Some authors lean more toward action and dialog while others favor imagery and emotion. There’s a place for all of it, depending on the scene. Knowing what to include where will demonstrate your skill as an author.
Never slow down heavy action with a lot of detail. Settings should be established beforehand as well as the protagonist’s emotional state.
As the author, a story that becomes a series is usually thought of as a single book. Readers, however, may not read them in order, so be sure to include relevant backstory information so they can follow the characters and plot.
This is something to watch for in your final edit. Ask yourself if occurrences in a previous story need to be reiterated for the current story action to make sense to a reader who hasn’t read the previous book. Such recaps are also appreciated by readers where significant time has elapsed since reading its predecessor. If your books are released years apart, then this is a given.
If your book is fiction, the print version can do without a table of contents. Since it’s more difficult to find your way around an ebook, however, a table of contents is not only helpful but required by some ebook distributors.
Generating it through Microsoft Word, however, is not going to work properly. Per the Smashwords Style Guide, you should bookmark each chapter heading, which is then connected via hyperlink to the table of contents. This works nicely for the Kindle version as well.
Page numbers are required in your book, but other headers or footers are optional. Make sure they contribute in a positive way, not serve as a distraction. Use a smaller, unobtrusive font with adequate space separating them from the text.
Including the author’s name on one side and the book’s title on the other are common headers. They tend to look best when justified to the outer margins. Setting them up to behave properly in Microsoft Word can be a challenge, however.
Your book interior’s layout should be pleasing to the eye. The opposing pages should look symmetrical and have adequate margins so the words don’t look crowded. Formatting contributes significantly to a book’s readability.
Formatting should be virtually invisible. If it’s too dramatic, it can distract readers and prevent them from becoming totally immersed in your story. Poor formatting will do this for sure!
People DO judge a book by its cover. Not only must it look professional, it also needs to represent the story as accurately as possible. Capturing the feeling of a story graphically is an art in itself.
Using the templates found on Create Space can label your story in a negative way. Your cover deserves as much attention and creativity as the story it presents. Neglecting this important facet can doom your book to obscurity.
The fact you can’t please all the people all the time is intuitively obvious to authors. Some people may love your book while others hate it. Nothing is more demoralizing than a bad review. To renew your confidence, check the reviews on some of the classics. Somehow it does your heart good to see Ernest Hemingway get 2 stars.
Writing styles change over the years. What was considered a good story 50 or 100 years ago may not be well-received in today’s market. Sometimes originality works and others it doesn’t. Being in-tune with current trends can help assure your book’s success. Who would have guessed twenty years ago how popular vampires and zombies would become?
Not all books are easy to categorize, especially when they’re a cross-over that blends two or more genres. This will make it even more difficult to find your target audience. This is where you have look closely at your prominent theme. Is it romance? A mystery? Thriller? Horror? Next look at your setting. Is it contemporary? Historical? Futuristic? Dystopian? Use appropriate keywords such as these to help drive the right people to your story.
Apparently some people don’t read the description before buying a book. This became apparent to me when I got some bad reviews based on complaints related to matters that were clearly explained in the book blurb. That shows the importance of your book cover, which also needs to be an accurate representation of what’s inside.
This is the downside of being a writer, the opposite of the euphoria you feel with a good review. Be prepared for both.
Do you know which genre your book fits best? This is not always as simple as it sounds. There are sub-genres as well, which help identify your book’s content. Yours may be a combination of two or more. Some evolve over time, like sci-fa (science fiction-fantasy) or sci-fi romance, while in some cases your book may be so unique it doesn’t fit anywhere. Some of the most original and clever stories I’ve read fit that category and I don’t envy the author trying to figure it out. This also makes it very difficult when you have to categorize it on sales sites or during the marketing phase.
Most readers have a favorite genre, so if you want to target your marketing efforts to those most likely to enjoy your book, then you need to figure it out. If it doesn’t fit one of the existing ones, then figure out the closest combination.
Marcha's Two-Cents Worth 