Tag: humor

Formula for a Bestselling Young Adult Paranormal Romance

Of course, yes, I know you’ve been waiting for this. Who hasn’t been? I’ve already shared with you the formula for writing a blockbuster action/adventure bestseller, a knock-em dead romance bestseller, and a spine- and pants-tingling romantic thriller. I know you’re a tad disgruntled because those weren’t your genres of choice. But no worries, here it is – the long-awaited formula for that explosive young adult paranormal romance!

I’m a step ahead of you with my credentials for this one. I bet you didn’t know I’ve secretly been writing a vampire book for years. Yeah, that’s right, I started it back in 1998 I think. So I know a few things about vampires. And I’ve seen every bloody commercial for the sparkly vampire series, whatever that’s called. The clincher, however, is that I’ve been to the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State where they filmed those movies. That’s right. So listen up.

Follow my advice below, and you’ll be instructing your limo driver to plow down those paparazzis, my friend!

Formula for a best-selling young adult paranormal romance: Continue reading “Formula for a Bestselling Young Adult Paranormal Romance”

The Title Will Tell

Long before the prevalence of internet keywords to help people narrow down a search, the concept applied to book titles. To be more accurate, it applied to books in popular fiction. Literary fiction has its own thing going. You pretty much know if you see a book with a title like As Grow the Wild Tulips, or A Garden in Antioch, you’re probably looking at literary fiction.

With popular fiction, the keywords become genre-specific. You can be pretty sure if you see words like heart, song, secret, or forever that the book is a romance novel. As with all rules, there are exceptions. Other keywords also play a role, so Cannibal Heart might not necessarily be a romance. Neither is this short list all-inclusive. I’m sure there are romance titles that don’t include any of the keywords I mentioned, but those words are strongly representative and indicative of the romance genre. Continue reading “The Title Will Tell”

Imprintified

Harken back to the days of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. It was a fascinating nature show that was really just a vehicle for imprinting the brand of an insurance company on the American psyche. Of course, there were the commercials, but the name of the insurance company was actually a part of the title of the show.

It was even cleverly woven into the show itself. Who can ever forget narrator Marlin Perkins commenting as Jim Fowler wrestled with a giant anaconda, “Jim’s probably wondering if he’s got enough life insurance. Mutual of Omaha can help answer all your questions…”

Indies Unlimited has decided to follow in the footsteps of this great show with our own, entitled, Wild Wilderness Outdoors. It’s in early development, but here is a clip from the auditions for narrator for the program. We’ll probably keep looking. Probably.

 

Think Big

Last month, I posted about how to use your vacation time wisely and sell books. This month, I have some incredible opportunities for you. You need to get your name out there. So let’s look at how the big PR companies market stuff, and see how we can do it on a shoestring budget:

You might have seen those Double Decker buses with huge posters of the latest film slapped on their sides. Apparently, buses are seen by millions of people a week, so advertising on them seems sensible. I ascertained that it costs about £50 a week (minimum 4 weeks advertising) to advertise on the little space at the back of ordinary single deck buses. With my super scrimper method, you can advertise for a fraction of that cost. Continue reading “Think Big”