Anyone Can Bait a Hook

But it takes a fisherman to catch a fish.

Writing a novel or non-fiction title requires a bit of psychology if you want to catch a reader.

I think it is easy to believe that you can pen a novel, put it on Amazon for millions of readers and think you won’t miss one. Like I said, anyone can bait a hook.

Readers are like fish and right now, it is a reader’s world. There is no shortage of books out there just waiting to be read. With that much bait floating around, reader’s can afford to be picky.

As an author, you will have to be clever if you want to offer the right bait to the right readers for your novel. Otherwise, your title will float around in the water until it falls off the hook and floats to the bottom. Forgotten.

When I took a non-fiction writing class, one exercise included imagining what your reader looks like. Imagine them perusing the web or cruising through the bookstore. How will you snag their attention?

Knowing what your reader looks like will help with the plot, the book-cover, and the marketing. If you design a plot that would attract two different styles of reader from opposite sides of the personality-spectrum, your book will hang in the balance.

Here is an example – The novel you wrote is psychological fiction with a real gory bent. Your characters are complex and the plot is like a puzzle the reader will have to put together. . .then you add green slime coming out of the walls and when the characters go outside, they burst into flames or explode with their entrails flying everywhere.

Think about my example and imagine which kind of reader your book will attract. The thought I wanted to convey-your reader will be split in two – one loves the mystery and psychological complexities but what does green slime and exploding bodies have to do with it? That reader moves on. On the other hand, someone who loves reading about mysterious happenings creating a world where we have to start over – they will love the atmosphere blowing up humans and how they survive. The psychological puzzles may turn that reader off.

There will always be a few readers who will like both ends of the spectrum in my example but that is the point. A few. Sales for a few will not sustain you and it might not be a real motivator for a second novel.

Writing for fish that swim in different schools and waters will make it difficult to sell your novel. Be more cognitive of your plot and characters. My example could easily be made into two novels if the writer imagined which fish he wanted to catch before writing.

Give more thought to the readers your book will attract and market where they congregate. The easiest chance to catch a fish is to drop the appropriate bait into a school. You will still have competitive bait but at least you can catch a good haul of your own and most of all, know you are fishing in the right waters.

By: Lily Gianna Woodmansee – Executive Editor for Cactus Moon Publications, LLC