1/5 books make 4/5 of the profit for publishers. The FInkler Question won the Man Booker in 2010 and had the biggest boost ever: 200,000 books; meanwhile Jordan's biography sold 300,000 in 6 weeks. Big successes fund the many failures.
Mills and Boon are the most successful publishers, they sell 130m books a year. Their success is based on a promise to readers. An attractive young woman will meet a dashing virile man. Every genre promises its readers something, eg Beast Quest.
What a story needs:
- A good concept, well written. The concept is more important than the writing. If the concept can be summarised in five sentences it's high concept and that's your elevator pitch.
- Practice summarising your book in 5 sentences max.
- "But" is a useful word: "Like Stephanie Meyer but with more heart."
- A strong main character, male for young boys, female for teen novels. Strong means aspirational, honest, cool, slightly older than the intended readers.
- Younger boys prefer books about external conflict [eg dealing with monsters] which are usually written in the 3rd person
- Girls prefer internal conflicts, written in the first person.
- The inciting incident occurs in the first chapter. Don't worry if it's confusing, readers can read on to find out what's happening.
- Write short chapters [eg 200 words] and finish each one with a cliffhanger.
- Word count: 5-7 4-8,000 8-10 8-10,000 10-13 10-50,000 13+ 30-80,000 words picture books, under 500 words.
- Always have more ideas in outline form.
With Thanks to Lil Chase.
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