The Secret to Writing a Best Seller: How to Satisfy Your Readers

Ever wondered what makes for a best seller? Readers of course! But what keeps the eyes of your readers glued to your book? To figure that out, let's take a step back rather than dig into writing techniques. Let's assume you as an author have mastered the necessary writing techniques. They're not an issue, what we want to do is look at the bigger picture.

Let's start with the reader.

Storytelling is as old as humanity.We all have this vision of cavemen sitting around a fire after the hunt, munching on their grilled meat and telling stories to each other. The Lascaux frescoes comfort us in this vision. But we've moved on in storytelling sophistication since these early times, we want more than stories of preying on wild animals and killing. Though we still love suspense.

Suspense is the key.

Release from suspense is what we as readers yearn for, in the form of laughter or tears. And herein, you find the very essence of comedy and drama, the two major forms of literature. 

But wait, there's more to it. We read to inform ourselves, to get a better grasp of the reality around us and within ourselves. We want to walk away from our reading feeling that we've gained something, we are a better, more prepared individual. And herein, you find the very essence of non-fiction and inspirational writing.

What kind of reader are you? What do you want to get out of your reading? Do you agree with this analysis?

Bottom line, what matters is that readers perceive that an author has something special to say. That is the litmus test. 

But there's a problem here, a contradiction between readers and writers. Readers are interested in stories while writers tend to be interested in... themselves or they wouldn't write! 

Authors, please remember that if you want to sell your stories, you have to pitch the stories, not yourself. You have to explain why your stories are unusual, arresting and above all entertaining. Nobody is interested in banal, monotonous tales. Readers want suspense, they want to laugh and cry. Hollywood knows this: to evaluate the success of a film, they measure how many "emotional beats" it has, the more, the better, the more likely that it will reach out to a big audience.

How can a writer figure this out by himself? Obviously this is where the role of an editor is essential. Beta readers help too. All these people who read your drafts will tell you directly or indirectly how many "emotional beats" your book has. 

But there's another way to go about it. A do-it-yourself way, I call it DIY editing (pun intended - this is the way to know whether a book ought to be published or not). 

What am I talking about? I'll let you in on a secret. I am a writer but I happen to be my own most demanding reader. If I don't get a kick out of my own writing - if my first draft doesn't amuse me as I write it - then I stop writing. As simple as that. You have no idea how many novels and short stories I have started and abandoned after I was one third (or so) of the way through. Why? Because they bored me! 

Sure, the writing gurus will tell you that you should never give up, that you should keep writing, there's no "silver bullet"etc. Yes, there is none. But why finish something that bores you, the author? Chances are that it will bore your (eventual) readers even more! 

Indeed, that is one of the reasons why I never work out complete, detailed outlines prior to writing. I know a lot of writers do, no doubt it works for them but for me it doesn't. I always jump into my story, hoping to keep my enthusiasm for my characters and plot alive, right down to the closing line. And sometimes, I'm lucky, my characters regale me with their shenanigans and give me an unexpected ending. When that happens, I'm happy, I know that is a book worth publishing (once it's been thoroughly gone over and edited of course). Otherwise, it goes in the drawer and these days, it gathers digital dust. 

I don't mind, I don't want to see it.

If you're a writer reading this, let me know how you go about writing. What techniques do you use? What is your litmus test? And if you're reader, let me know what you seek from your reading, what kind of book makes you really happy that you've read them?


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Comments

sally brown said…
Hello,
I just started a story tonight, and am not sure where it will lead at this point. I often get a title, which rolls around in my head for a while and then gathers legs. That's when I'm ready to write. I hope to one day have a book good enough to publish.

I love suspense, mystery and horror. Sally
Sally, so nice to hear from you and I'm happy you're busy writing, you're very talented!
Sergio Felix said…
Hello Claude, first of all, I'm not a writer but I do write on my own marketing blog and obviously share some of my stories or actually experiences I've had with marketing.

If you don't mind, I do have a question for you:

When you say "you are your own most demanding reader" and that you stop writing if the novel is boring you, do you actually mean you read all the content from the beginning or do you just get the feeling is not interesting enough and then stop?

I ask this because it happens to me a lot, I write a draft and while I'm editing it sometimes I feel is not good enough but I publish it anyway, I know good content is better received than average so I would really appreciate your help.

Thanks in advance!

Sergio
Good question Sergio, very astute. I'm not sure my answer is going to be relevant to you because a novel is like a journey (and you don't know quite where you're going though you have a general idea of the territory you are traversing)I'm not sure that is the same as drafting a post for a marketing blog. Your post is not really a journey, is it? It's something specific ("content")that you have in mind already, a message you want to transmit to your readers and the whole challenge for you is to phrase it/shape it in such a way that it is transferred easily - even with a punch! - to your readers...And the way I understand what you're saying, you have sometimes doubt that perhaps your post is not as clear or as punchy as you'd like (that happens to me too on my blog - I can feel my performance varies a lot from day to day!)

What I'm talking about here is different: suddenly the novel bores me, I don't need to read it from the beginning to verify that (indeed, if I did, it would likely be even more boring!) Suddenly I don't feel like continuing on the trajectory, or the journey if you will, that my novel is taking me on. So I step out. I quit. That's what I meant!

A blog post is different. It's short. You know exactly where you want to go and where you want to land. If in doubt, set it aside for a day, read it on another support, in short, give yourself fresh eyes and then re-read it and cut, cut, cut! It's amazing hos much stuff is redundant or not important! At least that's what I do!
Indeed, David, I'm totally convinced that's what distinguishes good from bad literature: good reads - the kind that keep you riveted to the page - have plots that are always character-driven! So the ending, when it comes, is totally satisfying for you as a reader. Why? Because it is totally believable! The trick is to write in such a way that the ending isn't something people expect. You have to surprise your readers, jolt them out of their seats! So, yes, the plot needs to be character-driven but it also needs twists and turns of Fate that make the reader's journey through your book interesting and yeah, suspenseful!

Yes, we're always back to those two basic concepts: Suspense and Fate!