By now you should have an idea that your theme has to reach its conclusion just as your story does. But our theme has to do more than reach its conclusion – it has to be reinforced in the end and by doing this, it will strengthen all that we have said in our story.
So if we took a theme…
‘Persist and in the end you will succeed’
And I showed my character working hard to achieve his goals, persisting, even if at times those goals seemed unreachable, then I would’ve showed that all his hard work did pay off in the end. By having him succeed, it would reinforce the theme that had been running throughout the story.
Let me further illustrate this point by giving you a more detailed example.
The theme is…
‘Persistence pays off’
The story is about a writer, who has been writing short stories for years, but has not succeeded in getting published yet.
In your story you will show his persistence with…
• How he makes time to write, even when his day is already full by his full time job and other responsibilities
• How his every thought is consumed by his writing
• Showing him sending story after story to publishers
• How he doesn’t let the fact that his family believe he’s wasting his time, distract him from his purpose
Simultaneously I will place him in win and lose situations - Losing when his stories are rejected - Winning when he receives encouraging notes from publishers.
And in those instances where he is winning, I will show gradually that resistance is starting to pay off, till I reach the end of my story where I will have one of his stories accepted for publication and thus bring my theme of ‘Persistence pays off’ to its conclusion.
By showing the reader how persistence is paying off, I would have reinforced the theme in my ending.
Is your theme reinforced in the end of your story?
By 2015, based on current trends, 50% of the books available online and even offline, will be self published.
How will this happen? Simple. Print on Demand technology has already progressed to the stage that even the big traditional publishers are using it - which means, yes, now we're all equal.
Plus, distribution networks are now seeing that there is money to be made stocking and distributing self published books - as long as the writers are diligently involved in their promotion.
Book marketing is now no longer the sole responsibility of a publisher's sales staff. More and more trade publishers are requiring, even demanding, that authors self promote their books.
So, whichever way you go, you will have to get out there and sell your books yourself. But what does self promotion actually involve?
Are there any special skills you need?
Yes, but don't fret - you're a writer. Much of what you need to do is already within your skill base.
Here are nine pointers for the serious newly published author:
1. Create a Web Presence
Having an author website is a must - but there's more to be done than that. Having a presence on the web to promote you book(s) needs a more strategic approach.
You need to hunt down any and all Net platforms - including social networking sites - from which to promote you and your book.
2. Make your Website Interactive
You need to run a newsletter, a blog and have useful resources for readers and writers to make your website 'sticky' - which means giving people reasons to find your website and keep coming back.
Do whatever you can to build a mailing list, online and off.
3. Use Ads to Generate a Following
This may require some investment of money and time. Book sales don't just happen. They never have. Authors throughout history - from Geoffrey Chaucer to Jeffrey Archer have spent money publicizing themselves in the short term to gain book sales in the long term. If you believe in yourself and your writing, follow their example.
Online this may mean using Google Ads. Offline you may need to consider printing up posters, business cards and bookmarks, putting ads in the paper and sending out promotional material to bookshops, libraries and schools.
4. Create a Stream of Press Releases
One is never enough. You need to catch the eye of the media. And the way to do that is to make your book relevant. Follow the media daily and reshape your press releases to reflect and include current news headlines. Make yourself relevant. Send out press releases consistently - and have a ready made 'press pack' available for any journalist who may call.
5. Contact Radio and TV Stations
Deliberately target news media outlets in your press releases and then follow up. Find out when and where the media airs shows about authors and books - and let them know you're available for interview.
Okay, this is scary - but it works. And don't be nervous. Once you've done it the first time, it gets easier. Trust me.
6. Do a Launch Tour
It used to be that a book launch was a fun one-off activity. Not anymore. You should plan a tour of book launches. In your own town there may be half a dozen places you could hold them.
Plan on touring interstate, even internationally, and doing as many launches as you can.
Not just in bookstores and libraries but nightclubs and community centers, gyms and pet stores. I'm not joking. You can make these things work. And try this: invite celebrities to your launches. You just never know who will come!
7. Do a Lecture/Personal Appearance Tour
You might think that only the extroverted are best suited for giving talks and workshops on their books. You'd be wrong. And I'm willing to bet you can do it too.
Don't think in terms of making a profit on your speaking engagements - but do take lots of your books with you. The money is made at the back of the room, after your speech.
8. Keep Looking for Opportunities
Whenever you're out and about, deliberately build networks of useful contacts. Visit other writers and talk with them, share your self promotion tactics. (Here's a tip: buy them lunch - it's tax deductible.)
Online, join discussion groups that focus on self promotion. It's all useful for developing a mindset, even if you don't use all of the strategies made available to you.
9. Keep Writing
Most of all, don't lose sight of your art - the reason you're doing all this promotion. You want to be a professional writer, so you'll need to keep coming up with the goods.
A famous bestselling author once told me he spent 60% of his year writing, 20% promoting himself and 20% resting, usually in a far off country. That sounds about the right balance to me!
All this may sound rather daunting to the newbie and to the newly published. But the good news is that doing at least some of these activities will generate book sales.
Now all you need to do is consider this:
If you're going to be doing all this self promotion, would it be more profitable for you to be self published - or share all your hard earned royalties with a trade publisher?
This is the real reason why self publishing will become so important in the future. It's way more profitable to self publish.
Think of it this way:
The average book sells less than 500 copies - shocking but true.
With 10% earnings, your standard royalties from a trade publisher, and you'll make around $1000 (if you're lucky, after the usual contractual deductions - don't get me started on this one.)
Sell 500 copies of your own self published book at the same retail price and you'd make around $5000 - if not more!
You don't have to be a genius to work out which option most enlightened authors will be taking in the future.
A student asked me this week if I knew of any successful writers that 'showed' how they took their first drafts and made them into the highly polished versions you see in the bookstores.
I could only think of a couple.
Stephen King in On Writing includes a rough draft of a paragraph and gives the reader an indication of how he goes about editing it to make it tighter. Cutting out words, changing phrases etc, generally improving the work. All very illuminating.
(Incidentally, people were so intrigued by Stephen's spontaneous example that he felt forced to turn it into a full blown story which became 1408!)
Anyway, the only other person I could think of was Ken Follett.
I remembered that I'd read a book once by Al Zuckerman which included various drafts of Ken's work as he edited his manuscripts to a publishable standard. So - I took a look at Ken's website.
On that I found a gem: a masterclass on writing a bestseller. And this is from a man who's had a few, so if anyone knows how it's done, he does!
What I found most intriguing though was that Ken seemed to think there was indeed a formula for writing a blockbuster novel - and so does Al Zuckerman, one of his highly respected agents - a guy who actually guides authors through the process of writing best selling novels!
So - rather than have you wade through books and websites trying to find illusive information, I thought I'd present what these guys say about writing a blockbuster novel - by presenting the formula here! Woohoo!
The Formula
1. Come up with a scenario whereby two or three central characters are engaged in a life or death struggle to overcome a huge problem, the bigger the better.
2. Think through the scenario and its setting, the characters and their dilemma, and ask yourself, has this been done before? If so, discard the idea and go back to 1.
3. Write down 5 to 10 bullet points that will comprise the 'meat' of the story.
4. Expand on the bullet points until you have a 25 to 40 page outline of your story told in the present tense, introducing all of your characters and all of the story in the right sequence. Each paragraph should represent a significant plot point.
5. Show this outline to anyone and everyone who will read it and make comments. This might be friends, agents, publishers, the man who collects the trash, anyone. Make note of their comments and adjust the story accordingly. Ken Follett suggests this process of creating the ultimate novel outline might take anything up to a year to complete.
6. Write the first draft. Make sure you have a significant 'story turn' every four to six pages. (I told you it was a formula!) Adhere to this rule - too many story turns too often will confuse the reader, too few and they will get bored.
7. Repeat the process mentioned in 5. with the first draft. Make adjustments accordingly. This should take between 6 months and a year to get right. The first draft may take a month or two but the rest of the time is spent re-writing to make the novel perfect.
The Writing
Now, the most important aspect of this formula is that you don't approach it necessarily as a writer. No, you approach it as a storyteller. The writing must be crystal clear, only concerned with story. If there's ever a passage that smacks of 'good writing', you must ruthlessly delete it.
Because, when you're writing a blockbuster, you're not in the business of impressing people with your writing skills. Your text should 'transparent', totally clear and focussed on telling a story.
There should be no barrier between the reader and the story. There should be no author intruding on the text - and the writing should never 'get in the way' of the characters, their actions and the ultimate resolution of their agendas.
Many writers make the mistake of thinking that merely 'being a good writer' is an end in itself. It's not. It's merely the beginning.
The ability to write well is one thing but the ability to re-write, edit, alter and change everything from the tiniest bit of punctuation to the overall theme of a novel without so much as a sigh is the sign of a true blockbuster novelist.