Write a Good Book Description, but not FOR YOUR LIFE!

Richard Ridley wrote a post for CreateSpace with advice on writing book descriptions, what you might think of as the book blurb or flap copy. Reading it, I thought his advice was pretty good. You won’t get the gist without his explanation of each of these points, but here’s the bare list:

1. Don’t include subplots.

2. Keep it under 150 words.

3. Write in third person, present tense.

4. Use emotional power words.

5. You are not the author.

He’s talking generally, but for crime novel blurbs, I’m going to propose 2 additional items that might, at first, seem counter-intuitive:

Risk-Taking-and-Happiness-325x217

6) Don’t waste precious words explaining your protagonist is at risk. Why? Because 99% of the time, the protagonist is under threat, and, therefore, there’s nothing unique enough about that to grab attention. I mean, not from a nutty reader like me who reads tons of book blurbs. If something about the protagonist’s peril is unusual or consumes such a huge portion of the novel that the existential threat is the main plotline, tell me. Otherwise, don’t bother, unless you’re going to find some phrasing that isn’t generic or played out. I pulled these examples at random:

“…the unthinkable is about to happen…the end may be something worse–far worse…”

“…the nightmare is not over…and it may be closer to home than she ever imagined…”

“…Can she find the truth in time to save her own life?”

The situations might be (and I hope will be) terrifically suspenseful when being read, but as-is, they’re awfully common. And that means none of these words can help me differentiate between your book and another, the task which is every new release’s biggest challenge.

6a) Don’t dwell on the fact there’s a murder *gasp* or even several involved. Because there always is–that’s why I’m reading a crime novel after all. There’s nothing wrong with either of these story elements, of course, because…um, crime novel. And if you spent NO time on them during the novel itself, I’d feel righteously shortchanged. But too much space in the blurb when the info isn’t specific or unusual (“the body count rises again…” vs. “more mutilated birdwatchers”), and you’ve wasted words that could’ve communicated things I can’t already assume.

I find myself intrinsically interested in book descriptions that soft-sell the hero’s risk and murderous elements of the story, letting the setting, character, even implications of voice and language carry me toward one story over another. Looking for the examples of blurb-wastage I listed above, I discovered how many of the better books I’ve read recently have descriptions that don’t feature the ploys in 6 and 6a, so for me, that might be reason enough to avoid them. Writing a good blurb is acknowledged to be agony, like having to break your bones and amputate toes to cram a full-sized foot into a plastic doll’s shoe. But as a person forced to read a lot of them, I’m imploring you to consider whether you really need to risk anyone’s life writing yours.

Sisters-In-Crime Panel About Publishing War Stories

When a scheduled speaker was forced to cancel at the last minute for a Sisters-in-Crime meeting in NYC, last Thursday, Susan Chalfin, the program coordinator, asked if those of us who had just had a book published would sit on a panel and tell our stories.

So we did.

Afterwards several people came up and said they were grateful for the cancellation.

Besides myself there were Hillary Davidson, Triss Stein, Elizabeth Zelvin, Laura Joh Rowland, and Susan moderated.

We writers offered plenty of tales and the room was pretty full at the Muhlenburg Library at 23 St. We told of our journey to find decent publishers, agents and editors and the pitfalls along the way in the tough world of publishing. How some of us couldn’t get an agent and did it on their own, such as myself, how some had a bad agent and then found a good agent that made all the difference.

Gratefully, we brought the crowd a few laughs and it offered us another experience in the many that occur when your book is finally in print.The journey was different for each of us, there were similarities, but one could see that we all had our ups and downs, some more than others.

I’m reluctant to paraphrase those personal journeys, but let’s put it this way, one of the major takeaways was that none of us gave up.

 

Tuesday Twosome

I spent last week with my grandsons. We three did some compromising–rap music coming from my car for me and sticking to Mom’s rule of no Cokes with dinner for them. It was a good time.

REDWe watched several movies and we all enjoy “RED,” with its stellar cast of veteran actors. I love this movie because it had seniors kicking some serious butt and the boys enjoyed the antics of the John Malcovich character with his armory and hidden weapons.

It was good to share one of my favorite movies with them and have them enjoy it so much. We’ve also shared the Harry Potter books and movies. Like the boys, I love those and we’ve even talked about a lot of life lessons we found among the wonderful adventures of Harry Potter.

HPotterHere’s one of my favorite quotes from Harry Potter and I hope my grandsons take it to heart:

Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and, above all, those who live without love.

Here are two sentences from my current work:

“I don’t understand why everyone else is just ignoring this threat.” Brenna walked to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water. “For centuries Connelly witches have just walked into the volcano without looking back, and I’m not going to do that.”

Working on something that’s inspiring you? Share it with us!

My Town Monday: Turks Take Over Grand Central

I don’t go through Grand Central as much as I used to, and I know things change. But nevertheless, last week, I was surprised to encounter these fellows.

Turk-Corps-GCT Turk-Band-GCTFortunately, they weren’t there to halt me and ask “Who goes there?” They were part of a Turkish Grand Bazaar cultural festival, perhaps to coincide with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to the U.S.

Turk-Program-GCTThere were food stands and art stalls and live entertainment. Please pardon the terrible blur of my hasty cellphone photos–I really was on my way somewhere!

Turk-Stall-GCTBelow is a short, shaky snippet from the 11:30am performance. I also know that my video doesn’t gives the full impact of the singers and horns and percussion echoing in the tall marble vaults of GCT, but it was really something different and commanding to hear. And the guy with the floor drums? I want his job!

My Town Monday–I guess you had to be there, but it just shows the exotic possibilities that abound, even during a hum-drum commute.

The Exciting World of Grammar School

The school year is winding down and the children have worked very hard all year, now is the time to show off the results. So this week (Grandma takes a deep breath) on Monday night I got to watch three grand daughters at their swim class. Wednesday morning, Thursday morning and Thursday night there were concerts: Band, Orchestra and Chorus. Thursday morning was also the final class of pre-k swim, so I watched a three year old grand daughter and a four year old grand son swim the length of a full sized pool that doesn’t have even one spot where the kids can touch the floor and keep their heads above water. Since this class is scheduled after my own water aerobics class, I get to watch most weeks, but I still have my heart in my mouth.

the-very-hungry-caterpillar

Friday was ~TADA~ Special Persons Day. And since the three other grandparents were all out of town, my son and I had to cover all bases. I did pretty well in first grade. The teacher read The Very Hungry Caterpiller by Eric Carle. I paid attention which was a good thing because there were questions. Fortunately the first graders knew the anwers so the Special Person grown-ups didn’t look dopey by getting something wrong.

Then we drew pictures. I got to draw a leaf and a cocoon, which is also called a chrysalis. It was supposed to be brown but we didn’t have a brown crayon so we used an orange crayon and a gray crayon to make brown. Pretty smart, huh?

So there I was, at the top of my game. Survived first grade, feeling pretty good. But then I went to fifth grade where my oldest grandchild toils all day. The teacher had circles on the board that I remember were scary in college math.  Fortunately, we were using them for a story exercise and since the teacher figured the grown ups were out of our league, she wisely  let only the kids talk.

Then each child read a poem that he or she had written. At the end, my grand daughter gave me another poem, one she wrote just for me.

Great cookie buyer

Realistic author

Author of The Awareness

Natural hugger

Dad’s Mom

Marvelous grandma

Also has a wonderful personality.

What a great week! And soon we will be celebrating school olympics day complete with a parade, floats made by each class and lots of olympic games. The good news is I don’t have to compete.

Terrie

 

Total BooX, Pay-As-You-Go, and Authorial Confidence

Total BooXOver on my blog this week, I discuss a new book sales model, Total BooX. As you can see from my blog, a pay-as-you-read system for books is an idea that fascinates me.

When I was discussing it with a friend of mine today, she said “nothing else gets sold that way.” Which is true, as far as it goes. But let’s say you’re buying a dress. You can try it on, walk around the dressing room (or your living room) and decide not to buy if it doesn’t fit you (or send it back if you’ve ordered it online). But books aren’t like that. You don’t get to read 20 pages and then say “oh for goodness’ sake, this guy is a total twit” and get your money back.

But with TotalBooX’s model, if said book were 400 pages long and $10, you’d get 20 pages in–5%–and pay 5% of the cost. 50 cents.

I don’t know about you, but I’d be willing to try a lot more new authors if I could junk them at the 20-page mark and pay less than a buck. How about all those mysteries where you know halfway through the book whodunit? Wouldn’t it be nice to pay half price?

Of course the reader side of me is excited. Why wouldn’t I be? I’ve already put a couple of books I’ve been on the fence about on my TotalBooX shelf (you don’t pay for them until you start reading, so you can download as many as you want to your shelf). And speaking of shelves, because no one has to buy the books if they don’t want to, you can share your shelves. Let’s say I love to read thrillers with a touch of the paranormal. I can create a shelf for “thrillers with paranormal elements” and share it with all my friends (sharing shelves is optional–the default is private). They can download the whole shelf or pick and choose among my books. This makes the whole “trusted reviewer” aspect *so* much easier. If I could only follow certain shelves from certain Total BooX shoppers…well, it would alert me to things much more quickly.

But what does it mean for authors?

For this model, I am going to assume self-pub so I don’t have to figure out the whole royalties thing.

  1. I price at book at $10 and sell it through Amazon: I get $7 whether the buyer opens the book or not.
  2. I price a book at $10 and sell it through Total BooX and the person reads the whole thing: as far as I can tell from the articles I’ve read, I get $5–it appears to be a 50/50 split
  3. I price a book at $10 and sell it through Total BooX and the buyer reads less than the whole thing: I get less than $5

So far, so good. But that’s where things start to get all gray and fuzzy. Because if my book is $10 on Amazon, a lot of people won’t buy it. But if Total BooX really takes off, a whole lot more people might be willing to pick it up and read at least the first twenty pages.

And here’s the thing: I believe, I have to believe to keep writing, that once they’ve read those twenty pages they’ll want more. I have to believe I am good enough to keep them hooked for the whole book.

I’d like to believe that if Total BooX succeeds, it will raise the quality of genre fiction overall. Why? Well, what would you do if you knew that out of 1000 people who bought your book, 780 of them stopped reading at exactly the same spot? If you were a publisher and you could see that fewer and fewer people were finishing a certain author’s books, would you offer a second contract? If you were trying to decide between two authors, each of whom had brought in the same actual amount of money the previous year, would you renew the one whose readers had abandoned the books halfway through, or the one whose books were all read to the very last page?

Right now, the vast majority of “best selling” eBooks are cheap. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. I think most people are unwilling to pay more than a couple of bucks for something they aren’t sure they’ll like. Sure, if it’s a favorite author, they’ll pay the $7.99, but when they’re out of favorites, it’s tough to get them to part with that kind of money.

I can’t help but believe that if they knew they could abandon at the 50 cent mark, they might be willing to at least taste test the $7.99 book. Not that a $7.99 book is inherently better than a $2.99 book, you understand, but how’s a $7.99 author supposed to gain new followers in a $2.99 (or, for that matter, $.99) market? How do they become favorite authors? And how do we keep paying editors, etc, if we have to lower price points all the time? We can’t.

But if we could charge more for higher quality books because people would be willing to try them out, knowing they could stop at any point and not pay the whole nut, well, wouldn’t that be a good thing? There will still be plenty of people who just don’t care whether what they’re reading is any good. Their buying habits wouldn’t change. (I have a friend who says “Oh, I don’t care what I read, just as long as I’m reading something, so I never pay more than a buck a book.”) But I have to hope that most readers aren’t like that.

Writers, Gathering

We’ve had a few posts about Malice Domestic, so I thought I’d write a little about conventions and conferences in a more general way, filling in some pieces.

Conventions are not the same as conferences. I took me a long time to get clear on that. Conventions are fan events. Fans create, plan and manage them, with the goal of spending a few days talking to other fans about their favorite genre, meeting authors and hearing them talk about what they do and how they do it. Plus, of course, buying books and getting autographs. And perhaps giving fan awards. Note that costumes are rarely worn at mystery conventions – that would be a science fiction thing. Nor are formal gowns– that would a romance convention. ( No kidding. My husband once spoke at an RWA convention and I was invited to join him. There were definitely prom dresses in the elevators the night of the banquet. )

Bouchercon is the biggest mystery convention, it has all kinds of mystery sub-genres and the location moves around from year to year. In the fall of 2013 it is in Albany, practically our back yard. 2014 it is in Long Beach, CA and 2015 is in Raleigh,NC, so this year might be the time to give it a try.

Malice Domestic, I’m guessing , is the 2nd largest. It is in late April/early May in the DC area (Bethesda for now) and highlights the “the traditional mystery—books best typified by the works of Agatha Christie. The genre is loosely defined as mysteries which contain no explicit sex or excessive gore or violence.” It ranges from traditional detective stories, but with an emphasis on character ( Laura Lippman, say) to the very quaint and was started in response to a concern that Bouchercon was weighted toward detective and noir fiction.

Though run by and for fans, many writers attend these conventions plus smaller regional ones, both because it is a great opportunity to reach enthusiastic mystery readers and also because they are themselves fans.

Conferences are different. They are intended for published and aspiring writers. While a convention will have panels on topics like culinary mysteries, unusual sleuths, and interviews with honored writers, a conference will have writing workshops and agent speakers.

The Edgar week symposium, one day at the end of April, is similar to a conference and of course is conveniently located in Manhattan.

I’ve been to two Bouchercons and will definitely be going to Albany, and I’ve been to many Malices over the years. It took me while to learn that I don’t need to run around madly trying to squeeze in an activity for every single time slot. Some of the best experiences I’ve ever had were in the hospitality suites, just seeing who came by and making some friends. The bars are always lively spots, too. Mystery writers and fans may not be the most imaginative dressers (see above on SF and Romance! ) but they are extremely friendly.

Are they worth it? The cost issues are personal, of course, but there are ways to trim them for sure. Obviously a relative or old friend in the right city is the best! It’s often possible to find someone to share a hotel room or to car pool.

Aside from cost, the value depends on what you want and how well you have informed yourself. Going to Malice or Bouchercon hoping to meet and interest an agent is a waste of money and time. It’s happened, but it is a long shot. That’s not what these conventions are for and agents who may be there are not there to hear pitches. Going to learn from the experts, become inspired, have fun – definitely. Choosing to go to a conference depends on what you want to learn and who is doing the presentations. I often go to the Edgar symposium but skipped it this year because it did not seem to address my present needs. Another year, one speaker alone turned out to be worth the whole cost of attending! You need to know what you need and research what is offered.

Ultimately, writing is a solitary job, and many writers like it that way, but if you miss the water cooler conversation/drop into the cubicle/ have a business lunch aspect of working, conventions and conferences provide a few wonderful days of connecting with other people who are right on your wave length.

Teen Summer Reading Contest

jpg_reading204Summer is just around the corner ~ and what a terrific time for teens to increase their reading time.

Attention, teens (and folks with teens in their lives): Participate in the Fourth Annual New York Times Summer Reading Contest, and a powerhouse panel of judges will review what you’ve written concerning a particular NYT article and why it interested you.

The contest, which is open to teens ages 13-19, runs from June 14 to August 16, 2013.

According to the NYT article announcing the contest: “So whether you were moved by an article, enlightened by an essay, bowled over by a photo, irked by an editorial, intrigued by a feature or inspired by a how-to, tell us what got your attention and why. We are open to pretty much any response that follows our commenting rules and is 350 words or fewer.”

Spread the word to teens, friends, parents, teachers ~ a great way to increase summer reading!

Newspaper clipart

To explore summer reading ideas further, visit Summer Reading News at New York Libraries. Check out their awesome Pinterest page and follow “Teen NY” on Facebook. 

Come follow me on Twitter @katcop13

Two, um, One Sentence Tuesday: Opening Lines!

First Line images and figures via Cozy Classics--more info below.

First Line images and figures via Cozy Classics**

At my first-ever writers’ conference, I was lucky enough to have editor and conference speaker Elizabeth Lyon critique the first 5 pages of my WIP and to attend her panel. First, she was very kind and constructive about what I realize now were awful stumbling blocks of craft beginning with my very first paragraph. Second, she introduced panel attendees to the concept of Story Promise, a thing that seemed both powerful and slippery to me at the time. I was just e-mailing back-and-forth with another writer about openings, and thought I’d share some of that conversation here, since I feel like I’m finally internalizing some lessons from more than a decade ago. (Note: I’m using the universal You, not finger-pointing):

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. (Tale of Two Cities)

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. (Pride and Prejudice)

It was a pleasure to burn. (Fahrenheit 451)

All children, except one, grow up. (Peter Pan)

It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York. (The Bell Jar)

There are many, many more examples, of course, and I don’t believe it always has to be the first line alone that indicates story promise, but each of these openings above makes a clear statement about the theme of the book, in both tone and content. Each one of them is, in some way, a microcosm of the book, as is a great pitch. If you look at your opening, is it really spending those crucial first sentences, paragraphs, and pages to introduce the most important elements of your story, the ones you expect me to appreciate most, the ones you’ll develop throughout the novel, the ones that you want me most to remember after the end?

Do you have favorite opening lines that echo within you as somehow presaging or re-capturing the essence of a great novel? Please share!

I’ll also volunteer an example I wrote last week. It’s not in the same class as the ones above, however, given my short story is about a noir author crippled with writer’s block after being assigned a light-hearted holiday tale, judge for yourself whether it does the job:

For me, killing is easy, but comedy was proving impossible.

Please share openings from your own works that you especially liked (or even especially hated after the fact)!

** Images from the super-outstanding Cozy Classics site, which has a section for 100 Top Best First Opening Lines and which also publishes children’s board-book versions of classics, all illustrated with their charming needle-felted characters. Scrumptious!