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What Do Readers Want?

This is the second post of a rolling blog tour on the topic of What Do Readers Want? To read previous blog tours, check out Plot vs. Character and Funny Mystery Novels. At the bottom of this post you’ll find the other participants in today’s tour, and a link to the next article in the series.

I can’t take credit for researching this question, since many people before me have already done it. Yippee, less work for me. Here are 12 things that readers want, from Amazon.com, based on readers’ reviews of the New York Times Bestseller List, followed by my comments (I’m in a sarcastic mood):

1. A compelling cover – yes, a book IS judged by its cover, no matter what anyone says. Especially an e-book, since all you’ve got is a graphic. Which is why I’m getting new covers. So, to quote fellow blogger Chuck Wendig over at http://terribleminds.com, make sure your cover doesn’t ‘suck a bag of dicks’. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

2. A strong hook – sure, strong hooks are wonderful. But they’re not as common as they should be. Or if the hook is strong, what follows is disappointing.

3. A unique and descriptive setting – this is icing on the cake. Great to have, but for me, not a deal breaker. I’ll still eat the cake without the icing (especially chocolate) and I’ll still like a book minus a unique setting.

4. Stellar writing – not essential either, believe it or not. It’s been said that some readers don’t know what stellar writing is. Neither do editors. Sometimes it’s just about the story and the characters. A good example is Stephenie Meyer’s first novel, Twilight. It read like an amateur novel, but the story was compelling.

5. Subject matter expertise – I don’t really care about this either. I’m not one of those anal retentive know-it-alls that email authors advising them that they got their facts wrong on how to fingerprint a crime scene. This is fiction, I can suspend my belief for a few hours. Plus, I have a life.

6. Easy to follow storyline – depends what they mean by ‘easy’. If it’s too easy, I’ll be bored sick. If it’s too convoluted, I’ll be frustrated. A nice balance is important.

7. Believable characters – This is a must.

8. Surprises – some surprises aren’t good ones. Twists have to make sense, and not come out of nowhere for the ‘gotcha’ factor.

9. Character growth – I love characters who evolve, but I don’t think fans of Stephanie Plum care about this. Stephanie is in an eternal rut. She lives in the same apartment, with the same hamster (now about 12 years old — officially the world’s oldest hamster), the same two lovers, the same family, still won’t carry a gun, etc. It hasn’t stopped Janet E’s fans from buying her books.

10. Realistic dialogue – again, it depends by what they mean by ‘realistic’. Here’s realistic dialogue at my house this morning. ‘Want coffee?’ ‘Um-huh.’ ‘Want the paper? ‘Sure.’ ‘What time is Fred coming over?’ ‘Two.’ I sure don’t want to read this type of dialogue in a novel.

11. Fast pacing – Yes, please. But not too fast. I’ll get a headache.

12. Vivid depictions of emotion – BINGO! Yes, yes and yes. Make me feel something. Make me laugh, cry, get scared, get angry. Entertain me. Take me away from my mundane life. Make me connect to your character and root for them. This is why I read, and in my opinion, this is what every reader wants.

What about you? Take my poll!

To learn about what other mystery authors have to say about What Readers Want, check out the other stops on the blog tour:

Mollie Cox Bryan http://www.molliecoxbryan.com

Kathleen Kaska http://kathleenkaskawrites.blogspot.com

Ryder Islington http://ryderislington.wordpress.com

Tags: Chuck Wendig, compelling cover, Janet Evanovich, Stephanie Plum, Stephenie Meyer, Twilight, What readers want

Comments 3 Comments
Categories Blogs About Writing

Funny Mystery Novels

2 Oct

This is the first post of a rolling blog tour on the topic of Funny Mysteries. To read previous blog tours, check out Where’s Papa Going With That Axe?, Favorite Settings, and Writing Rituals. At the bottom of this post you’ll find a link to the next participant in today’s tour.

I love puzzles, so it’s not surprising that I love mysteries, too. I lost my heart to Nancy Drew at an early age, and have never gotten it back.

I’m not a fan of gory thrillers or hard-nosed police procedurals. If I want to be depressed, all I need to do is read a newspaper. Fiction should be entertaining. I don’t mind a few dead bodies, as long as they don’t include children or animals. It’s okay if the book makes me cry, but it’s nice to laugh, too. Someone once said that laughing and crying are two sides of the same coin. Ain’t it the truth.

When Janet Evanovich burst onto the literary scene with her phenomenal Stephanie Plum series, a light-hearted, wacky slant on the mystery genre, I danced a little jig. Figuratively speaking, of course, since I don’t actually know how to dance a jig. But her books made me laugh. Lately they’ve grown stale, but all good things come to an end.

Now there are hundreds of ‘light-hearted’ mysteries on the market, mostly featuring women protagonists, some actual detectives, mostly amateur ones. For some reason, a lot of these books also include recipes. There is an entire genre devoted to ‘culinary’ mysteries. They have cutesy titles like ‘Finger Lickin’ Dead’ and ‘Lost and Fondue’.

More and more authors have jumped on the ‘household and hobby’ mystery band wagon, and now we have mysteries featuring sewers, knitters, shoppers, garage sale enthusiasts, professional dog walkers, shoe designers, bed and breakfast owners, antique collectors, you name it.

Imagine my joy at the thought of working my way through these ‘light-hearted’ novels!

Imagine my disappointment that a lot of them weren’t that good.

I didn’t laugh or cry. I didn’t even smile. The titles were the best thing about them. It was downhill from there.

I don’t like to be critical of other authors’ works. It’s hard to write, hard to get published, hard to stay published. There’s a lot to admire about these novels. But as a reader, I need more. Make me laugh, make me cry, make me feel something.

And that’s just it. I don’t feel anything when I read some of these books. Every writer needs to make an emotional connection with the reader. Not all will, but they need to at least try. Does ‘light-hearted’ mean ‘light on the emotion?’ Did I get a recipe for cherry cheesecake at the end of the book as compensation for a boring story and ho-hum characters?

The most emotional points in my life have included laughing and crying. I cried with relief when my daughter was born healthy. I laughed when I saw how long her fingers were. I cried when my mother died. I laughed with my sister when we shared memories of her at the funeral.

Life is a mystery, full of laughter and tears. Writers of ‘light-hearted and fun’ mysteries need to up the stakes. It’s not about just getting to the end to find out ‘who dunnit’. It’s about the roller coaster journey of emotional highs and lows on the way to the end.

Can you recommend a mystery novel that made you cry but mostly laugh? I’d love to hear from you!

Check out the next stop on the blog tour:

Kathleen Kaska http://kathleenkaskawrites.blogspot.com

Tags: funny mysteries, Janet Evanovich, laugh and cry, roller coaster, Stephanie Plum

Comments 6 Comments
Categories Blogs About Writing

Janet Evanovich and a Few Sour Plums

21 Aug

This is the second post of a rolling blog tour on the topic of Mystery Authors Who Inspire Us. To read previous blog tours, check out My Favorite Mystery Movie, The Lure of the Red Herring and Please Don’t Ask Me, among others. At the bottom of this post you’ll find the other participants in today’s tour, and a link to the next article in the series.

It was difficult to decide which mystery author has inspired me the most, since I feel I’ve been influenced by so many – Carolyn Keene (which I realize is a whole bunch of people, but must be included, since the Nancy Drew Mysteries were the reason I fell in love with mystery reading and writing), Jennifer Crusie, Louise Penny and Sue Grafton.

But Janet Evanovich tops the list, since I love her voice, humor and quirkiness. With the Stephanie Plum series she pioneered the funny mystery genre. If there is an author before her who did that, let me know, since I’m not aware of them.

An author walks a fine line when he or she tries to make mysteries funny. What’s funny about cars that blow up, dead bodies, weird family members and getting chased by bad guys? It’s all about perspective. Through her character of Stephanie Plum, Evanovich manages to make all of these events hilarious, if only because Stephanie herself is someone we can relate to and root for. And through her writing voice, Evanovich makes it funny.

Most of all, these stories are pure entertainment, and as a reader, entertainment is key. If I’m in the mood to be educated about the pure misery of the world, I can pick up any city newspaper, thank you very much. With my fiction, I prefer to escape to the land of funny.

Being inspired by another author isn’t necessarily a positive thing. Janet Evanovich has actually inspired me not to do something.

Disappoint my fans (ahem … once I get some).

Janet Evanovich will release number 18 in the Stephanie Plum series in November 2011. Many readers, including me, feel the first half of the series (books 1 – 9) were funny, fabulous reads. Since then, it’s been a steady downhill slide. Books 10 onward feature recycled scenes, flat plots, zero character development, and disappointing love relationships. Not funny. As one former fan points out, “After a while it felt (like) I was reading the same book with a few name changes.”

This is where writing a series gets tricky. How to keep it fresh? How to stay innovative? How to allow your character to complete their journey? Is Evanovich’s editor now her friend, and not her editor? Does her publisher care more about making money than publishing a quality product? (Of course they do. They’re in the business to make money, period. They’ll keep flogging that horse long after it’s dead.) Could Evanovich be accused of selling out her creativity in favor of making a buck, and to hell with her former fans?

I don’t know, so I can’t answer those questions, even though they’re valid. If someone paid me a ton of money to keep churning out mediocre books, maybe I wouldn’t say ‘no’, either.

Is this about sour plums? I hope not. Am I an idiot for even saying this about a famous author when I’m a nobody? Maybe. But I’m also a reader. And I like good books. And it pisses me off that publishers think readers are going to swallow whatever they throw at us if it has ‘a novel by Janet Evanovich’ stamped on the cover. Not to mention charge us $12.99 for an e-book.

I do know one thing. I’ll never write a series. Maybe a triology, but that’s it. For the simple reason that keeping a series fresh and compelling is difficult. I can think of only one author who has done it well – J.K. Rowling. I have yet to find a mystery series that has ended on a high note. Mostly it’s recycled stuff.

I don’t read Janet’s books anymore, and it’s a shame. But I still admire her writing style, and I respect her for paving the way for the funny mystery genre.

To learn about mystery authors who inspire other mystery authors, check out the next stop on the blog tour:

Ryder Islington - http://ryderislington.wordpress.com/

The Subject for Wednesday’s tour is: Favorite Male Mystery Heroes