Novice publishers believe that success is all about having a good book. While that is a fundamental element, it’s certainly not the only one. That is why you need to make sure that you have the right approach in mind. That way, you can avoid making the mistakes that we are going to outline in this article. So, stick around because we are going to point out potential pitfalls you need to avoid.
Covering Too Much in a Single Volume
Literary history is filled with amazing books. The books are so good that they are virtually impossible to replicate. Moreover, the writing is so good that there is really no plausible way to expand on the story. This is something that you need to avoid.
When you publish a work of fiction, you must leave as many loose ends as logically possible. The idea is to leave fans hanging. That way, you can create subsequent stories based on the same characters, or lead to a continuation of the plot with new ones. The aim is to provide yourself with multiple opportunities to generate a greater following, especially if your book is well received. Unless you have a massive universe with multiple storylines, you should avoid developing the story too much in a single volume.
Becoming Predictable
When you take your storyline down a predictable path, the only thing that can keep fans interested is brilliant writing. The idea here is to maintain an unpredictable path that always keeps fans guessing. Of course, you must be careful to give fans a hint of what’s coming. However, making your next move obvious will quickly bore fans.
A great way of keeping fans on their toes is by opening up multiple possibilities. For example, you develop the story so that characters have the option to make choices. So rather than drive the characters down a specific path, the story places them in a position where they need to make a choice. At that point, fans may be unable to accurately assess where the storyline will go.
This is what creates an expectation.
Once you’ve built expectation, you can choose to follow the obvious route, or spin a 180 on your fans. Ultimately, the goal is to be strategic. Never let the route get too mundane. Otherwise, you risk losing your fans.
Be Careful Killing Off Characters
Some writers tend to kill off characters like there’s no tomorrow. This is good to a certain extent. However, you may run out of characters too soon. So, rather than creating an enormous cadre of characters, use deaths strategically. The predictable thing is to kill villains at the end of the storyline. However, you can do a lot more by killing off a hero and keeping the villain rather than having your hero prevail. Great heroes are easy to write into a story. Yet, it is extremely difficult to come up with great villains. So, do keep that in mind.
