Recently I was beta-reading a book for a friend. He had told me before I began reading that it was a “new-age thriller.” I wasn’t quite sure what that meant, but it sounded intriguing, so I was all in. As I read, though, and the story unfolded, I kept looking for those thriller sequences but they were nowhere to be found. I found myself getting frustrated, wanting to get into the meat of the genre, but the narrative was taking its sweet time. Finally it became clear to me that this book was not a thriller. It had a very few thriller elements, but they actually only occurred in the last 10% of the book and they were not anywhere near the fast-paced, clock-ticking, heart-pounding sequences I was used to (and expected). While the book was good as far as it went, and well-written, it was decidedly miscategorized, and I told him so. Continue reading “Book Descriptions and Broken Promises”
Tag: reader discovery
Why Discovery Is Your Mount Everest By Kathy Meis
At a publishing conference this winter, author and futurist David Houle hushed the crowd with this startling fact: last week, he said, there were more books published than in the entirety of 1950. Let that sink in…a year of books is being published every single week. That’s a very crowded book marketplace.
With barriers to entry nearly eliminated in publishing, this trend will continue to accelerate in 2012 and beyond. What does that mean for you as a writer? It means that discovery is going to be your biggest challenge. I know, you thought writing, editing and rewriting your book would be the highest mountain you’d have to climb. It’s up there, but if you want anyone to read or buy your books, discovery will be your real Mount Everest.
Don’t lose heart. When a problem is this big, a lot of people start studying it and creating solutions. That’s what we’re doing at my company, Serendipite Studios. We started with a simple question. How can we help writers more effectively find readers in today’s crowded, noisy book marketplace? Continue reading “Why Discovery Is Your Mount Everest By Kathy Meis”