How to Write a Bestseller E-Book

Giacomo Giammatteo

• Herausgeber: Inferno Publishing Company
• Serie: No Mistakes Writing
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Seitenzahl: 244

Beschreibung

So you've written a book. Big deal. Did you write one good enough to sell? Will it sell? There are millions of books out there. Why should readers buy yours?

Before you put your book up for sale, before you even finish writing, you should read this book. Find out what you're doing wrong, and what you're doing right. Discover why character development and editing are everything. And learn to make your readers laugh and cry.  

Leseprobe

How to Write a Bestseller

No Mistakes Writing, Volume II

Giacomo Giammatteo

Inferno Publishing Company

© 2017 Giacomo Giammatteo. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

Inferno Publishing Company

Houston, TX

For more information about this book visit my website.

Edition ISBNs

Trade Paperback …… 978-1-940313-40-5

E-book …… 978-1-940313-39-9

Cover design by Natasha Brown

Book design by Giacomo Giammatteo

This edition was prepared by Giacomo Giammatteo [email protected]

Created with Vellum

Contents

Introduction

1. Eight Things Every Author Should Do

2. A Few Simple Suggestions

I. What Makes a Good Story?

II. Character Development

1. Concrete and Books

2. How to Cook Up a Great Character

3. Seven Billion Ways to Develop Your Character

4. Through My Brother's Eyes

5. Stereotypes

6. Using Animals To Enhance Character Development

7. What is an Invisible Character?

8. Tough Characters

9. Conflicting Characters

10. Your Characters Don't Have To Be Pretty

11. The Fear of Writing Real Characters

12. What Do Your Characters Look Like?

13. Secondary Characters

14. World's Greatest Hamburger

III. Editing

1. Editing

2. We Don't Need No Copy Editors

3. Real-Life Editing

4. The Secret to a Good Book

5. 17 Words and Phrases

6. Absolutes

7. Words We Don’t Need

8. Flat Adverbs

9. Wordiness

10. How To Tighten Up Your Writing

11. Punctuation

12. Poisonous and Venomous

13. Latin Abbreviations

14. There's a Lot of Reasons

IV. Miscellaneous

1. Axe To Grind

I. More on Writing

2. Dialogue Tags

3. Five Senses

4. Capitalizing Dialogue

5. Setting

6. Is Storytelling Genetic?

7. Snakes

V. Writing Rules

1. Writing Rules

3. In Closing

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Also by Giacomo Giammatteo

Introduction

Introduction

First, let’s tackle the elephant in the room—I’m not a bestseller. So what am I doing writing a book about how to be a bestseller?

Like anything else in life, you do not have to have done something to teach it. Take boxing—a boxer may be the best, may have even won the title without knowing it was his left jab combined with a mean right hook that propelled him to the top. But his trainer may know all about it.

I once saw a bestselling author signing at a bookstore, and when asked about her writing, she went on and on about her use of setting and how that was her best trait.

The odd thing was, in conversations afterward over coffee, almost everyone I spoke to agreed that it was her mastery of character development that interested them, not setting. Only one person thought setting played a major part in the books, and that person happened to have grown up where the books took place.

With that said, this book is not going to be about setting. Nor will it focus on all the other important aspects of a book.

This is a book about writing. And since we're going to be talking about writing, we're going to focus on two of the most important parts—character development and editing.

I know that there are other things that affect the reading experience of a book, but I feel that character development and editing are two of the most important.

Let's talk about reading experience for a moment. What makes a bestseller? Sales, of course, but what drives that?

Word of mouth.

And nothing affects word of mouth more than giving people a great reading experience. Give them a cast of characters that they get lost in and complement that with great, error-free editing, and you are well on your way.

The reason character development is important is obvious, but editing is more subjective. For me, it's simple—mistakes pull me out of the story. Once I find a mistake, from then on, I'm busy looking for the next mistake instead of being lost in the story. Right or wrong, that's the way I am, and I'm willing to bet there are other people who feel the same. I know there are. I’ve seen it reflected in reviews.

So without delay, let's get going.

Oh, and by the way, I use gender neutral pronouns, so instead of saying he/she, I will likely say they.

One more thing. There is a hotly debated issue (at least in Texas) about how to abbreviate ya’ll. Some people think it should be y’all and others swear it should be ya’ll. I hold to the ya’ll argument, so that’s what I use throughout the book.

Eight Things Every Author Should Do

This chapter is included in one of my other books also, a book that deals with publishing. I felt it was important enough and appropriate enough to have it in both books.

The chapter deals primarily with what an author should do to ensure a book’s success. I included it in my book How to Publish an eBook as it has a lot to do with publishing, but it also has a lot to do with writing, so I included it here. If feel any of the parts don’t apply to you, skip over them.

From the book How to Publish an eBook

This chapter is not about self-publishing; it's about publishing. No matter which path you decide to take, it's the same. There are no fences.

We (self-publishers and traditional publishers) compete in the same market and for the same audience. We use the same distributors and retailers, and the same readers buy our books.

But while my opinion of the eight things every author should do may apply equally to a self-published author or a traditionally published one, the process of how to achieve those steps is often dramatically different.

Below is my list. (These topics will be covered in detail later in the book.)

Write a great bookFind a great editor.Create a great cover.Make sure the layout and formatting are superb.Write an irresistible description and premise.Proofread, proofread, proofread.Price the book as if it's worth something.Let the world know you're there.

I know what you're thinking—I've seen bestsellers that weren't very good.

I have seen that also, but more times than not, they weregood.

You may also say to yourself, I’ve seen bestsellers that had mistakes in them.

I have, too. But once again, most don't. I've seen Oscar-winning movies that I felt were terrible while great ones (IMO) didn't get a nod.

It's true. When it comes time for awards and sales, everything is subjective. The worst book or movie (in your opinion) may sell the best.

Take a look at some bestsellers—at the time of this writing, Gone Girl has 43,000 reviews, and yet, 13,000 of them are rated either one or two stars. Fifty Shades of Grey has an amazing 66,000 reviews but twenty percent are one– or two–star rated.

A lot of factors determine a book's success, and the ones I've listed above don't come close to covering all the bases, but these are the ones I felt were some of the most important. Let's look at them one at a time.

Write a Great Book

This is, without question, the number-one priority. I know that many mediocre books have made it to the best-seller list, even dominated the list, but I've always believed that if you're going to run the race, you should enter your best horse.

How do you do that?

Make your characters real.Make your plot sizzle.Make your dialogue crisp.Make your story enthralling.

Quality

In my opinion, you should never sacrifice quality—for anything.

Not to meet a deadline.Not to save money.And certainly not because you're too lazy to fix a mistake.

Do whatever is necessary to produce a perfect book.

No matter how you try, it won't be perfect. No matter how much effort you put into it, a typo may pop up here and there, but if you set out with a mission to produce a perfect book, you'll come close (I hope).

Find a Great Editor (or Two)

I included this as one of the top things to do for a reason. I don't know of any author capable of producing a top-notch book without some kind of editor. Even editors use editors.

Let's look at the editing process.

Content editorLine editorCopy editorProofreader

Content Editor

A content editor is standard fare with traditional publishing houses. It’s a service that publishers provide to authors for better or worse. Content editing is expensive, normally in the neighborhood of $1,200 to 2,500 or more for a full-length novel. I don't view this as a necessity, but most authors need something, even if it’s a small army of beta readers.

Line Editor

A good line editor will point out problems with paragraph structure, sentence flow, dialogue issues, and clarity. Many line editors combine their services with copy editing, but technically they are different beasts. Before you engage an editor, ask them for a sample, so you understand what they will provide. That way, you’ll have it spelled out in a contract.

CopyEditor

If there is one service you cannot do without, it's copy editing. A good copyeditor will fix grammar problems, punctuation, consistency issues, and issues with sentence structure.

In general, they will ensure that you follow the rules that don't bend. I did a post on copy editors which you can see here; in fact, I’ve included it in this book as well.

And if you're wondering how important this service is—I would sooner cut my arm off than put out a book without going through a copy editor. If you find a good copy editor, hang onto them and don't ever let go. (As mentioned above, copy editing and line editing are often offered as one service.)

Proofreader

This is another critical service. Proofreading deals with typos, grammar, spelling, and any other mistake not caught in the process to date. Even when you think you've got it nailed, a good proofreader will often find a stray mistake. They're worth what you pay them.

Create a Great Cover

Everyone has heard the saying "You can't judge a book by its cover." And yet that's exactly what happens millions of times each day. Readers choose, and buy, books based on their covers. Sometimes it's not the cover alone that is the deciding factor, but the cover quite often is the impetus for taking the next step.

Nothing screams amateur like a poorly designed cover. My advice is to do whatever you have to in order to get a cover that draws attention. It's going to cost you money (unless you’re talented enough to do it yourself), but it will be money well spent. Look for details in the chapter for creating covers.

Make Sure the Layout and Formatting Are Superb

Just as the cover makes the outside of your book shine, the way the book is presented on the inside also tells the reader something. When you present readers with nice, easy-to-read fonts, uniform indents, drop caps, maybe even graphic images at the beginning of each chapter—those things tell a reader you care about your book. I have even recently begun including images in the book’s content, and it looks great. You can see it below, and read all about it in my book How to Format an eBook.

And when that layout presents the same, whether it's read on a computer screen, a Kindle, an iPad, iPhone, or an Android tablet or phone, it makes the reading experience a good one. Your readers will thank you for it by recommending the book to friends or leaving a good review (assuming the book is well written). Or by buying the next book you publish.

Write an Irresistible Description

I don't think there is anything short of the cover that is as important to the actual sale of the book than the product description. The book cover makes the reader stop and take a look, but the description is what hooks the reader or turns them off.

Take as much time as you need to and hone the description to perfection. Run it by friends and fellow authors. And if you're not happy with it, ask for help. Don't publish the book until you have a description that sizzles.

Think about it. There is a reason why companies pay big bucks for people to write advertising copy for their products. They know it works.

Price the Book Like It's Worth Something

"Birds of a feather flock together." It's another saying that's been around a long time, and it's so ingrained in our minds that many people believe it without a second thought. That might have something to do with it being true.

What does it have to do with books?

If you price your books at ninety-nine cents, or God forbid, are continually giving them away, readers will associate you with the “ninety-nine cent or free crowd."

The problem with that is far too many of those books are not high-quality books. After a few bad reading experiences, those same readers associate ninety-nine cent books and free books with poor quality. You don't want that.

There is another reason for pricing your books higher. Each retailer has a recommendation engine that matches readers with what the retailer’s algorithms predict that reader will like, such as the "readers who bought this also bought…”

When your books are priced at ninety-nine cents, you're not getting the advantage of the readers who are the big spenders, the ones who buy the books priced at $5.99 or $7.99 or $9.99 or higher, because the majority of those buyers are not slumming in the free piles. That's a huge disadvantage.

Don't believe me? Look for yourself. Surf on over to your favorite retailer and check out a book that you know was recently offered for ninety-nine cents or given away. Now, look at the other books those customers purchased—they will be listed underneath.

If it follows the typical example, most of those books will be either ninety-nine cents or possibly $1.99.

Now, do the same for one of the best sellers like James Patterson, or John Sanford, or Michael Connelly, or Gillian Flynn. The “also boughts” listed underneath of those books will likely be between $5.99 and $14.99. One hell of a difference.

Let the World Know You're There

Visibility may be...let me re-phrase that…Visibility is the single biggest factor that determines whether your book will become the next bestseller or sit on the virtual shelf.

Your next question should be, How do I become visible?

I sure as hell wish I knew. I only know of two fail-safe methods.

Word of mouthAmazon/Apple/Barnes and Noble, etc. recommending you

The big question is how do you get either of those to happen. The first is easier to imagine. Write a book people can't stop talking about. The second, short of big bribes or blackmail, is a mystery. If you find out, tell me first. Please?

My Advice

(We'll go into all of this in detail a bit later.)

Try to get honest reviews and don't ever worry about reviews.Think before you price your books.Do not go exclusive on Amazon.Don't check your sales, or reviews, or anything else, every day. Certainly don't do it every hour. Check them once a week and force yourself to abstain on the other days. I know it's more difficult than dieting, but if you treat it like that, it works. Think of all the time you'd have to write if you stopped that nonsense.Get off Facebook! (or simply stop touting your latest review).Stop tweeting! (at least about your book).You don't need another picture on Pinterest.

I'm not saying to abandon social media altogether, but if you continually bombard friends and followers with reviews or quotes from your book, you will quickly bore those followers. Nobody will listen, and before long they'll tune you out. You'll become like a late-night salesperson hawking vacation getaways over the phone.

Now that you know a little bit about what you're in for, let's get started.

How to Publish an eBook, No Mistakes Guide to Self-Publishing, Volume One of the No Mistakes Publishing series, will take you through the steps of how to publish a book. Writing it is up to you.

Let me explain that. If you're going to publish a book, you have to write one first. For the purpose of this book, we'll assume you've got an idea for your masterpiece and you're ready to write.

Before we jump into the details of writing, we're going to cover one topic that should be included in an any book on writing:

Editing

Aside from writing a great book, finding a good editor is the most important thing you'll do during your publishing journey. No matter how good you are, no matter how much you think you've improved, you still need an editor or even a few editors.

How Do You Know if You Need a Content Editor

You’ve got plot holes/potholes... (There should be none.)Your characters don't resonate with your audience. (Readers should either love or hate your characters, not be ambivalent about them.)Your theme is not recognized right away. (A reader should know what it is quickly.)Your storytelling is lacking. (It should keep a reader reading.)Your dialogue has no spark. (Must be crisp and realistic.)Your reader is confused. (There should be no confusion.)

Copy Editing

This is probably the most important service you will make use of on your publishing journey. To make my point, I’ll do two things:

Include a blog post I previously wrote about copy editing that shows what a good copy editor can do for you.Include a brief sample of my work, and the associated comments made by my copy editor.

Look for these under the chapter dealing with editing.

Note: As you notice, I use gender-neutral pronouns, such as they or them instead of saying he/she. I make mention of this because a misinformed reader chided me in my No Mistakes Grammar book for doing so, but it is a practice that has been approved of for many years.

A Few Simple Suggestions

Ernest Hemingway once said the following:

Use short sentences. Use short first paragraphs. Use vigorous English. Be positive, not negative.

Ernest Hemingway

Use short sentences—I think that statement is self-explanatory. If you run across a sentence that is too long or rambling, reword it, or perhaps break it in two.Use short first paragraphs—This statement may not be as obvious as the first one, but if you give it some thought you’ll see. Don’t start off by giving your readers something long and complex to digest. And don’t do it at the beginning of a chapter either. Most readers stop at a chapter break, so any chapter may represent a new beginning.Use vigorous English—This is another one that is fairly self-explanatory. Try using words that evoke images of action or emotion. This doesn’t mean run to the thesaurus every five minutes. It simply means think. Instead of saying, “The child got hurt and his mother drove him to the hospital,” say, “The child got hurt and his mother raced to the hospital.” Instead of saying, “He fell from the roof,” say, “He plummeted from the roof.” In both of those instances, the word choice evokes a different image and a more appropriate image.Be positive, not negative—Another one I would think is self-explanatory. Most people do not like unhappy endings or stories that are dreary. Most people prefer optimists over pessimists. If you want to sell a lot of books, write as if you do.

We’ll never get as close as we want to perfection, but the above advice will help.

Since this is a book about writing, and hopefully getting closer to the bestseller list—maybe not getting there but getting closer—let's try to focus on what it is that readers want in a book, what it is that makes a bestseller. I don't know if I can tell you what makes a bestseller, but I am pretty sure I can tell you what doesn’t—mistakes.

Get rid of the mistakes, and you'll be closer to that dream. Write a book with captivating characters, a great plot, superb storytelling, an interesting setting, and all of a sudden you’ll have a book that people are talking about. And when you get people talking...sales happen.

Sounds simple, right? Now, go do it. I'll do my best to help. Remember, that even if you write what you feel is the perfect book, others may not feel the same, so it may go nowhere. The thing is, that it has no chance to go anywhere if you don't write a good book.

Don't expect to read this book and become a bestseller, but do expect to become a better writer, which will improve your chance to become a bestseller.

No Mistakes Guide to Writing

First Things First—Get Rid of the Mistakes

Where do mistakes rear their ugly heads? Everywhere. But there are areas where they are more likely to occur. Below are a few of them. Some of these are not technically a mistake, but if it bothers readers, then it's a mistake.

Dialog tags.Beta readers—(not using them). Don't use just one or two beta readers, and don't use people who are too nice to tell you what's wrong. Use a minimum of eight, preferably ten to fifteen. Remember if you use ten people, every person will theoretically represent ten percent of your readership. And also remember, don't argue. Listen! If you argue with a beta reader, you won't have that person as a beta reader for long. You can ask for clarification on an issue/statement, but don't tell them they're not right—unless it's a known fact that you're discussing and not an opinion.Dialogue—(proper punctuation, too much use of a character's name, not enough use of a name, improper capitalization, too many characters whose name start with the same letter).Typos and misspellings—(neither of which should be tolerated) One way to avoid a lot of this is to use a good text expansion program. Read my book, No Mistakes Writing, Volume I—Writing Shortcuts, to see how.Improper character development—(We'll cover a lot of that in this book.)Improper use of setting.Weak plot—(plot holes).Using “coincidence” to solve a plot.Using “illogical” means to solve a plot.Head hopping—(I don't have a problem with it, but get it right. Readers don't like it. If you're going to do something different, say so up front and make it obvious what you're doing.)

These are but a few of the mistakes you may run across. A good editor will help you catch some of the mistakes, but you should be prepared to learn and provide your editor the best before submitting it to them.

Beta Readers

One of the most important things to do when writing is to use beta readers. And when I say use beta readers, I mean use people who will provide valuable, critical input, not a pat on the back. And never argue with a beta reader. It's okay to ask them to clarify a point, or to argue if they state a fact that's wrong—like saying Dallas is the capital of Texas when it's Austin. That kind of statement is indisputable. But you can't argue subjective points.

An example is the following. My daughter-in-law Missy, loved the book, Gone Girl. I despised it. I'm not going to convince her it was terrible, and I sure as hell won't convince the other twenty gazillion people, but by the same token, she's not going to convince me it was good, so there is no point in trying. But that scenario is one more reason why you should have as many beta readers as possible, because different people have different opinions.

The whole point of writing a book is to make the reader feel something. Make them emit a sigh now and then, laugh once in a while and, if you are good, make them shed a tear or two. It's difficult to do, but it is achievable. I have a sign taped to my computer that says,

When I re-read this book, if I don't laugh and cry, then I didn't do my job.

And I test that with every novel I write. Mind you, I said every novel, not every book. Some of my books are nonfiction dealing with grammar, résumés, and such. I don't expect to cry reading them—at least I hope not. I still give it the laugh test, but not the cry.

Another Look at Beta Readers

Since I feel that beta readers are so important, let's take another look at the best way to use them. First, it's difficult to find good beta readers, so once you get one, don't let them get away. Chain them to the bumper of your car if you have to, and if they're not local, find someone else to do it.

Remember that the people you're dealing with may or may not be professional writers. So they may not know the technical terms for what they feel, or why, but they do know how they feel, and that's what’s important.

Listen to them. Don't argue. It doesn't matter if you feel you are right, if they don’t feel that way, you did something wrong. Perhaps you didn't explain things simply enough? Perhaps your plot was too complex? It doesn't matter what the problem is, what's important is that there is a problem.

Beta readers don't like telling you what's wrong with the book; in fact, that's the most difficult trait to find in a beta reader (and the most important). Usually, they want to tell you how good the book is. You don't need that. You may like it, but you don't need it.

I compare it to a cardiologist visit—or any specialist. You may not want to hear that your arteries are clogged, or that you have any medical problem, but it's far better if you find out while you can still do something about it.

The same goes with beta readers. As an author, you don't want to hear you have problems, but it's better to hear it while you can fix it than to hear about it in readers' reviews after it's published because believe me, the readers have no problem telling you what they think.

I cover beta readers in more detail later in the book.

Other Factors

In almost all of my fiction books, I use dual POVs (points of view). What do I mean by that? Simple. I tell the tale from one character—usually the main one—from the first person POV, so the readers are experiencing everything through that person's eyes, senses, etc. The rest of the book is told from the third person POV, and usually that telling involves numerous characters.

I warn the readers that the change is happening through the use of images at the beginning of each chapter. I use the image of a gun or bullet for one of the POVs, and an image of handcuffs or a badge for the other. If the shift takes place in the middle of a chapter, I use *** as a designation that a change is about to occur. (Now, with Vellum, you can use a much nicer-looking ornamental scene break, like the one below.)

Some readers still don't like the shifting POVs. My feeling is, that's all right. I have done all I can to alleviate the inconvenience. I have to tell the story the way that I feel works best. In my first book, Murder Takes Time, the only negative reviews I received were due to POV shifts (and a few for cursing), despite the warnings. In situations like that, there's not much you can do. I trust that potential readers will look at such a review and take that into consideration.

Consistency in writing—Find a style you like and are comfortable with, then stick to it. Don't start out with short, incomplete sentences, then switch to long, rambling, incoherent ones. It's okay to mix them, especially for different characters, but be consistent.

Be consistent with everything. If your detective had a .45 in chapter three, don't make it a .38 in chapter twenty-one. Your copyeditor may catch this, but learn to not rely on the copyeditor. Learn to get it right yourself.

Keep track of things in separate files, and make them easy to reference. Better yet, use Scrivener to write your novels, nonfiction books, blog posts, and just about anything else. I can't imagine