This is a guest post from D.I. Telbat. In this article, he describes 4 main keys to focus on in your writing that will help your audience to become invested in the characters and the story. When they are invested, they will want to buy more of what you sell, they will want to tell other people about your books, and you will create a fan for life. Writing a quality product is the best way to market your book!
Here are some tips to get started:
Thanks to the Book Marketing Tools team for allowing me to write this guest post. I write Christian action/suspense novels and short stories. To help market my novels, I rely heavily on writing stories with characters that best reflect my readers. Whether in a novel series, a stand-alone book, or a short story, when a reader connects with their type of character, they want more.
To connect with readers, I’ve found it’s less about what happens, and more about who it happens to.
Developing Characters Your Readers Want More Of
Since I like acronyms, here are four S.A.F.E. keys to developing characters your readers will want more of:
S=STRUGGLEWhat do your readers struggle with most? Once you identify your audience and their most common conflict in everyday life, you’re set for connecting with them for life. This struggle may be as general as you wish, to appeal to the broadest number of readers in your genre. The conflict to follow must stem from this common struggle. From there, a good writer will take the reader from the familiar to the frantic. Your fans will never forget the ride!
A=AMBITION
What ambitions do your readers have? They may have many and varied ambitions, but can you identify one or two they all have? Do they all have children they are raising? Are they all seeking a meaningful retirement? What do they want in life? Pin down the ambition of your audience, and then recreate it inside the struggle already defined. A reader who can relate to characters they understand will make an effort to continue reading an author who understands them.
F=FAITH
In what do your readers believe? By developing characters who mirror your readers’ faith, your audience will in turn develop alongside the changing characters they most admire. I’ve found that readers love to grow as they read.
E=ENJOYMENT
Nothing says enjoyment like wit and personality. When we remember that our readers have personality and intelligence, we can more easily anticipate entertaining them. New ideas and fresh situations should be carefully crafted to make your audience laugh, cry, and sigh with pleasure. They’re human just like you and me. Let them live through your characters.
In our pursuit for greater readership, we writers may be tempted to try old sales gimmicks or make empty promises. But the truth is, our writing best sells itself when we develop characters that reflect our audience—with their struggles, their ambitions, and their faith—for the readers’ enjoyment. When we honor our readers this way, we’ll be able to enjoy the author/reader relationship for many stories to come.
D.I. (David) Telbat seeks to honor the Lord with his writing, therefore, the theme in many of his stories is chosen to bring attention to persecuted Christians worldwide. He offers free weekly short stories, or serialized novels, on his website at http://ditelbat.com where you’ll also find a subscription form. Discover David’s Amazon best-selling Christian suspense COIL Series on his site at http://ditelbat.com/coil-series/.