I signed on to St. Martin's Press book promotion program for the sake of study, but lately I've been missing my homework assignments.
What better way to understand what's getting published than by reading the opening of a new release?
At no cost, the opening pages of a brand new novel are placed in my inbox every weekday morning. I can let the snippets accumulate until the weekend, and then sit down with the first twenty-five pages and dissect the paragraphs.
It is not an easy task, especially when the plot or genre isn't my cuppa. There's been wretched chick-lit tripe that's poorly written, and it takes determination to sift through the detritus to get at the hook and the tid-bits of character development that would snag a reader's interest. If I have to read one more story about budding writers in New York City, I may gouge out my eyeballs.
Yes, I know that mysteries and thrillers are the most popular. The fact is, I don't enjoy reading that sort of book and I have no intention of trying to write one. So I'm not doing my studies this week, when St. Martin's Press is touting a thriller.
The thriller usually opens with someone being murdered. That's an easy way to snag the reader. Who done it and why will entice a person to turn the pages.
I'm better off using my time in an examination of other bits of commercial fiction that don't open with blood spilling down the page. So this week, I won't be reading the offering in the inbox.
Wonder what next week will bring? All you have to do is sign up and get down to the difficult task of learning how to write in the way that published writers do.
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