Pratap Divyesh's Blog, page 42

The love of “being author”

We all come to “being author” from different places. Some started as children with a love of reading, others decided to make it their profession by choice, through education. Some of us lived a life, or event in our life that we felt we had to write about, others lived a life attaining knowledge and felt driven to teach it to others. Then there are novelists, who have a head bursting with great stories that fill the imagination.  No matter where or why we started this process, we all want the same thing. We want others to join in our love of whatever it is we write about.

A good book will keep your interest, it will teach you something, it may evoke strong feelings, and it will leave you fulfilled and wanting more. A great book may change your life, you will never forget it. It will take you to a place that you have never been, or remind you of somewhere you loved or a place you want to be. A great book is what we all aspire to write.

The thrilling part of “being author” is that at this moment,  we may be speaking to, sitting next to, or even meeting those rare, great, authors that are among us here today.

The world needs us “being authors” for many reasons, unless we continue to write, make our mistakes and hone our talent, we will never know what each author has to offer. “Being author” is a valiant aspiration. I commend all who attempt “being author.”

I also want to thank every author that took the time to post and try to help the rest of us. I have learned so much reading posts from other authors.

My best piece of advice is “patience, patience, patience.” Don’t get so into holding your book, that you skip necessities of having a product worthy of your name. This I can tell you from experience, but I learned valuable lessons from every fail, and you should too. Fail, no, just a stumble. Get up and learn how not to do that again.

Just like the song “Humble and kind” always turn around and help the next one in line.

This post is contributed as Guest post by April O’Brien.

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When your book finds commercial print, don’t go to sleep. A cautionary tale.

I wrote a blog for The Big Thrill in ITW’s magazine about what can go wrong when your work finds commercial print and how to prevent it the next time. Thought it might interest some readers here:

In the beginning of my writing career I’ll admit to overplaying the right to call myself “author”—as in no longer just a “writer.” When my agent sold my first ms. to Simon & Schuster for a “nice price” and then put together an auction for the paperback and also selling it to Japan, I rather sat back on my laurels, thinking, “Oh yeah, I’m on my way.”

Things had looked promising from the start. A few years earlier I had mass-mailed 85 queries to mostly NY agencies, and a full 15 responded with offers to represent me/the novel. It was an enticing query (had a given audience), and granted as well back then—in the late-’80s—some editors still nurtured their writers, as mine at S&S would do over the next two years. Agents knew that so they were also patronizing and nurturing to new, promising clients.

I was on a roll.

Didn’t have to worry about those pesky details of metadata, copy editing, proof reading, printing, getting a professional cover, blurbs, etc., as authors now have to do self-publishing a book. S&S had a gaggle of Radcliffe and Vassar girls for most of that stuff. All I had to do was merely approve or not. (Mind you I did put in a dozen years writing that first book, adding, deleting as if slicing off fingers and whole hands, this over and over and over …) Seemed like I got important overnight FedEx envelopes a couple times a week. And they did a gorgeous job on the hardback itself—Tom Clancy-large with art inside, beautiful font, sewn bound and printed on cream paper. Tops. Soon the pre-notices began to roll in, not one negative and several starred. Talk about the proverbial sliver spoon. It was mine.

I had this nonchalant attitude and naive concept that the big house would take care of publicity with the promised $10k advertising budget—Well, certainly you might understand how I let myself get the big head.

But then, with no notice, the curtain fell and it fell hard. Everything died; the paper auction, no review appeared in the NYTimes or any other major and my editor and agent both grew silent. What happened? I begged to learn. “Your book got lost in the abyss,” was Publicity’s response. “Sorry, s— happens.” My editor’s. That promised advertising was hijacked, most likely for some other promising writer’s novel. My editor, having first option on the next novel, a few years later rejected the next one, calling it a monstrosity, or such, when the real reason had been that I was now a dreaded “midlister,” so they didn’t want to take a gamble on me again.

My NY agent dropped me as well.

But what actually happened to bring things to such a sudden halt? The following is your answer: I held only two local book signings and gave one interview in the LATimes. I turned down the San Diego paper’s interviewer because of a personality difference—just didn’t like the guy’s manners. My bad on that one. So it was my lack of serious participation in the book’s publicity, I have learned over the years, that was the main reason the one time admired novel fell from grace.

With a loss of confidence and gun-shy of publicity, I wrote and published only three novels over the next 20 years. During that time I solicited 70-90 agencies with each new novel. Over those decades I gained thick files of rejections, and a few near hooks here and there, which kept me going. Those mss. collected dust for a long time inbetween.

It took a few more years of self-publishing to learn that basic lesson of novel publishing: You cannot count on anyone but yourself to advance it.

It has only been recently that a small publisher took me on—no monetary advance, no free publicity. I didn’t care. I’m just happy to finally get back into print. Now I must sell them, and myself, if they’re to be sold.

So take this cautionary tale to heart if you are newly published, be it self-pub or picked up by any sized house, and thinking the attention is going to roll in because you finally have a really great book in print, because you are now author. It won’t be a winner unless you make it so. You must throw yourself wholeheartedly into that side of the business called publicity without taking a rest to smell the daisies. You must: blog, keep an active website, join online everything such like writers’ groups, as many as you can handle and still offer and gain something from; become your own ad agency and spend money advertising to your market, and on and on. All is available out there on the Web. So … Go get ’em, tigers.

This post is contributed as Guest post by Ron Argo.

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5 Things You Should Be Doing As A New Author

Have you started writing your first book? Are you thinking about writing a book? Well, hot damn. That’s fantastic. Start writing. Plain and simple. While you’re writing your fantastic bestselling novel, there are some things you should be doing to make your writing better and hopefully; help you land an agent or set yourself up for a successful self-publishing career.

1. SOCIAL MEDIA, BLOGS, AND WEBSITES

I can hear the wails now. ‘Why do I have to get on social media? I just want to write a book, not a blog. What the hell, I have to build a website?’ Yes, eventually you must do these things. Nowadays, agents and publishers look at what new authors can bring to the table. Gone are the days of publishers building the author’s brand. You’re responsible for your author brand. Don’t wait until your book is complete to start building your author platform. Read Jane Friedman’s blog post on Building a Platform to Land a Book Deal: Why It Often Fails. You’re not building your platform/brand to sell books. You want to build relationships. This will translate into a much more successful long term career. By starting this now, when your book is complete, you’ll have people you’ve developed a relationship with who will be invested in you and will hopefully buy your book.So, what social media should you be using? Start with Twitter. Read Marcy Kennedy’s Twitter For Authors. Follow authors you like. Follow agents that represent authors who write in your genre. Engage with people, retweet others content. Don’t make it about you. Remember you want to use social media to build relationships. Don’t tweet about me, me, me. People do not want to hear all about you.Pinterest—As you get closer to releasing your book, either by traditional publishing or self-publishing, this can be a great marketing tool. Jane Friedman has a great post on this. Another post on this topic is at Author Media.Facebook—Read up on Facebook for authors. When you have decided where you want your writing to go, then you’ll have a better idea of how to approach Facebook. These websites have great articles concerning Facebook: Jane Friedman, THE AUTHOR ONLINE, Digital Book World.Instagram—I’m just now learning about Instagram and using it for my author branding. These websites have great articles on how to use Instagram as an author: The Book Designer, DYI Author, and Where Writers Win.

Blogs—As for a blog; you don’t have to start one now. However, you should consider starting one soon. Jane Friedman’s—How to Start Blogging: A Definitive Guide for Authors will explain why blogging is important for authors. Blogging not only gets you out there, put it helps people connect with you. You can gear your blog to whatever you want. I set mine up to help new authors. I try to relay information that will help with their writing, save them time, headaches, and money. If you don’t feel comfortable starting your blog, find places like Being Author and submit a guest blog post to them. All these things will help build your author platform/brand.

WEBSITES: You do not need a website of your own to start this endeavor. Wait until you have decided where you want to take your writing. Ultimately, if you decide you want to have your books published you should have an author website. You can combine this with your blog. Almost all the providers allow for a minimal free website. You can play around with them and see what you like best. Joanna Penn has a great article on author websites. Tim Grahl has a great article on how to build your website.

My only advice, pay attention to what you put out there. Everything you do on social media will reflect on your author brand. Don’t get into arguments on any social media platform. You will never win, and it will remain out there forever.

2. JOIN A WRITING GROUP

Not only will you meet other authors, but you’ll also have a built-in support system. In my writing group, each month, we critique someone’s writing. You submit a few pages and then everyone tells you what they liked, didn’t like, where they think you can improve. I found myself stuck in a chapter and emailed it to someone in the group, the immediate feedback and help were fantastic. I found my group on Meetup.3. GO TO WRITING CONFERENCES

You don’t have to go the most expensive conference on the other side of the planet. Check out your area. In Oklahoma City, we have small writing conferences all over the place. I attend the Oklahoma Writers’ Federation Inc (OWFI) conference yearly. These conferences have industry leaders, agents, publishers, and editors there and they are accessible. At the last conference, I met three editors. I asked each of them if they would review three chapters of my book and give me some idea of where I was at as a writer and what kind of editor would benefit me in the future. Each did it for free. Each did three different chapters.

Hand in hand with conferences is joining a writer’s group like OWFI. There is the Romance Writers of America or the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. There is probably a writers group for every genre. These groups run contests, hold conferences and online workshops. It is usually very little to join and the benefits far out way that minimal cost.

3. Read

Yes, Read. Read books by authors who write in your genre. Read other genres. Read the bestselling authors and see how they do it. Follow them on your social media outlets. Connect with them, see what they’re reading. Find blog posts about writing. I read a lot that Jane Friedman posts. Frances Caballo’s website has great posts daily. You don’t have to read just books. Read about the writing process and ways to make you a better writer.

4. Write Regularly:

Sounds too easy huh? If you’re serious about writing a novel, you’re going to need to set aside daily writing times. If not daily, because shit happens, you should be writing several times a week. I don’t care if you write standing, sitting at a desk, or sitting in a recliner (that’s me) just write. If you have kids like I do, write when they’re at school and late at night. If you work, figure out a daily time to sit down and write. Then don’t do anything else for that hour or however long you’ve blocked out. Don’t get on your social media, don’t answer emails or pin stuff on Pinterest. When you sit down to write, write. DO NOTHING ELSE.Don’t get bogged down in the little stuff. It’s not rocket science; but if you want to be a serious author/writer, you’re going to have to put in the time and effort. It’s very rewarding and very demanding at the same time.It all starts in one place, though, writing. NOW GO WRITE.

 

This post is contributed as Guest post by Victoria M. Patton.

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AFFORDABLE BOOK TRAILERS FOR INDIE AUTHORS

THE IMPORTANCE OF VISUAL COMMUNICATION

These days most people are addicted to their smartphone or tablet. And I admit, it comes in handy when you need to have some information on, let’s say, books.  Every year millions of new books appear on the market so which one do you choose? The ones you heard about already, the ones who have positive reviews and attractive covers. Yes, I wrote you already about the importance of a good book cover design. They see you before they read you. We are so accustomed to visual stimulation that we, unconsciously, preferably want to be contacted in this way. It makes information more comprehensible. In addition, and image stays longer in our memory then text.

Suppose you have a Twitter or Facebook account and you look at your numerous messages, which draw your attention first? Most likely those containing a picture or video. If you want to send a message to the world, you should do it visually.

This was well understood by management from famous authors. Which had funds enough for visual communication through book trailers.

BOOK TRAILERS

A book trailer is a short video  to promote your book and  aims to entice the viewer to pick up your book or get more to know about it.

“In one minute or less you can tap into the visual, auditory and emotional senses of your potential reader with a book trailer. Like its cousin the movie trailer, a book trailer is designed to get the buzz going and drive sales, or at least more interest.”

Arielle Ford (Author, Speaker, Relationship Expert)

Book   trailers   offer   an   additional   opportunity   to   make   your   book   known   on   popular   video   sites   like   Youtube   and   Vimeo.   Moreover, this   video   promotion   draws   more   attention   on   your   social   media,   like   Facebook,   Twitter   and   LinkedIn.

One huge problem though: book trailers are expensive, very expensive. A professional book trailer can cost you $4000 and more. Not something for indie authors to pay. So we see a lot of them experimenting with homemade book trailers, forgetting that a quickly patched together trailer also can reduce the interest in the book.

At MaryDes we thought about this and have researched and experimented with possibilities to reach a formula that allowed us to offer indie authors professional trailers at affordable prices.

Using   special   techniques, creative   ideas   and   automation   we   succeeded   in   developing   professional   book   trailers   for   small   budgets.      Doing   so,   we give all authors the possibility to get more attention and create more sales with their own book trailer.

And the amazing news is, we can do this starting from only $26!

Now MaryDes is bringing book trailers within the budget from indie authors. Take a look at some examples and prices and make use of this new opportunity to bring your book in the picture.

Check out our website at MaryDes Book Trailers and launch your first book trailer soon.

This post is contributed as Guest post by MaryDes.

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On the Road Again – How to Pick Your Book Events for Maximum Benefits

“Eenie, meanie, mienie, mo…pick a spot for me to go.” Well, that might be one way for authors to choose the events that will showcase their talents to the reading public, but there are far more exact methods of getting the most bang for your traveling buck. Here’s a few tips that I use, so my trips are worthwhile and enjoyable. All it involves is a little detective work.

First, check with your fans. Where are most of your readers based? Word of mouth is key, especially if you are a new author, so keep in mind that loyal followers would love to meet you, and they will tell their friends and coworkers. It’s also helpful to check out any events near your family or friends. Again, word of mouth goes a long way.

Now that you have a good idea of the areas that already know your name, check out Facebook, Google or other sites for a list of events. Simply search for Author Events Around the World, or even more specific locations. Remember, spots fill up fast, so it is a good rule of thumb to check for signings at least six months in advance or longer.

Once you have an idea of where you want to go and what is offered in the area, send an email of interest or fill out the specific form provided. (It is best to do this as soon as possible to avoid being put on a wait list.) When your invitation is confirmed, promote, promote, promote!

Most events will have pages or links on social media sites and this is a fabulous opportunity to get your name and your books out to those who may not know of your awesomeness! Create friendships with other authors attending, sign up for any workshops which may be offered at the events, even sponsor or lead a workshop if they are proposing a seminar on something you are knowledgeable about.  The more accessible you are to event planners, readers, and other authors, the more you will get out of the experience.

It’s also a good idea to investigate a bit more and find bookshops in the area. Talk to the managers about a more private signing while you are there. Many owners are quite willing to set up a small event. It generates more foot traffic for their stores. Some may even offer a consignment option to sell your novels after you leave.

Finally, a note about travel arrangements. Since money doesn’t grow on trees, it’s helpful to share expenses when you can. Most promoters offer the option of full or half tables, so take advantage of the option to meet new authors and their fans. Some authors even split the hotel costs by sharing rooms. A simple note on the author-only page of the event, will help you find many willing to share expenses. Many promoters will also allow you to ship swag and paperbacks beforehand if you are traveling a distance. And don’t forget to keep an eye out for special airfare, car rentals and hotel discounts!

Now it’s time to grab the swag, stock up on your books, and prepare to meet and greet the masses! Done with a bit of forethought, your book signings and events will be the highlight of your year. In addition, you might just find a novel idea or two to write about in the future. Good luck, and I hope to see you…on the road again.

The post On the Road Again – How to Pick Your Book Events for Maximum Benefits appeared first on Being Author - Authors & Book Writers BLOG to Simplify Publishing.

The best 10 tools that simplify the life of a freelance writer

The best 10 tools that simplify the life of a freelance writer

If you want to be a good freelance writer and produce only qualitative texts, you should know that this task is quite difficult. Nevertheless, there are many tools that can help you achieve your goals. They simplify the working process of any writer and allow him to be more productive. In this review, we are going to discuss 10 tools that help writers do their work.

    Applications for Typing

Each writer understands that the salary fully depends on the way how fast he types. Sometimes, deadlines are short and one should cope with the task in several hours. That is why you have to learn to type rapidly. There are many tools that can help you boost up the typing speed, like Keybr or TypingWeb. These are free typing tutorials.

    Dictionaries

Even if you are not going to write content in other languages, it doesn’t mean that you will not need the dictionary. Professionally written content must correspond to several requirements. First, you should use synonyms to the words that are repeated in your text for several times. In this case, you will need Thesaurus – the best dictionary of synonyms. In some instances, you will be made to use specific terminology. So, dictionaries are always needed.

    Writing Software

These days, there are plenty of programs for typing texts. The choice fully depends on the preferences of a writer. However, Microsoft Office Word is the most widely used program. There are some apps that are offered for free. Some of them you need to buy and install onto your computer. Before downloading the software, you need to find out whether this app complies with your demands and has a set of required features.

    A Quote Highlighter

This tool is useful for those writers, who work for essay writing companies. They are obliged to write dissertation papers or essays on a regular basis. Quote Highlighters save your time greatly. When you write a paper, you just need to indicate the source. The program will do the rest on its own. The most popular one is Liner. However, you need to choose the one, which corresponds to your requirements.

    A Plagiarism Checker.

These days this criterion is of prime importance and each freelance author knows this. Plagiarism detecting software is a must-have tool. You cannot send an article, review or essay to the client before you check it via these programs. Besides, it is impossible to send a plagiarized article. Nowadays, there are many plagiarism checkers. Some of them require installation on your computer; some of them check texts online. For example, you may use Noplag.com. This is a reliable online plagiarism checker with an extensive database and many useful features to make the writing process easier.

    A Time Management Tool.

This tool helps writers to manage their time properly. Sometimes, you are too busy and do not know whether you can cope with the task on time or not. A time management tool will help you spare your working time properly. There are many apps for time management. Just choose the one you like most of all. The most popular one is Evernote or Focus booster.

    A Readability Checker.

If your goal is to create an interesting and easy-to-read article, a readability checker will help you do this. Such apps check your content and will offer you the suggestions concerning the way how it should look like. Surfing around the web, you will stumble upon many tools measuring text readability. For instance, you may defer to the services of Online-Utility.org – the tool which will calculate readability for free.

    A Grammar Checker.

This is the most important tool for each writer. You may be a very experienced writer, but everyone can make mistakes. Nobody is perfect. Misprints frequently happen (especially when you are in a hurry). A grammar checker will help you find mistakes and correct them. The most popular one is Grammarly or Paperrater. Some apps are offered for free, but some of them oblige you to buy a subscription.

    A Word Counter.

This tool allows writers to orient in the size of their paper. If you write your article using Microsoft Word, you will find there a word counter. If you use the other program for writing, you should find out whether there is this feature.

Calculation tool.

When it comes to getting a salary, each writer will calculate the payment for several times. Everyone likes to calculate money. The simplest tool to calculate your salary is Excel or calculator on your laptop or mobile device.

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So you Call Yourself a Writer? Good!

I recently gave myself the title of Author. Well, Children’s Book Author and Daydreamer to be exact. I do a lot of daydreaming in between writing sessions. But when can you take the risk and call yourself a writer? The answer is now! You just have to take the first few steps. Hell, make them leaps because there’s no time for hanging around. So where to start?

Instagram. Twitter. Facebook. Youtube. Website. Start here. Get this platform up and running. I have subscribed to articles from Katie Davis. She is giving indispensable advice and helping writers to build their platform. Don’t underestimate it. You need it. If you book them, they will not come. They need to be enticed. Katie has an awesome book available called How to Write a Children’s Book. Get it! I also use Wix as my base. A super simple website building tool that will boost you like nitrous oxide.

I am still learning. Every day I am reading something new and trying to find my voice. But I am not stressed over it. It’s exciting. I am excited and you should be too. Write in various genres. Throw the ones that don’t feel good. You will quickly discover which you are hot for and which ones you want to give the cold shoulder.

Look out for courses such as those offered by Wappo. These are invaluable. I am currently taking one called Learn to Write Amazing Children’s Books. I’m taking it slow because inspiration is coming to me from all over the internet, but this course has kicked me into play from the off.

If you have some work that you are proud of: a short story, a novel, a poem – whatever it is, now is the time to start throwing it around. I used Kindle Direct Publishing to get my first piece of writing out there, and the responses have been positive. My family has been crazy supportive, so have friends. Maybe I am lucky, but I think you will be too. If you love the work you are doing chances are that someone else will.

Search for publishers that are working with genres you enjoy writing in and send your work to them. Don’t fear rejection. Embrace it. Use it as a tool to improve. Stay positive and don’t let anything or anyone stop you. Write every day. A good start is 1000 words. It isn’t too much and I know that you can smash through that goal. I told myself yesterday I will write 1000 words each day and I wrote 1500. There’s something about being challenged that forces you to do better than is expected.

It can feel scary when you are fresh on the scene: the new kid on the block. The competition is fierce, but I have found that the writing community is an embracing one. Follow people on Twitter that are writing in genres similar to you. They will share your posts, they will support your self-published work. Tweet, retweet, repeat!

A great way to practise your writing and to find your voice is to use writing prompts and enter competitions. Here are seven you can enter before the New Year, but keep a look out. Do some research. There’s a lot happening in 2017. And even if you don’t enter these competitions, you can use their guidelines and prompts to practise. I have enjoyed the Crimson Comp. The prompt is inspiring. Here are ten creative ways to practise your writing and if you are wondering how your finished book should look, here is a cool list of the parts of a book 

These are just a few ways that I have propelled myself into the world of writing. The articles and inspiring people have made a huge improvement in my confidence and ability to get the job done. I hope the same rings true for you. Last but no least – and in the words of Journey – don’t stop believin’. Write!

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3 things you can do when your story is too short

It happens to every writer occasionally. No matter how clearly you outline and how verbose you feel as you are writing, you get to the conclusion of your story and your word count leaves something to be desired. Do you leave it as is and try to promote a short piece? Or do you try to increase your word count to where you were hoping it would end up?

If you chose option A, this is the place for you. Luckily, there are a few things you can do to give your word count a kick in the butt.

Explore side characters. Maybe your sidekick has a backstory that you haven’t explored. Maybe your hero has family who you mentioned in passing that you could include in the story directly. I’m not advising you to add fluff for fluff’s sake, but very often writing about these side characters can add depth and interest to your story that would otherwise be missing.
Show, don’t tell. On a somewhat related note, are there scenes in your story where you gloss over a scene rather than exploring it completely? Could you be accused of telling when you could be showing? It’s good advice in general that you should show and not tell in fiction, but this goes double when you are looking to add to your word count totals.
Look into subplots. This one might seem obvious, but it’s very easy to get so focused on your main plot that you forget a novel isn’t just your hero and your heroine from point A to point B. Having some complications along the way doesn’t just make things more fun, it helps your reader better bond with your characters, and makes your characters feel more like people and less like two dimensional figures.

When it comes down to it, lengthening a story shouldn’t just be about padding your word count. In order to boost your word count while also staying true to your original story, it’s important to think about why you are doing it and now just how. Keep these things in mind and before you know it, you’ll have a fantastic (and fantastically longer) story on your hands.

Image Courtesy: Positivewriter.com

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Is Your Writing Hit or Myth?

The single most interesting fact I have ever learned about writing – one so significant that it affects me more than anything else as a writer is this: Knowing the power of the monomyth, a type of story structure, George Lucas went to comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell for advice on his Star Wars story. Why does this matter? Because the monomyth is by far the most powerful and prevalent story type there is. (Look at the staggering commercial success of Star Wars or Harry Potter to get a sense of how important this story form is).

So then… What is the monomyth? It’s a term that Campbell borrowed from James Joyce that means “the hero’s story,” the transformational journey that a hero takes that defines him or her. The term was coined by James Joyce in “Ulysses,” but was adopted and probably gained its preeminence via Campbell’s writings and lectures, particularly in his book “The Hero With A Thousand Faces.”

Campbell summarized the monomyth this way: “A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”

The monomyth is critically important as a story structure. It gives a story tremendous cohesion and power. Campbell’s research across thousands of years of mythology showed a remarkable similarity across time and across cultures in the stories that are elevated to the highest level a story can have in any culture – the status of myth. So, rearranging the pun in the title a bit, if you want a hit, use the power of myth!

In “Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation,” a book drawn from Joseph Campbell’s late lectures and workshops, he says about artists and the monomyth: “Artists are magical elfs. Evoking symbols and motifs that connect us to our deeper selves, they can help us along the heroic journey of our own lives.”

What was significant for me in all of these insights was that I finally realized my deepest motivations in story-telling and why I write stories. The monomyth is a transformational idea that, like the theory of gravity or relativity in scientific areas, has a remarkable power to explain why certain stories are powerful and endure for generations and others are weak, valueless, and ephemeral. For me, that insight sent a deep radar pulse into my deepest heart and – finally! – showed the outline of a face that should have been familiar all along but was not.

It’s not just thousands of years of mythology and fairy tales that depend on the monomyth – modern stories like Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, and many others were either patterned after myths directly, or knowingly patterned using specific knowledge of the monomyth. Why do I dislike reading most modern fiction? Precisely because it tends to depart from the monomyth. I refuse to waste my time reading about complicated neurotic wimps who talk endlessly about their problems and never resolve anything. I want to read about believably heroic men and women (and children) who will inspire me to keep trying in my own personal monomyth.

Naturally, when it comes to my own writing, I gravitate toward the monomyth too. For me, much of the language of my heart and spirit is the monomyth. Writing my own myths with believable heroes is the “boon for my fellow man” with which I have returned: Hard-won truths about love, courage, and loyalty that ring true on some deep, almost unconscious level. These are the deep truths of the human spirit without which a story cannot have lasting power.

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The Reacher Phenomenon

For those of you whose only exposure to Jack Reacher has come from the two films, you are in for one hell of a shock when you come to reading the books. When casting for Reacher began, author Lee Child would probably have had just about every other actor in Hollywood in mind ahead of Tom Cruise. Sure, the movie business these days is a magical world of CGI, but even those computer wizards couldn’t make the 5ft 6inch (on tippy-toes) Cruise become an imposing 6ft 5inch Reacher. Andy Serkis became Gollum, Mark Rylance the BFG, but Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher? Pull the other one. Still, Lee Child was happy enough. And Reacher is his man.

Lee Child has officially come of age, with 21 Reacher novels under his belt. The legend began in 1997 with The Killing Floor, whilst the latest, Night School, was published only recently. During the series we’ve seen Reacher past and present, lone wolf walking the earth like Caine from Kung-Fu, finding trouble wherever he goes (if it doesn’t find him first), or hard-as-nails Military Police major. Reacher has also ventured into first-person POV, which makes for an interesting insight into what makes the man tick.

Of course, Reacher is not great literature. According to those who tell us what great literature is, at least. Stephen King once wrote: It is the tale, not he who tells it, expanding on Elmore Leonard’s theory that the story is the main driving force, not how it is told. Lee Child seldom strays beyond ‘he/she said’ when writing dialogue – another Leonard rule – but the tales he tells are nonetheless compelling. Usually. Yes, the phrase ‘Reacher said nothing’ has become so overused the reader may begin to dread its next appearance, but we forgive it as we are blown along by the force  – and brevity – of the prose. For every Kingsley Amis there is a Lee Child, and that’s how it should be. They both get the job done, just in different ways.

Having been fired from his corporate job at the age of 40, Englishman Jim Grant decided to write his first Reacher novel. The decisions to both set his protagonist in the USA, and publish under the pen name of Lee Child, were brave – especially given the cliché that authors should write about what they know. But then, what awful advice that often is. Of course, Lee Child and Jack Reacher are very much products of this ‘I want it all, I want it now, and I want to achieve it in as little time as humanly possible’ modern world. Few Reacher adventures live long in the memory, but whilst consuming them they are always both satisfying and tasty.

Well over 100 million Reacher books have been sold, and with the movie tie-in there appears to be no end to this cash cow continuing to reel in readers. I’m one of them – hooked a little late, but have since read every novel. This enduring character, with good intentions, a genuine sense of right and wrong, allied to the strength, physique, determination and will to do something about it, is someone we can all root for. Someone we hope might be in our corner should we need him.

Jack Reacher was not the first literary hardman, and he will not be the last. But the strength of the character is thus: with the Thomas Harris creation, Hannibal Lecter, every subsequent sociopathic serial killer was compared to him; so every fictional tough guy with a heart is compared to Reacher. Substance over style wins the day

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