I think you should write in a style that is natural to you, and according to the needs of the story. Refusing to use bigger words simply for the sake of having small ones is no better than refusing to use small ones simply to have bigger ones. For example, the narrator in Nabokov's Lolita uses large words, foreign words, literary allusions, &c. It's a great book, and also a successful one. The narrator is egotistical, highly-educated academic. It makes sense for Nabokov to write the story this way. And in fact the word play becomes part of the joy of reading the book. On the other hand, if you were writing a hard-boiled detective thriller, using that kind of language probably wouldn't work.
I don't think there is any definitive answer. It seems like everyone is on the right track though. I think that you shouldn't try and write a best selling novel. You should invest in yourself as a novelist/writer first. I think that quantity is a main factor. Sure, quality is a must but I'm not so sure you should blow your load on one book. If you are working on a novel, then keep working on it but also write a bunch of short stories. The quantity aspect will put your name out there a lot faster than one big book. I admit I don't know what I'm talking about. I'm not a best seller. Hell, I'm not a seller at all. I do think your name is very important in the industry. I can make a few examples, but I'll just make the one. If someone like J.K. Rowlings (the harry potter author) writes another book, it will be a best seller no matter what. They can have no review or advertisements about the book and no one will know what it's about, but it will be bought. I think you will automatically get a broader audience by just having more content. A few people mentioned the "luck" aspect as well. It really is a spin of the wheel. If you have more slots on that wheel the better your odds are for you to win.
To me, having no respect for a good enjoyable potboiler novel becuase it's not up to the writing ambitions of literary fiction, is rather like having no respect for a homemade chocolate chip cookie because it's not a... er, I'm going to say a souffle, though I really want something fancier and more difficult than a souffle. There are popular novels that are the equivalent of assembly-line Pepperidge Farm cookies, and those I don't care to read. And there are popular novels that are the equivalent of a warm homemade cookie made by someone who really knows their cookies, and those, I'd be proud to have written. My ambitions don't rise any higher than that, and I'm not under any illusion that I can expect to achieve anything that good. It's possible for assembly-line cookies to make the bestseller lists, but I think that it's usually the really good homemade cookies that open up the trend that others imitate and follow. I wonder, was the _first_ Daniel Brown novel really an assembly-line cookie? ChickenFreak
Sure. But some people would say "You make your own luck" to that. There has got to be more to it than sheer luck... Maybe a certain quality- or literary-achievement level that guarantees some recognition and sales? I'm trying to do my best on all fronts - language, characters, plot, pacing, structure - , as is everyone else I suppose. Luck, luck, luck... I hope I'll have some when I'm done writing and ready to be published.
It's about giving people what they want. Not everyone craves fine art, in any of its guises. That's why Barbara Cartland and Gilly Cooper are so successful, for example. Neither would claim to be any kind of Shakespeare but they are cashing in because there is a market for trashy stories involving men with enormous tackle and dressed in riding gear (so I've heard). It's the same in music. For every Beatles or Led Zep there is a vaccuous boy band selling shed loads of banal drivel to goggly eyed teens and Mums that should know better. People are simple creatures who know what they like, and once they find it, tend to stick with it.
in re 'assembly line cookies' bob ludlum, whose every book was a nearly instant bestseller and most of which were made into big-money-making movies, described his writing to me as 'pancake novels' when he and mary attended a gathering at my home in westport, ct... meaning he turned them out like pancakes, using the formula he'd established for his international thrillers and simply changing the exotic locale and the antagonist... when i asked him if it bothered him at all that they were so formulaic, he said not as long as they made money for him and pleased his readers...
He didn't share the pancakes recipe with you by any chance? Oh well, if he did, I'm sure you'd keep it to yourself
Internet to the rescue: 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon white sugar 1 1/4 cups milk 1 egg 3 tablespoons butter, melted Directions In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk, egg and melted butter; mix until smooth. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.
I doubt people who share the love of writing and the need to tell great stories would be preoccupied with wondering whether or not they're writing a best seller. I can only speak for myself when I say my thoughts are first and foremost on the story. If it sells, that's a bonus. If people respond to it (like it, hate it, are moved by it, want to run me over three times with a bus if they see me out on the street) then so much the better. If it sells only four copies, three of which my mum bought in sympathy for my dream, then that's still good. It's the story rather than the sales... though the cash from becoming a best seller would sure as heck be nice to cut a swathe through my debts... bwahahaha.
I think that the book has to be well written but mainstream enough and easy for regular people to understand. I believe that criminal novels sell very well lately I know thats not what you are writing, also some of our great bestsellers come from the fantasy world so
he didn't have to, tesoro... since i'd read most of his books at that point, the recipe was pretty plain to see... for a world famous literary icon, bob was a nice, sorta humble man who enjoyed his success but didn't flaunt it... in person, he and his wife mary were simply a friendly, clearly happily married middle-aged couple [who happened to be worth more than most of the other folks in my 'great room' all put together!]...
Why would you worry about it being a bestseller BEFORE you've finished the novel? If one person sets out to write an average book and another sets out to write a bestseller, there is nothing to suggest that the latter would fare any better in the real world. Just write, and if you like the finished product and you're satisfied that you can't do any better, then you don't need any more than that. =]
I like to think that aiming for a "Bestseller" is basically the same thing as "aiming high" before any kind of competition, just like athletes aim high when they are training for a major sports event like the olympics, or some other important regional or international competition. You go out of your way to keep the quality of the writing, plot, characters, dialogue and other things high, high, high, so that if the book does become a bestseller (or goodseller, wellseller, decentseller, whatever you want to call it), it doesn't wind up being an embarassment.
Bestseller has almost nothing to do with quality. It's like planning to be a rock star or a Vegas whale.
You might check out John Locke's book "How I sold 1 million ebooks in five months." Even if you are not striving towards an ebook there should be some helpful tips on the self-promotion and marketing aspects that every writer has to do in order to sell copies.
7:30 am, Sandymay and Dukedog just came in from a night out hunting. They go out every night about midnight and stay out till morning, come home, eat and sleep all day. About mid November I will start going out with them and I have been trying to get my work done around here so nothing interferes with that, and saving up money for lots of beer. I was working on my book last night till about 3:00 am, {4 1/2 hours ago} putting the chapters in order and copying and pasting big blocks of text. And noticed that I have only three chapters of hunting stories. Enough for some chick from New York, and enough to show how I was able to sense the trap the cops had set for me. But this is the only book I will ever write. And after all it is my book, so I can always use more hunting stories. I was invited over to my best friends house for dinner the other night and it was the finest burger and fries I ever remember having. {Old Don doesn't shop at Walmart} and I was talking to his wife Jill about how I have over 1,000 books in my library. but of these the only fiction is Edgar Rice Burroughs. Burroughs had a great imagination and but for him, I consider fiction to be 'made up bull sxxx', and don't like fiction as there is so much non-fiction I will never have time to read in my life. I told Jill that all the books on the New York Times Best seller list are fiction and are all written by women. Made up B.S. written by women with no action, no adventure, no one gets killed, beat up, shot or stabbed. Nothing happens unless someone gets bitxxxx at, but just a whole book of nothing but a bunch of talking heads. Jill said she reads fiction and nothing else. And since women buy 90% of all the new books, I told her besides the book and the screen play {which helps me write the book better} I should write a fiction version too. I am about done with the book but for the trial chapter where 5 cops are tried for conspiracy to murder me. And I can't write the trial chapter till they have the trial, as this isn't fiction. The screen play is just to help me visualize better ways to write the book, as I don't think the book is movie material. But a fiction version is a different way of seeing the story like the screen play is and it may also help me visualize the book better and since women buy 90% of the books anyway a fiction version may sell better than the non-fiction version. Same book and I wouldn't change a word except to change the names of the towns and the people and call it fiction. Well, I could have more of a free hand in the story telling... "They all left last night, the whole town. 38,000 white trash and nxxxxx took their chickens, pigs and dogs and just left.They heard Jack was coming and that he was mad at them and just left, the whole town, even the police department, they didn't even shut their doors." Yeah, fiction, I can dig it. Thank you... Jack the Knife
