How to Determine if Your Ebook Will Be Successful
By now, you should have had a chance to think about what you want to write about. Now comes the research.
Don’t panic. If you’re an artsy writer-type, the mere word research may make you cringe and want to pack it in, but don’t panic. This type of research isn’t too painful. And it can be interesting to explore what people want to buy.
There are many ways to discover what’s selling and craft your ebook to meet the demand. And believe it or not, if you do some research on the internet, people are always stating publicly (online) what they want to buy.
If you’re writing fiction, you want to write a piece that will fit into a certain genre.
“But wait,” you say. “You told me to write about something unique! I can’t fit it into a specific category.”
I would be willing to challenge that. No matter how unique it is, it can likely be made to fit into a genre or niche.
Even more “mainstream” fiction authors began by specializing in a particular niche. Stephen King, for instance, wrote horror. Danielle Steele wrote romances.
The advice to craft your work into a particular genre still holds true. Save yourself the struggle you’ll face by insisting your work is too “special” to be categorized into a genre. (That’s what I did, and it was years before I finally changed this costly mistake.) If you’ve already written something that doesn’t fit into a genre, rewrite it into one.
By doing so, you’ll have an easier time marketing your novel and finding a specific audience for your ebook.
Fiction Genres
If you enjoy reading fiction, you know what you like to read. What appeals to you most?
You will probably be most successful in writing a book in the same genre you like to read. Although that is not a hard and fast rule, it is a good starting point if you’re on the fence about which genre to write for.
But Will It Sell?
This chapter, as I said, is also about research.
Now that you have some niche ideas in mind, let’s see if they are potentially successful niches.
You may have already heard this before, but one tried and true method of finding what’s selling is to research magazines in print. This will tell you topics that are hot right now.
You can also visit Amazon.com and look at the titles on their homepage to see what’s currently hot.
Research publishing house guidelines to see what they’re accepting and what they’re not accepting. Even if you are not planning to submit your work to one of them, find a house you would be most likely to submit your manuscript to and write it according to what they are accepting. Publishing houses hire people to research trends, projecting what will sell based on many different factors, including what they have sold recently. Why not use a little of their research to your advantage?
By now, you should now have your fictional storyline idea defined.
Now that you’ve got your idea, you can get down to the process of writing.
Perhaps in the process of brainstorming and researching, you came up with several ideas. Take the rest of them, and any ideas that might come up in the meantime, and find some way to store them so you don’t forget them. Create a paper file or computer file for your separate ideas, and file them away as soon as they come to you.
Don’t spend any more time on the ideas than jotting them down as they come to you and filing them away. Right now, you need to focus on the task at hand, and it can be hard when you’ve got multiple ideas competing for your attention. You are working on one project. Complete it, then move on to the next.
To advance to the next step in this process, you need to move beyond broad concepts of what your ebook will be about to fleshing it out.
To do this, many will say to write an outline.
I agree, if you are the type to write outlines. The trouble is, I hate writing them. I always have.
If you submit to a traditional publisher, they will want a synopsis of your book. This is fancy talk for an outline (more or less) of your book, albeit synopses are drafted in their own format. I personally detest writing those, even if I’ve already finished the book. I like the free flow of creating the story, not the process of confining it into the narrow specifications of an outline.
However, if you’re the type of person who likes to write an outline, by all means, write one. It definitely helps give you a guideline of what you need to write in order to hit all the points you wanted to touch on in your ebook.
If you’re not the type who likes to write outlines, you might try this method I use in order to map out my book (or ebook):
Write the Back Cover
Try writing the back cover copy of the book.
You know how powerful the back cover of a book can be. It’s often what drives the sale of the book. The copy must not only be good, but informative, detailing what the reader can expect to read about.
How do you sum up the general storyline of the book? What can the reader expect?
In a work of fiction, the back cover is how the reader can expect to be entertained. It’s a promise you make to the reader that you will entertain them with the storyline you plan to present. And writing it out gives you that sense of commitment that now you have to see that promise through.
This can be difficult if you haven’t even gotten as far as your character’s name yet. If you haven’t, you might have to define that first before you plot the story, or plot the story and then develop the character details later.
Ideally, you should have an engrossing plot where the hero or heroine of your book must overcome a challenge of some sort. And often, your character – along with his/her specifics that create or increase the challenge, whether age, gender, race, socioeconomic status, disability, and so on – will develop on its own. So, too, will the character’s personality, especially what makes that character overcome (or succumb) in the end. (No, not every plot must end with the character winning in the end. Some are sad tales where the character came close, but did not end up being the victor. However, that character is still changed in some way by the end of his or her struggle.)
Write it all out as if you’re trying to entice a reader into reading your book. That way, you will know what you’re aiming at. To quote inspirational speaker Zig Ziglar, “If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit your target every time.” Don’t aim at nothing. If you want this to be a success, planning is imperative.
Writing the Character
Some authors find it helpful to keep a document detailing your character’s details, to make sure they remain consistent throughout. Some, in order to define their characters, cut out pictures from magazines to help them visualize their imagined character’s appearance. Department store catalogs, which often feature “real-life” looking models, are great for this.
In doing this “pre-planning,” you can be sure your character will be multi—dimensional. Nobody wants to read about someone who is depicted so flatly that no one cares what happens to them in the end. The reader should care about the character and his or her struggle.
Conversely, no good novel can survive on the character alone. No matter how engaging your character is, he or she must go through some struggle, challenge, or experience that makes up the plotline.
Try following this bit of advice that cost me several re-writes of my manuscripts, but resulted in a much stronger manuscript each time at the end.
Have your character say “no”.
For example, let’s say your character is a chemist. He or she has invented a life-saving serum. The town needs it to save the life of Ms. Sally Drizzleslip, because she’s the most prized teacher and everyone respects her and can’t believe she’s dying.
It seems logical to make your character say, “Why, of course! We must save Sally Drizzleslip. Here’s the formula.”
What would be the end result? She would be saved, and your character would be a hero.
But you want to know the other end result?
Your story will be BORING.
On the other hand, what if everyone came to your character, the chemist, and said, “You must give us the formula”…and your character said, “No”?
What would happen then?
Think of each character as having their own “motive” in the story – and make all of them compete with each other in some way.
Think back on most great stories. This is what happens.
One of my favorite examples is the movie Toy Story. It’s the perfect example of characters with conflicting motives. In fact, they’re so conflicting, they are what make the story so entertaining.
As the story starts, Woody’s motive is to be Andy’s favorite toy. It remains his motive throughout the story.
Enter nutty Buzz Lightyear, who has an entirely different motive: to complete his mission. No matter how much Woody tries to convince him that he is only a toy, Buzz remains convinced throughout most of the story that he is an astronaut on a space mission. Until the end, that is, when he must face the shattering revelation that he is only a toy. Happily, however, he realizes that being a toy that is loved by Andy is even more special than being a space-traveling astronaut.
This story, as silly as it is, has the elements of great conflict. Two characters are thrown together, each with vastly different motives. They must overcome their struggles that the conflicting motives cause and learn to work together and in the end, come to an agreement.
Keep this in mind while writing your own fiction. Have characters with conflicting motives. When they compromise their motive, give them good reason (just as Buzz Lightyear had to readjust his when he was finally given proof that he was, in fact, only a toy).
That’s all I will say on writing fiction, because writing fiction is very much up to the individual writer. You can look for additional tips by searching online, joining writer’s forums, or reading magazines such as Writer’s Digest. As I’ve said, I can only help to a small degree with the actual content of your ebook. The rest is up to you.
Write the Query Letter
Another exercise you might find helpful is writing a query letter.
Pretend you were going to submit it to a publishing house. Of course, you don’t have to tool with identifying the exact publisher (although you could, if you follow the advice I just gave about researching what they sell). You don’t have to spend time trying to figure out who to send it to (thankfully). Just write the letter to explain the premise of your book and how the reader will be entertained or benefit from readers. Include an overview of the plot line and main characters.
In case you are unaware of what a typical query letter looks like, here is an example:
Sunrise Publishing House
ATTN: Mr. Drew Hauser, Acquisitions Editor
100 Lighthouse Street
New York, New York, 10058
Dear Mr. Hauser:
Jane Castle has a dark secret: She once killed her best friend in self-defense. Dana had transformed from a sweet, fun-loving friend to a raving maniac, thanks to using meth. On that fateful night, Dana came searching for Jane in a deluded state, eager to confront her. They fought, and Jane was forced to fend her off with her bare hands, resulting in the death of her friend.
Jane’s soul mate, Reed, doesn’t even know the dark secret she has kept for years. When Jane learns she is pregnant with his child, she is overjoyed. Finally, she can forget her painful past and move forward
Maya grows up fast. As she does, Jane begins to see more and more traits of Dana in her daughter. Usually, she is sweet and fun-loving, as Dana once was. Other times, she seems to snap, evolving into a child with a mean streak – one seemingly targeted toward Jane.
Jane begins to fear Dana may very well have been reincarnated into the child she is raising. Will that child one day take her revenge for Dana’s death?
May I send you my completed manuscript, Reborn? Thank you for your time and attention, and I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Jenna Sayles
Notice how the query letter addresses gives enough of a “teaser” to make the editor ask to see the manuscript. It also contains the hook of your story. Namely, in this case, the fact that the child Jane is raising may well be Dana reincarnated, out for her revenge.
This is just an example, obviously. Reborn is a somewhat cliché premise (although if you think you can do something with this plot, feel free to take it and run with it. I doubt I’ll ever find the time to develop it further). I merely use it to illustrate the semantics of a query letter and what, at bare minimum, it should include. Once you’ve written this, boom; there’s your outline, in its most basic sense. Now it’s a matter of writing the accompanying story to fill it in. (Of course, your end story might differ from the initial storyline you outlined in the letter, but that’s more than okay.)
One benefit of this method is that, should you later decide that you would rather submit it to a traditional publisher, your query letter is already complete and ready to go. If the story has changed, just adjust the letter accordingly to reflect what you’ve written.
Writing the Actual Manuscript: Formatting Basics
Many publishers have their own criteria for submitting manuscripts: They want a particular font and size, margins set a certain way, and so on.
Fortunately, when you write your own ebook, you don’t have to live up to a publisher’s often stringent expectations.
There are, however, things you should do to craft your manuscript to look as professional as it possibly can.
For starters, I use Microsoft Word as my preferred editor of choice. It has lots of features, it’s compatible (you can easily turn a Word document into a PDF, the format to create an ebook), and it’s pretty universal. It has some neat features we will get into in future chapters.
For now, we just want to use it to write the draft of the manuscript.
Open Word and go to the “File” tab on the top far left. Now click on it and select “New”.
Voila. At its most basic, you’ve now officially started your ebook.
As with other research, you can research how to use Word online. My intent here is not to teach you every in and out to using Microsoft Word.
However, I did want to point it out as a feature-rich option to get the basic format of your book started properly.
To begin, you can set the margins in Word by clicking on the Page layout tab, and selecting Margins.
You can indent paragraphs by selecting the Page layout tab, and going to indent. This lets you set how far you want the first line of a paragraph to indent. So, say you want it to indent 4 spaces automatically every time you hit the Enter tab. You can set that there. Either method will translate OK into the ebook format you will be creating later.
You may be saying, “Why are we going over boring formatting stuff when I was expecting to read about how to write the ebook?”
Well, this is part of the process. If you set up those small details now, it will make things infinitely simpler for you in the long run. With the formatting all set, you can just start typing and not have to worry about formatting anymore. For that reason, I would recommend formatting the manuscript before you begin typing it. (And I won’t win any popularity contests by saying this, but I go a step further and hand-write my first rough draft, later typing it into that already-formatted Word document.)
Use a common font that people can easily read. You may think a font looks cool, but it may be hard for others to read. You also want it large enough for your average reader to be able to read it. Simple is best here. I’m using Cambria size 14 font. Times New Roman and Courier are other common fonts. 12 is a standard size for a printed manuscript, but since yours will be an ebook, you might go for 14. This will make it show up better in ebook format and on various readers. (Kindle has its own format. And you may wish to consider checking out Fiction Jackpot Revealed, where you will learn all about the Kindle publishing process, to learn more.)
There are plenty of websites about developing a manuscript, but you’re developing an actual ebook, so read them with caution. The main rule of thumb is, what you type is what you’ll see. Unlike traditional publishers, who may want italicized text to be underlined, for instance, you should actually italicize yours.
Elements of Storytelling
Remember all of those elements of a good story that I discussed back on page 11? This is the time to apply them all.
Plot
Your storyline should advance. Things should constantly keep moving forward. (If flashbacks are used, use them at a time when not much action is taking place in the present.) You should ask yourself, “Are the events of my story told in order? Does one event naturally flow into the next?”
The events in your story should, by virtue of the story, have to take place in a certain order. If a scene does not move the story forward, or does nothing to enhance the plot, you should cut it out of the story. There is sometimes an exception to this: a scene that gives the reader insight into the characters. But in general, this will need to flow into the plot too, or it will be awkward and unnecessary.
Narration and Point of View
Narration and point of view often go hand-in-hand, where the narrator whose point of view the story is told, but not always. Is the main character the most appropriate party to tell the story?
If you use third person, your book may be omniscient (where the narrator is all-seeing and all-knowing, detailing everybody’s thoughts and feelings). Or the focus might still be on one particular person’s viewpoint. In general, omniscient is confusing to read. If you are going to use multiple viewpoints, do so in separate scenes so that each scene is told from a particular character’s point of view.
Setting
Does the setting make sense for the story? Watch for anachronisms – details that don’t fit the time and place. For instance, if your character lives in the 1800s, she would not eat from a plastic bowl (or anything else made of plastic, as plastic was not invented yet).
Details
Is your character consistent? Make sure she does not have red hair on page 3 and black hair on page 50, unless she dyed it and you made that clear over the course of the story.
Remember your research. If the characters are going to meet in the desert, it’s unlikely they will first connect by huddling under an umbrella in a rain shower.
Tense
Another element to keep in mind is which tense you use. Your story can be written in past, present, or future tense. Past tense is the easiest to read. Present tense can be used, but consider carefully whether the story wouldn’t sound better in past tense. And future tense (I will go to the store. I will find you there. “Hello,” you will say) is just plain awkward.
Where Do I Go From Here?
But what if you want to know, specifically, how to craft the words onto the page? Let’s say writing isn’t your forte; you’re just trying to get your idea and solution out there.
In this case, you have several options:
I’m sorry I cannot personally write your specific idea into book form for you. Even in my course, in the end it is up to you to write out or type the specific words you are going to use (although I can certainly offer some direction).
Remember that you will have your own unique slant or take on the subject which will certainly show through in the final product.
Remember, too, that what you write is not set in stone. The great thing about writing your own ebook and controlling the process is that you can change it as many times as you need to – even once it is already for sale on your website.
This is just the first draft. In the next chapter we’ll look at some ways to edit your work into something that truly reads like the work of a professional.
Activity
Write out what the query letter and back cover to your ebook. Use it to write a first draft for your ebook.