If you're an established writer, you need a reader like me.
Sure it's great whenever you come out with a book and the choir that is your bread and butter sings your praises to the heavens. But you need potential converts like myself.
And whom might I be?
To be honest, I'm not a casual reader who only reads from the best seller lists because everyone else is. Au contraire, I am a voracious reader, and will read anything that strikes my fancy. So long as its my fancy of non-fiction, historical fiction and fantasy, then I'm good to go.
You see, I'm the reader who rarely ventures out of his comfort zone. I'm that kind of reader.
I need to be convinced to try someone new. I need to have my curiosity so incredibly piqued that I simply have to read that book. Word of mouth doesn't really do it. You can be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but if the blurb doesn't make me open the book, if the first few pages doesn't grab me, or even if you personally don't grab me, you won't get me.
Note: There are writers out there, and you know who you are, who have moved me out of my comfort zone, so you know I'm not simply jacking anyone with my post.
So I'm asking all of my blog readers, my friends, and more importantly, my fellow writers, what are you going to do in order to get a voracious reader like myself to permanently pay attention to what you write?
Because like it or not, and I say this with no malice, no smugness or arrogance, you need my type of reader more than my type of reader needs you as a writer.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
12 comments:
Go on, give me your best shot. I can take it. If I couldn't, I wouldn't have created this wonderful little blog that you decided to grace with your presence today.
About that comment moderation thingy: While yes, it does say up above I can take it, I only use it to prevent the occasional miscreant from leaving thoughtless and/or clueless comments.
So remember, all of your comments are greatly appreciated and all answers will be given that personal touch that you come to expect and enjoy.
G. B. Miller
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I'm thinking your fellow writers can best answer that good question.
ReplyDeleteLynn: I'm hoping so too.
ReplyDeleteI try to look at things from both sides, in this case, as a writer and as a finicky reader.
I may take a crack at answering this as a writer later on.
I'll give it shot, G.B. Hmmm? How to interest someone in a contemporary YA novel about teen drinking? Well, I could say the main character and her friends aren't into the partying scene. But that's not really a reason to open the first page. So, I'll try out my favorite Twitter pique their interest statement I came up with - Erin and Bill 4ever ... until a teen drunk kills him.
ReplyDeleteNow, if that doesn't get you into the first page, and then you don't become involved in this book, I have probably failed to interest you. However, I can try one more thing. Erin and her friends take on the Kewl Krew in an effort to clean up their high school of teen drunks. They use Twitter to send reports of when the Kewl Krew is drinking to the principal. But there is a price ... one Erin never believed she'd have to pay.
Interested yet?
HMMMM....what about my baby won't get formula if I don't sell this book! and hope your heart will melt with compassion
ReplyDeleteI am a solstice author George..can you guess who left this?
I would appeal to your feminine side George and tell you my baby won't get her formula if you don't buy my wonderful story...How bout that?
ReplyDeleteI'm a solstice author...can you guess which one?
KC: That sounds interesting and it might get me to crack open the cover to read the inside blurb.
ReplyDeleteFunny thing is that I've never read YA until I hooked up with Solstice and had to review a few.
YA has always been a genre that I've found very difficult to get into.
Anon 6:50 & 6:57--I'm not sure which one you might be, since I only know less than a dozen...but pulling at my heartstrings won't quite get me to buy your story. It would get me crack open the cover to check out the blurb and then I would go from there. :D
Excellent point. More writers need to realize that this is how general readers are, and seek to attract that kind of reader. Going to go through the suggestions and see what I can glean!
ReplyDeleteCharles: Thanks.
ReplyDeleteNot too many suggestions here, unless you're counting what's in the post.
But even if you're just a blogger, trying to get new people to visit your blog is a never-ending job.
The same level of perserverace needed as a writer is needed as a blogger.
Hmm. The promise of racy writing? Wait, that's you ;) Well, I can make you laugh.
ReplyDeleteM: Making me laugh would do the trick. I found quite a few books where the premise was so far fetched and outlandish that it forced me to pick it up and open it.
ReplyDeleteRacy writing is definitely me.
I'll probably give my two cents about this later.
I am with you. If what I am reading is not something i would have written if I had thought of it, is is tough to get me to continue. I write what I like to read and read what i like to write
ReplyDeleteDarth: The problem with that philosophy, is that you can miss out on a lot good stuff that's out there.
ReplyDeleteI'm slowly learning to expand my horizons, but I'm doing it on my terms.