Pride & Publishing Chrissy Brown

PRIDE & PUBLISHING

C.A.A.B PUBLISHING CAAB Publishing Ltd is a traditional, small, indie company helping unknown authors have a voice and inspiring new writers to take that first step into the world of publishing.

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What Do Readers Want To Read?

by Chrissy Brown | C.A.A.B Publishing

Well, if anyone could answer that question successfully then we could all produce a best-seller without much effort.

Unfortunately, the truth is that no book will ever be universally loved. There is no magic formular to instantly make your work appeal to readers. It takes hard work, luck and getting your book in front of people.

But, there are things that will help, things you need to do, to include or exclude from your writing to give it the best chance of finding a publisher and an audience.

It is said often, but it is the number one thing you need to do - EDIT! Then edit again and again.

Correct errors in spelling and grammar, or the dreaded typos, sort out common mistakes like wrong word use - there/their/they’re. These will put a reader off and make your work look unprofessional. Be sure to get your work read by as many people as possible before you look for an agent or publisher. Be ready for any inconsistencies in the story, holes in the plot, or characters that change name, age, job suddenly. You need to be a thorough continuity checker and ask others to be sure that nothing is out of place.

Allow your voice to be heard in your writing. Let your characters be what you want them to be, but be aware of jarring the reader with your words. By all means use local dialect if the novel is set in a small Welsh town but do not use that same dialect if it is set in London or New York. Be wary of your characters mannerisms and their voices, if a young mum and the old rich man have the same way of speaking, or act the same in a situation, it will seem unrealistic and make your reader feel robbed of rich characters with personality and depth.

Readers will need to relate to your characters. Not agree with them or even like them but understand why they choose to do or say what they do. The reader needs to care about the characters in the book, and want to know more, otherwise they will stop reading.

you sentences. Do not over inflate your narrative with fancy words unless that is your style, be true to yourself.

Be wary of your own foibles, using the same words and/or sentence structures repeatedly makes a novel repetitive and hard to read. Also, be careful about you regularly over used word. Every writer has at least one. Check your work and get others to check through it as well.

You might hear this suggestion quite a bit, show don’t tell. What does that mean? Well simply do not write, ‘She was anxious’ or, ‘She was sad’ because that is telling. Show the reader instead, use images in writing to convey the emotion. Maybe she is chewing her nails or breathing heavily. Is the character crying, sitting alone, or clutching a handkerchief? If so, that is showing, it conjures up a clear image of your character and lets the reader know how they are feeling. Keep your dialogue useful, let it advance the plot or define character relationships but do not have too much small talk. It is boring. You don’t need to know every word or fill pages with meaningless chatter. Keep it simple and sharp. Stay with the story.

Be sure that everything you are writing is moving your narrative towards the next part of the plot, be it the twist, the ending, the calamity, etc. Always be aware of pushing the story towards the next place or situation that you need your characters to aim for. If you write a fantastic sentence or paragraph that does nothing for plot development, you may need to cut it out in the editing. No matter how good it is. Too many of these amazing but useless sentences and you have lost your reader.

Where ever your story is set, be it a fantasy land, space, in the past, or in the future, a reader needs to know how your world compares to theirs. What are the differences and what is the same? As a writer you are responsible for an entire cast and crew, a world of characters that need to know the rules of their land. You must create a map of this place with only words. You are a world builder, so build it well and although you should be careful not to get bogged down in minute detail, you also need to let the reader glimpse into your minds eye and see what you see. Every writer works differently, and that is right for them, some writers can knock out ten novels in a year, but another may take ten years to produce one novel. That is all the way it should be but let me leave you with this. Write a first draft and then put it away. Work on something else for a while. Then go back and look it all over again, edit, edit, edit. Then ask for help with editing and read throughs. Take your time to get it right. You will be much prouder of putting out your best work than rushing it and finding issues later on. So, get writing! 

FEATURED BOOK FROM C.A.A.B

BENNY AND BOBBY VERSUS ADOLF

In Berlin during the Second World War, a pair of white mice are released from their medical laboratory and become the beloved pets of ten-year-old Jewish boy, David Baum. He names them after his twin cousins, Benny and Bobby. But these are frightening times. David's life is in peril, and soon the mice are in danger too, for they live at the centre of Adolf Hitler's evil empire and must confront it head-on. An unequal fight, to be sure. And yet, you should never underestimate the feats that even tiny creatures such as Benny and Bobby can pull off ... or the trouble they can cause for a dastardly enemy.