world and it's going to be fabulous and it's going to really appeal to all those readers who just love that long-drawn out, slower-paced style, multi-point-of-view novel. But I'd already developed an audience of readers who liked the action style, who wanted the faster-paced, who wanted the shorter book. They didn't want necessarily the longer story. So I made that mistake.
Speaker 1:
I wrote that book. It was well-written, it won some awards, it did pretty well with some critics. But it never took off with my true fans, the people who had already become invested in my stories, despite the fact that it was related to that same series. It was like a history of the world. It was the prequel epic telling of the war that launched the whole thing. So it flocked. It just never took off when sales. So eventually I did go back. I went, and so now the Rise of Lilith series is back to that more faster-paced adventure style. This time I went in all in on the urban, it's contemporary setting. She's on earth and then can travel to the realm of the gods. So once again I'm meeting those reader expectations and resonating a little bit better with those true fans again and finding more of an audience. And so that was key just understanding who that audience is and what kind of style, what pacing story they actually want.
Speaker 2:
Well, that's it for this week. If you're enjoying the podcast, please consider supporting the show. At the bottom of each episode's show notes there's a link where you can throw us a couple of bucks. Your support helps us cover the ongoing expenses, like hosting and editing, that are critical to the creation of the podcast. And not only can you feel good about supporting the show, you will get a shout out and get to hear your name on the air. Another way to support the show is to leave a five-star review and share it with a writer friend. Until next time, keep your stories rolling.