First a few statistics.
Per Forbes Magazine (2013) between 600,000 and 1,000,000 unique book titles are published in the United States each year. This vast increase in number includes traditional publishing, vanity publishing, and the incredible array of self-publishing outlets.
Per Berrett-Koehler, the average non-fiction book published by the average author of today will sell up to 250 copies per year with a lifetime total sales volume of 2000 books.
Per Quora, the sales volume for fiction titles is much worse. A print copy might sell in the low hundreds to the low thousands, depending on cover art and bookshelf presence. And, given the glut of titles and the ease of publishing an e-book, they estimate a new authors e-book will sell from a few dozen to a few hundred copies.
The sales volume for fiction writers is almost entirely dependent upon the authors willingness to self-promote and their coverage in traditional and social media. If they can get people interested, their sales can soar into the thousands and above. If not, no matter how well written the book might be, their sales volume might never climb above a few hundred copies.
I haven't and might not ever touch on book promotion. How much time an author is willing to devote to sales is a personal priority. There are huge numbers of companies trying to hawk their marketing tips. The title of their ventures might best be called "How to make a million dollars by convincing others to buy your system on how to make a million dollars".
With that business aside, I want to concentrate on what matters: How to make YOUR book the best it can be. This week, as the title of the blog relates, I want to focus on doing research.
First, some projects begin with people watching. The holiday season makes it easy for people watchers. We study the way people walk. We notice expressions. We see how people interact. We watch them cut their eyes when they see someone handsome or beautiful. We wonder about their thoughts and create lives and intrigues for them in our imaginations. This is an excellent way to begin research for a romance novel. But it is also a basis for understanding human nature. To write about people, we must observe people.
Next, the believably of a novel is determined long before the author begins the project. I began my novel "Assuming Room Temperature" (hopefully to be released late 2017) three months after I watched a true crime show on A&E. There was one aspect of the crime that I found particularly fascinating. It involved the way the killer removed all potential tell-tale signatures of his weapon before committing murder. His plan worked, the police were baffled, but the killer left his DNA signature at the crime scene.
I was so fascinated, I spent the next two months studying murders that had been committed, what signs had been left behind, how the killers were finally identified, and what, if anything, the killers could have been done to make it a "perfect" crime. That was before I had any writing project in mind and that study led to some very strange nightmares. But, in the end, it gave me an idea for an unexpected and excellent plot twist which I used in Assuming Room Temperature.
When Tom Clancy wrote "The Hunt For Red October", he said he studied hundreds of volumes on missile systems, on naval combat tactics, on combat fleet maneuvers, as well as playing war games and simulators of the PC. He also spoke at length with ex-submariners, he looked at schematics and blueprints, and then he told a story.
He referred to himself as a storyteller and not a writer, because he created these people and they took their own personalities. As they developed within his manuscript, they put themselves in situations. Mr. Clancy stated he was simply told the story they revealed to him.
Let me clear about a few things. Research for a romance novel doesn't mean you should have an affair. Research for a thriller doesn't mean you should commit murder. And it is not possible, outside the realm of imagination, to transport yourself at will to another reality. But what is possible, and even mandated, it that you do the work.
Talk to people. Watch people. Join discussing groups. Read non-fiction books on your topic. Some might be dull as dirt, others fascination reads, but all will have information that can be used as thesis or antithetically.
Look at the statistics I’ve quoted above. There are too many people who don't do research and flood the market with crap. I've read it. You've read it. It is easy for anyone to self-publish, but I ask one thing of anyone reading this...
Even if it takes months of conjecture, research, and planning, don't publish crap. And whatever you do, keep writing.
Today’s Click Here is a short excerpt from Assuming Room Temperature. If you had a chance to read previous excerpts, you know that the novel begins in the year 2000 where the FBI is hunting “The Chatroom Killer”, a serial killer named for his method of targeting his next victim.
In this excerpt, we fast forward to modern day. The Chatroom Killer was never caught. One of the FBI agents involved in the case has retired. The other is married with a family. Part one ended with the Chatroom Killer promising to complete the work he started.