Week 9 – The Recovery Agent by Janet Evanovich

Last year on Mondays we had fun with books. This year, we'll look at most of the same books but also some new ones, and see if the first line [or first paragraph] met the goal of a first line which is ==> to hook the reader's attention.

Here are some tips on writing a first line

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/tips-for-writing-the-opening-line-of-your-novel

Week 9 – The Recovery Agent by Janet Evanovich

https://evanovich.com/the-recovery-agent/

First published: March 22, 2022

Here's what the story is about: Gabriela Rose is a recovery agent, hired to find lost treasures, stolen heirlooms, or missing assets. She journeys to the jungles of Peru in pursuit of the Ring of Solomon and the lost treasure of Lima. Unfortunately, her ex-husband Rafer has the map, and he’s not about to let Gabriela find the treasure without him.

First line/paragraph:
Gabriela Rose was standing in a small clearing that led to a rope-and-board footbridge. The narrow bridge spanned a gorge that was a hundred feet deep and almost as wide. Rapids roared over enormous boulders at the bottom of the gorge, but Gabriela couldn’t see the river because it was raining buckets and visibility was limited. 

This story starts “in media res” by introducing the main character and setting. Assuming you read the back copy so you had some idea of what the story was about, you now know by this first paragraph that Gabriela Rose is on an adventure and she isn't afraid of much. At first it seems like third person POV, but there are some details about the bottom of the gorge that are described but then it says Gabriela couldn't see the river. I'm not sure the details would be known just by sound, so it might be omniscient POV. But I can definitely picture the setting, and even if the author took some liberties with third person POV, it isn't a distraction, at least not to me.

When I first started as a writer, I was told to never use the “was ___ing” construction without it being a conscious decision. Just use the verb. Here we find it in the first sentence, which my brain auto-corrected to “stood”. But Janet Evanovich can pretty much write anything she wants and people will buy it anyway.

Does this first line/paragraph hook your attention? If you had never heard of this story, would you buy this story in 2024? Knowing the story, would you change the first line? Tell us in the comments!

From the Archives - Dear O'Abby: Can I writer reviews if I'm an aspiring author?

 Dear O’Abby, 

I’ve been getting conflicting advice about whether or not to review books as an aspiring author. Some people tell me I shouldn’t do it because if I give a bad review to a book represented by a publisher or agent I might wish to query, they may have already put a black mark by my name. Others say I should write reviews because it helps to identify things wrong with stories and writing that I can then apply to my own work. 

Do you have an opinion on this? 

Best, 

Confused 


Dear Confused, 

I’ve heard that story about why writers shouldn’t write reviews too, but I’ve never taken it too seriously. Agents and publishers should be mature enough to understand that not every book is going to appeal to every reader and that well-written reviews can be valuable to the author even if they aren’t 100% positive. 

As a writer, it’s important to read critically and reviewing books is one way to force yourself to do so. If you like a book, reviewing it will help you figure out why you enjoyed it. Was it the story? The characters? The way the words are strung together? 

And if you didn’t like the book, what was it you didn’t like? Did you feel the characters acted inconsistently? Was the writing pedestrian? Did the plot fall flat? 

By identifying what you do and don’t like about the books you read, you will find yourself growing more critical of your own writing and you may save yourself a lot of grief by fixing issues long before you send the manuscript off to agents or publishers. 

If being blacklisted by agents or publishers for writing negative reviews is a real concern, there are a number of ways you can get around it. 

Firstly, only publish reviews of things you like. Write the negative ones because they’re often more helpful to you as a writer than the positive ones, but don’t publish them. I did this for a while, calling the review section on my blog ‘books I’ve loved’ and only reviewing things I really liked. I ended up stopping this though, because there just weren’t enough books I loved to write a positive review every week. 

Another way to get around it is to review under a pseudonym or write under a pen name so your reviews aren’t linked to your author name. 

The key thing to remember when writing reviews is to be constructive. Don’t just pile on with a negative rant. Nothing is 100% bad, so even a negative review can mention a few positives to balance out the negativity. Personally, I like to start with something I liked and finish with another thing I liked with all the critique in the middle. Always read what you have written before you publish and think about how it would make you feel if this review was for your own book. 

I would also suggest you don’t tag the author when you publish the review. Not all writers like to read their reviews and if they accidentally click onto a link in a tweet or something and find themselves confronted with a negative review, it could be very upsetting for them. 

So that’s my opinion on whether writers should write reviews. I know other people have different opinions, but if you want to write reviews and if you find the process helps your own writing, why not? 

If you want more information about this topic, Operation Awesome's J Lenni  Dorner has written a very helpful book, Writing Book Reviews As An Author which gives much more in-depth guidance about how to effectively review books as an author. Some of the advice in there may contradict my own, but it's still a valuable resource, even if you are not a writer and want to write reviews.

Happy reviewing!

X O’Abby

Week 8 – The Martian by Andy Weir

Last year on Mondays we had fun with books. This year, we'll look at most of the same books but also some new ones, and see if the first line [or first paragraph] met the goal of a first line which is ==> to hook the reader's attention.

Here are some tips on writing a first line

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/tips-for-writing-the-opening-line-of-your-novel

Week 8 – The Martian by Andy Weir

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Martian_(Weir_novel)

First published: October 28, 2014

Here's what the story is about: Mark Watney is a botanist accompanying the crew of NASA’s Ares 3 to Mars for a one-month scientific mission. On Sol 6 (Martian day 6), a severe wind storm blows Watney out of sight and threatens to blow over the landing craft, which would strand the crew on Mars. The remaining crew leave Watney behind, believing him dead, before they can be stranded. But Watney survived and must learn how to stay alive while NASA figures out how to get him back to Earth. 

First line/paragraph:
I'm pretty much fucked.
That's my considered opinion.
Fucked.
Six days into what should be the greatest month of my life, and it's turned into a nightmare.

This story starts in first person POV and we already know a lot about this character. He has colorful language [2 f-bombs in the first 10 words!], but he's also educated [the phrase “considered opinion”], which makes him interesting. This was supposed to be the pinnacle of his life, but now he's in big trouble. The next few lines/paragraphs give an introduction of who he is, where he is, and why he's there. The story definitely starts “in media res”, then slips a little into backstory including the inciting incident which has already happened by the time the story starts. I definitely think this works at a first line/paragraph. I'm willing to follow this person for almost 400 pages and find out if/how he gets out of his predicament. Of course, so were millions of other readers since this book was also made into a movie.

Does this first line/paragraph hook your attention? If you had never heard of this story, would you buy this story in 2024? Knowing the story, would you change the first line? Tell us in the comments!

Dear O'Abby: Why is book marketing so hard?

 Dear O'Abby,

I'm an author with a few books out, but none of them seem to sell much.  I've experimented with various ways of marketing my books, but none of them have been very successful and I've ended up spending more on marketing than I've got back in sales.  Which is not sustainable.

Why is this so hard?

Kind regards,

Sales-less

Dear Sales-less,

Book marketing is hard.  People don't want or expect to pay a whole lot for a book (especially an ebook), so the cost of marketing a book often can't be built into the price.  Usually you'd expect around 10% of the cost of a product to be put aside for marketing; with a .99c ebook, that 10% isn't worth much.

We're also working in a very crowded market.  Millions of new books are published every year, and these new books have to compete with all the billions of books that already exist in the world too.  It takes a lot to be heard in all that noise.

Then there's the fact that most people only read 4-10 books a year.  If you read 100+ books a year, you're more likely to be willing to take risk on something new and different and unknown.  If you only read five, you're likely to be more selective and to ensure the book you invest time and money into is something you'll enjoy.  These readers tend to return to authors they know and love, read series, and make decisions on what to read based on reviews, public opinion and from having seen the book advertised to them several times across different platforms.

All of this makes selling a book as a new author very difficult. In my opinion, the most important thing to do is to generate positive reviews. Without a significant number of four and five star reviews on Amazon, your book is basically invisible to the majority of readers.  And yes, I agree that sucks, but unfortunately, that's the reality we live in.  Any marketing you do needs to drive people who read your book to leave reviews so your book becomes more visible.

You also need to build fans, the people who will eagerly anticipate your next book, and purchase it without much thought just because they have enjoyed your previous books.  It's very hard to earn much with a single book in your catalogue.  There's a reason so many authors write series...

So, yeah...  That's why book marketing is so hard.

X O'Abby

Week 7 – The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

Last year on Mondays we had fun with books. This year, we'll look at most of the same books but also some new ones, and see if the first line [or first paragraph] met the goal of a first line which is ==> to hook the reader's attention.

Here are some tips on writing a first line

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/tips-for-writing-the-opening-line-of-your-novel

Week 7 – The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/1257/1257-h/1257-h.htm

First published: March through July 1844 as a serial novel in a Parisian newspaper

Here's what the story is about: A historical novel set in France in 1625-1628. It recounts the adventures of d'Artagnan (a character based on Charles de Batz-Castelmore d'Artagnan) when he travels to Paris, hoping to join the Musketeers. He is befriended by Athos, Porthos, and Aramis [the three musketeers] and joins them in various adventures.

First line/paragraph:
On the first Monday of the month of April, 1625, the market town of Meung, in which the author of Romance of the Rose was born, appeared to be in as perfect a state of revolution as if the Huguenots had just made a second La Rochelle of it. Many citizens, seeing the women flying toward the High Street, leaving their children crying at the open doors, hastened to don the cuirass, and supporting their somewhat uncertain courage with a musket or a partisan, directed their steps toward the hostelry of the Jolly Miller, before which was gathered, increasing every minute, a compact group, vociferous and full of curiosity.

This story starts with introduction of the setting [time and place], and describes the place as “in a perfect state of revolution”, which also begins the plot. There are several historical details which presumably would have been known by the readers. We also have the POV [omniscient]. Based on this information, we can form a preliminary guess of what will happen in the story, but we don't know any of the characters or what they may be like. The story starts more “in media res” than many stories of the time.

The second paragraph gives more historical information about the referenced revolution. It's not until the third paragraph that we are introduced to the main character, D’Artagnan, who is compared to Don Quixote.

Does this first line/paragraph hook your attention? If you had never heard of this story, would you buy this story in 2024? Knowing the story, would you change the first line? Tell us in the comments!

Dear O'Abby: How long should I wait?

 Dear O'Abby,

I'm querying at the moment and I'm wondering how long I should wait before trying to rewrite my query.  I have done a ton of work on it with a professional editor, with other writers and submitted it for substantial feedback from agents in contests etc prior to starting querying.  I feel like it's really good now and truly captures the essence of my book.

But I have had six rejections already, from the first 12 queries I sent out, so now I'm wondering if the query really is as good as I think it is.  How many rejections should I get before I need to start thinking about re-writing my query?

Regards,

Rejected

Dear Rejected,

It sounds like you are very early on in the querying journey, so don't get discouraged.  I know it's hard to put your hard work out there and to get faced with nothing but rejection, but unfortunately, it's part of the business.  With only 12 queries out, I don't think you need to worry about changing the query yet. Especially since not all of these first batch have responded yet. 

It sounds like you've done a lot of work on the query, so maybe it's not the query that's not working.  Writers often get so wrapped up in creating the perfect query that they forget they need a near-perfect book to go with it.  Make sure your sample pages are as shiny as the query - and not just the first 5-10 pages.  Some agents ask for more than that and if your writing peters out after the first 10 pages, that could be the problem.

But basically, publishing is a tough industry and even if you have the most perfect query and a fantastic book, you will get rejections.  Agents and publishers often have something very specific they are looking for and if your book doesn't fall into that niche, they're going to pass. Taking on new authors is a lot of work, and unless they're confident your book is going to sell, they're going to pass.

So don't take it to heart.  Keep sending out those queries.

X O'Abby

 

Suzanna's Writing and Reading Goals for 2024: January Update

 

(Image source)

It's time to reflect on the first month of 2024! How did I do?

Here are my writing goals for 2024:

1. Write 50,000 words in 30 days as part of a NaNo project (Camp in April, Camp in July, or NaNo in November).
2. Write at least one children's book.
3. Write at least one new short story.
4. Edit at least one short story from my undergrad days.
5. Write at least twelve poems.
6. Put together a poetry collection.
7. Work on the draft of the graphic novel.
8. Take a course on publishing.
1. The 6 week course starts in February, and it will be exciting to think about writing and publishing in a new way. I am looking forward to learning so much.

Of course as a writer, I also need to read. I read 25 books in January. Only 225 to hit my goal, which is about 4.5 books a week.

1. Read 12 literary magazines. (0/12)
1. (selected one but haven't finished)
2. Read 12 novels. (15/12)
1. Inner Demons by Sarra Cannon
2. Popcorn and Poltergeists by Nancy Warren
3. Bitter Demons by Sarra Cannon
4. Shadow Demons by Sarra Cannon
5. Red Rising by Pierce Brown
6. Golden Son by Pierce Brown
7. Garters and Gargoyles by Nancy Warren
8. Morning Star by Pierce Brown
9. Diamonds and Daggers by Nancy Warren
10. Ribbing and Runes by Nancy Warren
11. Herringbones and Hexes by Nancy Warren
12. Mosaics and Magic by Nancy Warren
13. Tangles and Treason by Nancy Warren
14. Iron Gold by Pierce Brown
15. Cat's Paws and Curses by Nancy Warren
3. Read 12 short story collections. (0/12)
1. (selected one but haven't finished)
4. Read 12 poetry collections. (0/12)
1. (selected one but haven't finished)
5. Read 12 graphic novels. (2/12)
1. Heartstopper: Volume Two by Alice Oseman
2. Heartstopper: Volume Three by Alice Oseman
6. Read 12 children's books. (1/12)
1. The Book of Mistakes by Corinna Luyken
7. Read lots of books (nonfiction, fiber, etc). (7/12)
1. Weaving Big on a Little Loom by Fiona Daly
2. A Handbook of Weaves by Gustaf Hermann Oelsner
3. Pattern Weaving by Rabbit Goody
4. Polysecure by Jessica Fern
5. The Art of War by Sun Tzu
6. The Gift by Edith Eger
7. The Polysecure Workbook by Jessica Fern
8. Participate in every Kindle Reading Challenge this year and get at least 90% of the badges.
1. I am on target with 8 achievements so far.  

What are some of your writing and reading goals for 2024? How did January go for you?

Week 6 – And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Last year on Mondays we had fun with books. This year, we'll look at most of the same books but also some new ones, and see if the first line [or first paragraph] met the goal of a first line which is ==> to hook the reader's attention.

Here are some tips on writing a first line

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/tips-for-writing-the-opening-line-of-your-novel

Week 6 – And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

https://www.agathachristie.com/stories/and-then-there-were-none

First published: November 6, 1939

Here's what the story is about: Eight people are invited to a small, isolated island off the coast of England. A framed copy of the rhyme Ten Little Indians hangs in every guest's room, and ten figurines sit on the dining table. After dinner, a recording accuses each visitor, along with the butler and the housekeeper, of having committed murder. Then, following the lines of the rhyme, the guests are killed one by one until none remain.

First line/paragraph: In the corner of a first-class smoking carriage, Mr. Justice Wargrave, lately retired from the bench, puffed at a cigar and ran an interested eye through the political news in the Times.

This story starts with introduction of one character, a retired judge. He's on a train smoking and reading the political section of the newspaper. We also have the POV [third person or omniscient]. Based on this information, we can form a preliminary opinion of who this character is, and we probably wonder where he's traveling to. The story starts “in media res”, unlike many stories of the time.

Does this first line/paragraph hook your attention? If you had never heard of this story, would you buy this story in 2024? Knowing the story, would you change the first line? Tell us in the comments!

Dear O'Abby: Am I being ghosted?

 Dear O'Abby,

My agent has had my book out on submission and it's been a while now.  We got a couple of pretty swift rejections, which kind of sucked, but at least I knew where I stood with those editors.  A couple of others have told my agent that they're behind on their reading and they will be getting to it soon.  So at least I know that I haven't been forgotten.

The last couple of editors have been eerily silent.  My agent has followed up with them a couple of times, but has received no response.  Do editors sometimes just not respond?  Ever?  Am I freaking out for no good reason here?

Sincerely,

Ghosted

Dear Ghosted,

Unfortunately, this does occasionally happen.  It may not be malicious or intentional, but sometimes editors get so behind on their reading, it becomes embarrassing for them to admit.  Or some major life event may have derailed things and they're struggling to get back on track.

Whatever the reason, if this lack of response becomes a regular thing, agents will notice and stop sending stuff to that editor.  This is the kind of inside knowledge an agent has that you don't have if you're subbing to publishers on your own.  Obviously, if your agent subbed to these editors, she thinks your book is a good fit with them and she has a good relationship with them.  Have you raised your concerns about the length of time it is taking with her?

Maybe she knows these editors are often slow to respond, but she's willing to wait because she believes they are the best fit for your book.  Or maybe they have always been responsive in the past, and this behaviour is out of character.  Whatever the situation, be certain your agent is taking note and, while I know it doesn't help you, if they are serial non-responders, agents will stop subbing to them.

I hope this helps.

X O'Abby