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Why does your book struggle to find readers?
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message 51:
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Courtney
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Apr 03, 2014 03:55PM
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Lily, I agree (and even though it might piss some people off I would add *cough* Twilight *cough* to that list).I'll go one step further too. Not only are there a lot of bad books, there are a lot of bad writers (one of my biggest fears is that I'm one of them and don't know it).
Some bad writers get published by traditional publisher, most don't. Most of the other bad writers write blogs or submit articles or are published in fledgling ezines.
I think the best most of us can hope for is to be decent writers who, through a lot of hard work and practice, can become good writers.
I'm liking everything Mark said. Especially about the fear of being one of those bad writers. And I'll say the same about Twilight (haven't read 50 shades so..lucky me haha)However if I do happen to be one of those writers (I wouldn't doubt it Lol) and I do happen to make it big the only hope is go grow and become a decent writer instead of just throwing out crap. Made sense? Not sure. Hard to focus at work. But I'm with Mark
Mark wrote: "I'll go one step further too. Not only are there a lot of bad books, there are a lot of bad writers (one of my biggest fears is that I'm one of them and don't know it)."
Mine, too! I wonder if there's a writer anywhere, no matter how successful, who doesn't harbor those doubts. When I was handwriting novels for my own entertainment, family told me they were good; I didn't believe it. I let friends read them. They said they were good. Still didn't believe them. Started posting on-line, got a scad of positive reviews, especially from the writing.com crowd. Still harbor those nagging doubts. I wonder if there's any level of validation that makes them go away...
Mine, too! I wonder if there's a writer anywhere, no matter how successful, who doesn't harbor those doubts. When I was handwriting novels for my own entertainment, family told me they were good; I didn't believe it. I let friends read them. They said they were good. Still didn't believe them. Started posting on-line, got a scad of positive reviews, especially from the writing.com crowd. Still harbor those nagging doubts. I wonder if there's any level of validation that makes them go away...
Justin wrote: "You alright, Lily? That's a bad cough you got there ;)"Bad writing does that to me ;)
Mark, to be fair, though I'm not a Twilight fan and found the books easily forgettable, in terms of the technical, the writing isn't bad at all. Spelling, grammar, check, check. Choices for the characters? Just one little choice? Anywhere...? Yeah, that's where we get a problem.
I'm getting way off topic. Back to the topic. Bad writing isn't a factor, unfortunately. It would make things easier if it were, but it's not. *shrugs*
There seems to be two basic models in commercial use during these modern times. Hate to Love It (hence my coughing), or Love All That Readers Can Relate To. Both are risky.
Jack wrote: "Mark wrote: "I'll go one step further too. Not only are there a lot of bad books, there are a lot of bad writers (one of my biggest fears is that I'm one of them and don't know it)."Mine, too! I..."
I've wondered that too, if all writers feel like we're going to be exposed as being frauds at any given time.
Yeah spelling is good. Some of the grammar is fine, but not all of it. Joe Bunting gives three good examples of bad sentence structure in his blog.
1. The dark road was the hardest part; the bright lights at the airport in Florence made it easier, as did the chance to brush my teeth and change into clean clothes; Alice bought Edward new clothes, too, and he left the dark cloak on a pile of trash in an alley.
That is a mess of a sentence.
2. “Stop!” I shrieked, my voice echoing in the silence, jumping forward to put myself between them.
Her voice jumped between them?
3. I couldn’t decide if his face was beautiful or not. I suppose the features were perfect.
Cliche and awful, but also-suppose is present tense. Narration needs to be consistently in a single tense, unless there is a very special reason and circumstance for changing it.
But more than that, the characters are paper-thin, the metaphors and similes are cliche and hackneyed and the dialogue is just plain garbage.
Still, she did correctly use the word nauseated instead of nauseous. This is one of my big pet peeves, so I gave her kudos for that.
Mark wrote: "Yeah spelling is good. Some of the grammar is fine, but not all of it. Joe Bunting gives three good examples of bad sentence structure in his blog.
1. The dark road was the hardest part; the b..."
Noxious is worse lol
And I didn't say the grammar was perfect, just there, as in, check ;)
If I buy a lousy book, you can be sure I will never buy from that author again, so to say the second book will be better, well maybe,maybe not, but you've already lost a reader and perhaps a bad review. Too many indies put books out there without editing,(yeah, i know, money may be an issue), but you wouldn't sell a half baked cake.
Fifty Shades may be terrible, but it's terrible in a very specific way. It's not confusing or too mentally taxing and the content is appealing enough for some people to overlook the writing.
Mod
Me: Pipe down will ya? Your coming off as needy, nobody likes a needy book...psh...
Mark wrote: "Yeah spelling is good. Some of the grammar is fine, but not all of it. Joe Bunting gives three good examples of bad sentence structure in his blog.
1. The dark road was the hardest part; the b..."
Your quotes reminded me of "How Not To Write a Novel". I'm half way through it and it is hysterically funny. I laughed so hard I cried.
Mark wrote: "Yeah spelling is good. Some of the grammar is fine, but not all of it. Joe Bunting gives three good examples of bad sentence structure in his blog.
1. The dark road was the hardest part; the b..."
That's taken from Twilight? Yeesh!
I think it's targeting the right audience. I've run a kindle book discovery promo that got me zero sales. A week later another author that I'm a big fan of shared a facebook post and I got about ten sales that day. A few days later, another author friend, this time out of my genre shared the same post and I received zero sales. Most of the sales I've seen have come from reviews or recommendations.
