With the Indispensable Lottie Hot entering the production/distribution phase and an official release date not until March 2027, I'm going to veer away from the nuts and bolts of book production in this blog to my thoughts about why I write the way I do.
And how I go about my writing all wrong!
First, a little history. For nearly 40 years my day job involved writing marketing prose for several insurance and investment companies. Over time, I got quite good at it. I made a decent income that helped provide a comfortable lifestyle for my family.
I learned that writing copy that sells boils down to a fundamental understanding of what truly matters when trying to get strangers to reach for their checkbooks.
A good marketing writer understands how to get inside her customer's head--specifically which emotional triggers to pull that will inspire someone to trust your product. Heres the secret: No matter what you're trying to sell, it all comes down to how your product makes your customer feel!
That was my approach when I was selling mutual funds. It wasn't necessarily about a fund's track record, or management team, or even its cost. My focus was how a fund addressed the human need for security in an uncertain world. I answered questions like how the fund may help provide a secure retirement, enable a family to afford a better place to live, or help parents feel confident that they're providing for their child's future. That kind of stuff.
So, what does that have to do with writing fiction? Simple. As novelists, we're advised to write with a specific audience in mind if we hope to have any success in the marketplace.
For example, if you write books that will appeal to readers of romance novels, you must understand that this genre uses specific plotting and character tropes that must be followed in detail. Otherwise, you'll disappoint your readers' emotional expectations and lose them (and your publisher) forever. The same goes for writers of science fiction, mysteries, fantasies, and other popular genres.
There are scores of writers who are true to their genres and have been rewarded with large enthusiastic followings and lucrative book contracts, movie rights, and appearances on light night TV. They're successful because they intimately understand their audience and how to move them within the rigid confines of their genre. In other words, they're savvy marketers.
Bless them!
However, despite knowing all this as a long-time marketing professional, I don't do any of those things with my fiction. In fact, I don't really care what the audience wants!
I'll explain why next week in Part 2 of this post.
Meanwhile, check out my website.