What The Reader Wants
As a writer, I look for a book to read because I’m trying to improve my craft. But as a reader, I look for a book to read because I want to read a great story, find something that resonates with me and of course, entertain. Yet why I read books is exactly how I should be writing my own novel. What my readers want aren’t any different from what I want in a book.
So before we get into what the reader wants, let’s get into what the reader doesn’t want. I found this book Just Write: Creating Unforgettable Fiction and a Rewarding Writing Life by James Scott Bell, and Bell covers this very subject in his first chapter. And there are five ways to dissuade the reader from buying your book.
Disorganization and Excessive . . . Everything Else - When I read this I imagined a corkboard with a push of push pins and post-its and red string connecting everything. And that’s fine if you’re trying to crack a cold case but maybe not so much for a novel. When it comes to writing, keep the plot simple but make your characters complex. If your reader finds your characters interesting and human (because human beings are complex), they’re more likely to invest in your story.
Way Too Many Invading Voices - When you have too much exposition, more tell than show, your writing can seem bogged down and bore the reader. Like E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India, where it felt like the first forty pages compared the Indian sky to the British sky. I immediately wanted to put it down. Bell suggests exposition be placed seamlessly into confrontational dialogue (or just dialogue in general). Instead of explaining what’s happening, have the characters speak to what’s happening. Only use exposition for things the characters may not be able to explain. If that doesn’t make sense, remember this, more show, less tell.
Failure to be Original - When it comes to literature, it’s all been written before. There isn’t much else you can write about that someone isn’t familiar with or hasn’t experienced themselves. As Bell states that every plot has been done before but how you freshen them up will help differentiate your writing from others. However, with literature, you can create freshness by how you craft your story, design your characters, describe the scenes and especially evoke emotion from the reader.
Flat Characters - Like it was discussed in number one, characters should be complex because humans are multidimensional. Another reason you want multidimensional characters is because flat characters can be a drag. To me, they just feel fake, cliche and unrealistic. This can take the reader out of the story and make them question the story’s validity. And if the reader begins to inquire about the realism of your story, they could abandon the story and the book itself.
Everybody Sounds the Same - If every character sounds the same, it’s not just hard to tell who’s talking, it’ll be hard to tell how many characters are in your story and then everything just becomes confusing. But Bell goes into a different direction with this. He states that when a character's dialogue is distinct, the dialogue really pops. If the dialogue pops, then your writing is elevated from okay to good, even great.
Now that we know what the reader doesn’t want, let’s see what the reader does want. There are five laws that every fiction written should heavily consider.
Readers Want to be Transported to Another World - Some would say Disney movies are cheesy or campy but they do take you to far off places and fantasy worlds beyond your wildest dreams. Readers want to not only read your stories but be transported inside your book and experience the things you're describing.
Readers Are Looking for the Best Buy - Your reader is like any other consumer, they want to get their money’s worth when they buy a product. According to Bell, readers buy “based on expectations and experience.” If you are an experienced writer and the reader is familiar with you, they’ll pay the higher price for your book. If you're a first time or new author, readers are less likely to pay the higher price. The reader will want to sample your work before they purchase, and even still they’ll want to pay for your book at a much lower price than their favorite author.
Wow Your Reader and They Could Become A Fan - The great thing about your reader is that they can become your fan. Essentially, by becoming a fan, they’ll do some of the publicity for you. They’ll tell others about your book, post your book on their social media, hell, they’ll probably create a club around your book, eliciting more fans by the people they know. Okay, that last part might be a bit of a stretch but you get the idea. Fans can really help your book sell and ensure the purchase of future books you publish.
Readers Want to Connect With You the Author - Because we now have social media, you can reach out directly to your readers. You can build a community and not just have fans but a supportive community that will stick with you through thick and thin.
Stories Are Needed - Bell proposes that we need stories to keep the culture alive, however, since the pandemic, we need stories to keep our sanity. Pandemic or not, we need stories to feel something, to understand ourselves and others, or to escape reality from time to time. We need stories to live.
Hope these tips help. Thanks for reading.
Works Cited
Bell, James Scott. Just Write: Creating Unforgettable Fiction and a Rewarding Writing Life. Writer’s Digest Books, 2016
