Lewis' Book of Reviews and Writing Advice

Gaining Readers

Today, Ink Jars, I-professor Lewis-will discuss a difficult and rather complex subject. It is a subject that I, myself, struggle with in writing: Writing a book description which will DRAG readers in. It's a true art to get people to read your book without talking literally to them. Remember: you're asking people who don't know you and are looking for their entertainment to read your work! They could stop reading your book at anytime. You need to make it so that (no matter what your story is about) you NEVER make it 'easy' to leave.

The "Description" is basically your only time to talk directly to the audience. Sure, you have author's notes, but I try to keep those to a minimum--except here where I must continue to ask questions and such.

So there are a couple different things which you can do:

1.) Choose the most adventurous and cliff-hanger line from your book. (It could just be a line that describes your work too; a paragraph from it). If you're using this method, write a little after the "line" which might shed a little more light onto what's going to happen. EXAMPLE:  "Death was so sudden, I couldn't possibly have avoided it."

2.) A description of what will happen  within the novel--or the conflict. EXAMPLE:  "Maria Andrews never thought there was anything different from the small prison, in which, she had always lived...she was wrong. What happens to Maria when a bomb blows up the wall of her capture facility? How will she survive in the real world? This story describes her adventure 'out of the prison.'" And then, if you couldn't tell, I added the "out of the prison." line as if I was referencing the title of the book.

3.) Another thing which you can add later is "comments." Get a couple wattys to read your book and have them comment. Take their most encouraging comments and put them at the end of the description. Showing that other people have read the book shows that it's worth a read. Especially comments like: "You held my attention till the very end!" or "I love the style of this story! It's well written!" or "Wow! I had not expected that to happen!!!"

So there are a couple things which you SHOULDN'T do or should watch out for:

1.) Errors and faulty grammar and swear words in your description reflect your over all work.  They can turn people away. As I've stated in earlier chapters. You probably don't want to add all kinds of things like: lol, I went 2 the grocery store 1 dya and gues wa hap, idk, nvm, etc.

2.) Make sure your description sounds relatively original. No one wants to read a story they've read one THOUSAND times.

3.) NEVER give away your biggest plot twist! Or at least, never explain it. You can supply a line from it, but NEVER EVER give it away or the tension in the story it completely lost.

Basically live by this question in all of your writing ever:

1.) Can this be better?

2.) How can I make it better?

And then act on it.

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 I hope this was helpful.

Your faithful writer, Lewis