How building worlds makes books breathe
Building worlds unlocks characters’ powers
It might not seem like much fun, but world-building breathes life into characters like nothing else. Answering a thorough set of questions about the life and world your characters occupy is as important as wings are to a hummingbird. In the bones of world-building you find the strength to make choices for your characters. You see what they’d be likely to do when they face a challenge. You can even pivot away from the obvious, to great effect, when you know how the world works where they live.
World-building used to be associated with science fiction and fantasy more than any other kind of fiction. Now it’s baked into every kind of story. It’s shorthand for understanding what makes sense in the world of the book.
One author among my clients recently did her heavy lifting to create a 2,500-word set of world-building questions. “I wanted to be thorough, so when I go to revise the book, it's easier. I think I may be able to lift some of the text from the answers into the book.” There’s a trilogy in the offing, so her world-building is front-loading work to make an easier back end, too.
A fine set of do’s and don’ts on world-building is now an article at Writer’s Digest. It’s a good primer on how the building assists a writer in constructing their story so it engages readers. Being engaged is the kind of thing that triggers recommendations.
Promotion is not secret publishing
Published authors—and even those on the verge of being released to the world—hold hope for the promotion of their books. Hey, I wrote this and it was a lot of work on my part. Now it’s time for you to do your job, Publisher. Get the world to notice it and talk it up.
That’s all reasonable, to a point. Whatever an author can do to help a book’s discovery is up for negotiation in most contracts. Talking about what might be done shouldn’t be a secret, though. Promotion and marketing might be the most opaque part of an industry built upon many secrets. It’s not hard to learn that most books don’t pay an author anything except the advance for up to a year after publication – unless that book does a land-rush launch. It’s harder to learn how a publisher turns the crank on the promotion mill.
Asking what’s going to be done, in specific, is a way to help the book. Posing those questions gives a publisher a way to reveal its practices to a business partner: the author. At the same time as questions get asked of the publisher, there’s an important one authors should always ask. “How can I help?” might go a long way to lift a book into a higher orbit.
In book promotion, the schedule runs from It’s Never Too Early until It’s Good Later Than You Think. People like to support something new, but a book is new for at least six months after it’s available widely. What carries the most weight is reader reviews in any form. Anything you can do to get your tribe to review your book on Amazon will propel sales more than anything.
Bookstore events are not just about selling copies. These appearances get you introduced to the store’s booksellers. The indie stores buy for themselves, rather than through a big buyer combine like what’s used at Barnes & Noble. Sales during an appearance provide evidence the book might be worth a re-order by the store’s buyer.
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