What would you want to see in a book on how to write

[Wmba]

What would be most useful to you now if you read a book on how to write.

What was in a book about writing, that you read in the past, which you did not find especially helpful.

[Emmerita]

Hi! I hope this is not too late but here goes.

Defining terms such as exposition, foreshadowing and passive and active voice that a new writer - who isn’t majoring in English - wouldn’t ordinarily know including detailed examples would have been such a help for me when I started out. There are some things you learn in English class at school but novel writing goes further I believe, beyond the foundation. So anything that can help a writer build on that foundation would be great.

[Wmba]

thanks!

it is never too late.

[[deleted user]]

Honestly—how to market, how to get more readers and more attention. Most say to throw money at ads...but there must be more to it than that.

[Wmba]

thanks!

I consider marketing separate from the writing but both are important.
That might be another book in my planned series on writing.

Throwing money at ads is a naive approach guaranteed to suck your wallet empty.

You need marketing and promotion not advertising. Social media following is important. There are a couple of good books, and many not very good ones, that discuss marketing of your books.

Being famous helps. Targeting your audience is useful. How many of the 8bn people on the planet will want to read your book? You will be lucky to get 1/1000000 of that number.

Identify the small number that might and see where they group together to reach many at once. Your potential audience needs to be 10-50x as big as the sales you hope to get as many people do not buy every book that might be of interest.

The average SP book sells 2 copies. Many sell none. Ebooks might average closer to 15 due to price and ease of downloading. It is a very long tailed phenomenon with a few selling more and most selling near nothing.

[[deleted user]]

Thank you for the advice.

[Wmba]

You are welcome and it is worth every penny you paid for it:)

Kremer used to be one of only two books worth reading.
Now the market has changed with digital and some others that focus on amazon and ebooks might be useful.

Look at this one then compare with others:
https://www.amazon.com/Book-Marketing...

His older 1001 ways to market a book is somewhat out of date now:
https://www.amazon.com/1001-Ways-Mark...

[[deleted user]]

Thanks.

[Wendy]

Phil, can you speak about your work? I heard that books sell when people meet and hear a writer, when trust is developed. Regards, Wendy

[Wmba]

Giving talks to target audiences gathered to listen to you is an excellent way to sell books. You make them available at the back of the room and give a discount to motivate action on the spot.

Clearly that works best for non fiction, especially for 'consultants' as the book 'proves' they are experts so people will come to hear them, and if you do give a useful talk then they want more so will buy the book.

For fiction, it is much harder to get anyone to come listen unless you are already a famous name.

[[deleted user]]

Wendy wrote: "Phil, can you speak about your work? I heard that books sell when people meet and hear a writer, when trust is developed. Regards, Wendy"

Hi, in short, I am writing a book series right now. I also make blog posts about advice for other writers and I do social media posts for my fiction writing.

Writing advice blog posts:
https://ptsphiltellsstories.home.blog...

My writing:
https://ptsphiltellsstories.home.blog...

Widowing is a fatal disease, targeting and killing one person in every impacted couple. No treatments exist, or a solution, or survivors. Some think if Widowing targets one gender…intentionally.

Porma needs to move in with someone. Iteni, his high school crush, allows him to move in with her. He’s stoked to get to be with her. So what if no one know how to spot Widowing? Porma can possibly get with Iteni! He has multiple odd jobs to do too, as he seeks romance and adventure at his new Maine home.

Iteni’s been biting herself though. In the bathroom, leaving teeth marks on her skin. She wants to talk about her hand marks, and get help.

[Wmba]

Not sure what you mean by widowing. Nor exactly how the text after the link fits with advice for writers you say your blog covers.

Do you mean someone must kill half of a couple to instantiate that? Do you mean it happened and now half a couple remains? All too confusing for my old brain.

Tried the links but did not see how they fit with writing either.
PM me if you want a fuller review of the web site.

I see now that the text was apparently a back cover blurb. Sorry to say I would not find that motivating to look inside the book.

[[deleted user]]

No problem.