Clarity on opening a book with "action"

Honestly, I think story "rules" are nothing but a negative influence on writers and should be done away with completely. They just shouldn't exist. They are stupid.

Grammar rules: yes.
story telling rules: are you serious?

 

T.Allen,

I love the quote. I'm not so sure about your conclusion, though.

To me, the quote is saying: Learn the rules and use them as a foundation for your work. Learn them so much that they become instinctual. Like an athlete's muscle memory. Once you understand them that well, you don't have to worry about them at all and can break them at will.

The goal, imo, is to be able to write intuitively. The problem is that, as a beginner, our intuition is crap because we don't know what we're doing. The rules, to me, are the first step to understanding what we're doing.

 

Yes, as per the pirate code....it's really more like guidelines than rules per se.

 

Understood. Perhaps I should have written, "I love the quote. I'm not so sure about your wonderings, though."

 

Yeah, I think the # of Thanks per day are limitied....I find myself in that position with your (and other's posts) often....just too free with my thanks perhaps.

Thank you!

 

I've stated this many times lately, but this isn't what I'm hearing. I've read post after post from experienced self published authors who are saying:

"Look, if you want to sell books, read the best selling books in your category. Figure out the commonalities. Outline and graph the books. Make sure that your books hit all those must haves. That's what I did to sell a lot of copies."

I can't stress this enough: I get that, from a philosophical standpoint, writing what you want to write and following your muse and all that is really attractive. From a pure "this is how I, as a successful self published author, did it (not Brian Foster personally; I'm a prawny little prawn. But authors who have had real success in the market)" perspective, you absolutely can figure out what a big pool of readers (agreed, not every reader) want and are reading. That's because, imo, a lot of readers are like me. I like to read the same stories over and over. Thus, I tend to buy books that are those stories retold.

 

I haven't read through this very long thread, but I wonder. Has anyone yet questioned what constitutes a book's "beginning?"

I mean, sure, a paragraph, or two, or three of very descriptive telling might technically "open" the book, if we narrow our consideration to that level. But I'd say that probably the first third or so of the first chapter would better constitute the "opening." I mean that, unlike movies, people coming to a book expect the whole process to take longer to get through. Of course, browsing for a new book might put a little more emphasis on the first few paragraphs, but I suspect that word of mouth, product description, reviews, and so forth probably play a much larger role than what constitutes the first few paragraphs.

 

Just from the standpoint of reading what advice is given to new self published authors, it seems like the biggest factors in initial sales seem to be cover and pitch.

I'm really unclear as to the value of reviews. I think it is important that you have reviews, because readers apparently need the "social proof" that other readers have tried your book. Beyond that, I'm not sure what the reviews actually say carry all that much weight.

Personally, the sample is the single biggest factor in whether or not I buy a book. If you engage me from the start and don't hit any of my pet peeves (good luck with that one ), I'll definitely buy it. I don't think, however, that I'm typical of the majority of readers just given all the advice I've read. Maybe the average reader is easier to engage? Or doesn't take the time to open the sample? I've noticed that purchasing on my phone makes downloading the sample a pain in the butt, and I think that the number of purchases through phones is increasing all the time.

 

Excuse me, Steerpike, but I did not "pretend" any of that.

I responded specifically to the comment that "The truth is that you can't turn book appeal into a formula."

From what I'm hearing, that statement is false, which is exactly what my post said. You choose to read more into the post than what I said.

The biggest self publishers appear to be the ones, like Hugh Howey and Andy Weir, who build up an audience over a long time period before publishing.

Frankly, I don't know how to build that audience. But, if one can figure that out and has the patience, I think it is a fantastic route to take.

The advice I'm following is specifically targeted to those self publishing who have not yet built up that audience.