Getting Your New Novel Noticed. The Key Elements.

Forgive the pretentious heading. I cringed when I saw it appear on the blog. When I wrote this piece I’d intended it to be an exercise in thinking aloud; my own personal conclusions about the crucial elements that make a book stand out from the crowd. I’ve given the subject a great deal of thought, but forgive me if it looks like I’m setting myself up as any kind of authority on ‘writing.’ I was told recently I break ‘all the rules of writing.’ Hell, there are rules? I’ve never been much for obeying rules.

This isn’t about ‘rules.’ It’s intended as thoughts about what works, what doesn’t, when offering a book to a potential reader. The end consumer as the person who chided me for breaking the accepted conventions of novel writing would probably say!

Here goes. Remember, I break the rules. I know nothing. Just my ramblings on the subject of pitches.

Disclaimer: Written at 04.30. Draw your own conclusions. This is known as ‘getting your excuses in early’ to forestall criticism. I’ve had a bad week as the piece I wrote about my unsuitability for entering NaNoWriMo brought me the most followers in single day in the life of this blog. It also ensured the undying enmity  of legions of NaNoWriMo fans. Oh well, omelettes and eggs.

The pitch, the blurb, call it what you will; it’s the key to getting your book noticed. It’s what everyone looks at in a book shop when looking to buy a book. The back cover, inside the front page, the position may vary, but the tiny piece of information telling us what the book’s about, what to expect, is often all we have, all we need, to make a decision: buy the book or move on, look elsewhere. A browser amongst the fare on offer at Amazon has seemingly endless choice, but the same principle applies. It’s the author’s opportunity to sell themselves to a prospective reader. To say, ‘buy me. Not the others, buy me’ to a browsing potential purchaser.

The book should be edited to within an inch of its life by this stage. Every error removed, every typo spotted and rectified. Even the books where an army of proofreaders check every word, every line, aren’t immune to mistakes creeping in – I spotted five errors in a John Grisham novel, elementary mistakes, recently – but the smaller publisher or Indie writer has to be certain the book is as good as it can be when it reaches publication stage. Yes, fine, but all this effort counts for nothing if nobody ever gets to read the book. That’s where the pitch, the blurb, the sales pitch, comes into its own.

My first book, ‘Burn, Baby, Burn’ reached the Amazon Top Ten this year despite having no publicity department to support it and an author without a clue about marketing – a situation which persists to this day. When hundreds of people a day are buying a book by an unknown writer, there has to be a reason. In my case, it was the pitch. I’d already decided I would write a ‘commercial’ book, but I had to ensure those browsers didn’t just glance at it and move on to authors they already knew. Here’s the ‘attention-getting’ passage from the pitch for ‘Burn, Baby, Burn’.

Marcus was special. He’d always known it. Even at the age of six when he’d decided to kill his father. His privileged background should have produced a doctor, an academic, perhaps a diplomat. Instead, he killed people for fun.

See, it works, doesn’t it? It focuses on the villain as he’s the one character readers will always remember in this genre. It says, ‘this is me. I’m interesting. Read about me.’ Or I hope it does as that was my intention. The sales figures of the book suggest I got it right.

With my next book the difficult ‘second album syndrome’ effect kicks in. How to ensure keeping the readers who’ve bought the first book, gain new readers and not fall back into the pack? It’s more difficult than it may appear. I spent a great deal of time in planning the next pitch, aware of its importance, and then, out of the blue, wrote it on a scruffy piece of paper on a train journey. I wrote it, knew at once it would work. Here’s the pitch to ‘Blood.’

Young people are dying. Accidents will happen. But, what if they’re not accidents?

Eighteen men, twenty-two women, fifteen children, sixty-two dogs, thirty-nine cats and hundreds of other even lesser creatures; he’d killed them all and could remember every one. A few had been necessary, but most had been purely for enjoyment. The greatest pleasure had been his parents and his baby sister; in their final moments, he’d loved them most of all.

The shock tactic is a deliberate ploy, aimed at the potential reader, making them aware of the nature of this un-named character, making them want to find out more. Intrigue: that’s the key. Trying to engender a ‘wonder what this is about?’ thought process in the browsing reader’s mind.

I just posted the opening chapters of a new novel on Authonomy, the writer’s site under the auspices of Harper Collins. The new novel is very much a work in progress. It may or may not get as far as completion. It’s a project, one of several. I like this one. It may go all the way. I’m not sure about the title yet, the plot isn’t even remotely formed and it consists of a meagre five chapters, just under 11,000 words, so far. A baby, nothing more. Even now, in its embryonic stage, I’m thinking ahead. Thinking about the pitch. I wrote the pitch in five minutes, maybe less, and again I don’t mention the character’s name. There’s a very good reason for that – I haven’t thought of one that exactly ‘fits’ the character yet. A pretty good reason, you’ll agree. I may keep the device of having an un-named main character, this being a first-person narrative in the main.

Here’s the pitch to ‘Not Responsible.’ Title subject to change at a later stage. The quotation in the second paragraph is the exact wording of the description applied in the UK prison system to a Category A prisoner deemed likely to attempt escape. I research the details, but the opening paragraph is the one I want a browsing reader to remember.

‘I like killing people. That’s something none of them understand. Especially the doctors. They want to find a reason for my behaviour. I keep telling them there’s only one reason: killing people is fun.’

A man born to fight, born to kill and with the blood of battle in his veins is ‘a prisoner whose escape would make him a danger to the police, the public at large and the Government.’ If he ever gets out…

When he gains his freedom, it’s with a purpose in mind. There are men out there with good reason to fear him. He’s the man with no name. A man officially classified as  not responsible for his actions. Just the way he likes it.

Early days for this project, but I’m preparing even now for the day it becomes a fully formed novel. Getting the pitch right. Along with the title and the cover it’s part of the Holy Trinity of publishing a novel. I’ve not yet come up with a title, far less a cover, but the crucial element – the pitch – is in place. So far, so good.