Rob Parnell's Writing Academy Blog

Many new authors assume that only romance writing is formulaic. This is not true. Almost  all  genre writing is formulaic. Indeed, it must be. Not because authors are at a loss to sustain originality but because  unless  genre fiction adheres closely to its own conventions, readers will often regard the work as unsuccessful. This rule applies to movies too. Unless a big budget movie contains the usual genre conventions, it will invariably do badly at the box office. However, if the standard conventions  are  systematically dealt with in the movie-making process, the final result will almost always do well. So entrenched are we as a species in our desire, our  need,  for formulaic writing in books, movies, and episodic TV, that we inevitably regard writing that does not exactly fulfill our pre-conceived expectations as somehow lacking. I use this inescapable fact of life as a starting point for my genre-writing courses. While there is...

After the cover, the next port of call for the potential buyer of your book is your book description. And like an elevator pitch, your book blurb needs to be punchy, upbeat, a breeze to read and intriguing enough to make the reader want more. Set aside an afternoon to write a 500 to 800-word book description. First, you're NOT writing a synopsis of your story.  Imagine you're in a bar with a friend and you want to get them to read a book you've just finished. You don't want to give away the ending - and you don't want to bore them with names and locations and character interactions that aren't immediately pertinent to their understanding of the overall story. You want to give them the best hook you can think of first - and then only details if their interest in piqued.  This is where you need to start: The hook. A less than 50-word sentence that describes what the story is about in general terms. It's perfectly acceptab...

Once upon a time you could spend money on promotion and see positive results. Like actual sales. Doesn’t work so much anymore. Ask any reputable advertiser and they will tell you promotion is good for creating “customer awareness” but is now hopeless for selling stuff. These days I don't recommend authors spend any money on their marketing, their websites, their book covers, adverts, anything at all – at least at first. It's simply not worth it - until you have some followers and/or some subscribers. Why? Because there's simply no point investing in a brand or a concept, even a single product like a novel - unless you know the thing is working. Until it sells WITHOUT any help. This is something I learned when I was signed as a singer with EMI Music. Recording companies only promote music that is ALREADY selling. Publishing companies, too, only promote books that are ALREADY SELLING. That's why we too, as independent authors and entrepreneurs, must do the same - only ...