The Invasion of the Free Books

As you know I am accepting books for reviews. But because most of the time I receive romance which I don’t read, I have developed a habit of downloading free books from Amazon and reviewing them. And you know what? At the moment I have nearly 100 free books in my kindle. And don’t forget that I stay away from anything with elements of romance; otherwise the number would be 1000 instead of just a hundred.

This is really crazy. The free books are attacking!

There are so many books out there that the writers keep offering their babies for free, hoping to hook the reader. I have not one, but two free books. And with this free book invasion I can’t believe how lucky I am for still selling books.

It seems that almost every first book in a series is offered free. Sometimes the sequels are put on a free promo as well. With so many free books being offered every single day many readers abandon books after the first few pages or chapters. I know I’m guilty of that. There was a time when I’d finish the book no matter how tedious it was. But there are so many books on my Kindle now, that I am committing an nonredeemable sin every once in a while. If the book doesn’t capture my interest after the 10-20% point, I’m prone to not finishing it.
This made me realize once again how hard an indie author’s life is. Our books can only dream about the marketing and promotion that traditionally published books get. And if you’re an awisl, then you almost have no chance. 

The only way to sell books today is… No, not giving it away for free, not writing as many books as possible in the shortest period of time, not cajoling and begging for reviews.

You need to hook your reader. You have just 5-10 pages to hook the reader. Start your story as soon as possible. Leave out the introductory parts. Throw away as many adjectives and adverbs as possible. It will make your story develop twice faster. No scenery descriptions. No descriptions of eye color or hair color. No purple prose. Tell the story. And be quick. Show the problem, then let your heroes search for the solution.

And one more advice. Be short. This might be arguable, so let’s say that it’s a personal thing. I advise you to make your first book short. But not novella short. The perfect length would be 200-250 print pages (50.000-70.000 words). My personal experience as a reader and reviewer is this: when I am offered a long book (300+ pages) from a newbie author, I am hesitant to accept it. I’d rather have a shorter book that will introduce me to the author’s writing style, story structuring and developing abilities, vocabulary; and if I like it all, I’ll happily purchase the rest of the books. Bombarding a reader with a monster of a book is not a very good idea. Newbie indie authors lack experience and often fill their books with unnecessary verbiage. Surely not always. There are some outstanding debuts, and many of them are pretty long. But the general opinion is that newbie indies aren’t very good. To dispel this belief, we need to give the readers what they want: a good story, without dragging it across the pages and boring our audience.

He said, She said

If you have read my review for Key Lime Die, then you know this post is about what not to do when writing a book. This is just my opinion, not a testament to good writing. The book was filled with an immense amount of telling instead of showing. 

But what irked me the most was how the characters were mentioned. In order to avoid using the protagonists’ names all the time the author used terms like "independent young woman,” “her practical daughter,” “the flabbergasted owner,” “her uber-responsible daughter,” “the beleaguered pie shop owner,” “the ill-mannered teen,” “the weary shop owner,” “the irate woman,” “the beyond-tired woman,” “the young woman,” “her well-intentioned offspring.” And the book was really short, so these substitutes were on every page. 

This wasn't just amateurish, this was irritating. It would be much better to use the names of the characters instead of searching for all types of substitutes. And the author wouldn’t have to worry about mentioning the characters’ names too often if she avoided using “he said, she said” all the time. 

Here’s an important tip to newbies: When there are two people talking you don't have to use the "he said, she said" all the time. You can rely on the reader's memory instead of reminding us who's in the scene. This book was filled with phrases like "Marilyn whispered," "Tiara suggested," "Marilyn sounded shocked," "Tiara thought aloud," “she sighed dramatically,” “the detective shook his head dismissively,” “her mother asked,” “she pleaded,” “she implored,” “she said, relieved that he had taken the call,” “she asked, a note of doubt creeping into her voice,” “her daughter replied, waiting for her mother,” “her daughter protested,” “Tiara demanded,” “she insisted, crossing her arms,” “he instructed, his gaze grim,” “she muttered, frustrated to no end,” “Tiara praised her mother,” “Tiara said, her voice filled with hope and optimism.”

There wasn't an instance where the reader wasn't told who was speaking. This is unnecessary. If there are just two people in the scene, don't tell your reader who whispered and who sighed every single time. And no need to tell them how each and every character felt when they said or thought something. Try to show your reader how your characters are feeling, not tell them that they are sad or full of hope or tired or panicking. Or else the irritated reader will have to abandon your book and look for a better author.

POV Switches

One of the most frequent mistakes newbie writers make is switching the POV (POV = point of view). 

They tend to start the scene from the point of view of one character, then suddenly switch to another character, then switch back, and forth, and so on and on. 

Example: 

Gary snatched his mobile and dialed Alex. It couldn’t be true, he was certain, yet he needed to hear it from Alexander, his friend of forty years. It’s not him, he was thinking, counting the seconds. It’s not him.

But as he heard Alex’s hoarse “Yes,” Gary hung up the phone. 

Alexander stared at the screen of his cell phone. It was Gary calling. 

Has anything happened? he wondered, hitting Gary’s number on the quick dial. After almost a minute he had to disconnect. Gary didn’t answer. Staring at the screen of his phone with Alexander’s name flashing across it, he was shaking with anger, with despair and fear. 

Why, Alex? he thought. Why?

We are with Gary in the beginning; we know what’s going on in his head; we see he has a problem. Then we switch to Alex, who is confused and wants to reach Gary on the phone. Then we go back to Gary again. I can assume that in a second we’ll be back with Alex. While a POV switch is not a big crime, it irks the reader. You only need to take a look at negative reviews to see that most of the time they refer to bad editing, silly storyline, or POV switches. Today’s reader wants to stick with one character throughout one scene. It’s alright to tell the story using the POV of different characters, but they will need their separate chapters.

However, you should not confuse limited POV with unlimited POV. The first is when the story is told from just one character’s POV. This can be done with first person narrative (I woke up to the warbling of nightingales. Was it possible? I went to bed in winter, but I sensed spring behind my window. How sweet, I thought. How fortunate.). Or with third person narrative (She was alone again, abandoned and friendless, her stomach a pit of emptiness, ready to consume anything edible or not. I am still alive, she thought. That’s what counts.).

Unlimited POV is when the narrative is not limited to one character: Rose was tired, but Kyle kept walking. Her legs were weary; his hadn’t lost half the strength. She was on the verge of crying, but he was determined to reach the base before the sunset. He couldn’t otherwise. Staying outside was perilous. Rose knew that too, but her body didn’t care. It needed rest.

This chapter has unlimited POV, meaning that we see what’s happening to Rose and Kyle at the same time, what they are thinking about, what they want. This is a dangerous route for newbie authors. And we reach an important question here:

Which POV to choose?

I advise the newbie authors to stick to limited POVs. It can be first person narrative or third person narrative, but let the POV be limited, i.e. we see the story through the eyes of one character at a time. If it’s a first POV narrative, then we will be in that character’s head throughout the whole book. But with a third person narrative you can let us see the story through the eyes of more than one character, at the same time you won’t make the mistake of abruptly switching the POVs, which irritates so many readers.

Also, limited POV lets you avoid very short explanatory chapters, when you take us into a secondary character’s head, because you need to clarify things for your reader. But because the character is secondary, you don’t have much to tell your reader and the chapter ends up short and awkward. This might be a bit challenging, as you’ll need to make the things clear through your one or two major characters, but it’s worth it, because your story will be solid, clear, and tidy.