This morning I'm sifting through
interviews with publishers and editors to see what gets them excited.
Straight from the horses' mouth, as it were. And since that is a betting term, it's quite apt because everybody, whether publisher, author or reader, is taking a gamble on whether this book is going to prove a winner.
Publishers are looking to sell
books. We're talking large numbers of sales that bring in a healthy
profit. They're panning the slush pile for story-gold. So far, so
obvious. When it comes to your novel submission, publishers are
inundated with potential books in a given genre, all written to a
certain standard. What makes yours stand out from the crowd? To take a bet on backing your book, publishers want to know that
readers are going to be excited by it, will be recommending it to
their friends, will be coming back for more. So what are those
elusive qualities that drive a runaway success for a novel? In listening to industry professionals, I'm finding certain themes recur.
'Say what you want about some
popular authors or creators: they know
how to move someone.
To get people
to keep turning pages.
Keep buying books. Keep telling friends about them.'
Dan
Blank, founder of We Grow Media
So
we all want that emotional hit when we've invested time in a novel –
it has to get under our skin and, as Blank says, resonate. It
stays with us afterwards, that emotional echo of a book we loved,
even if it's disturbed or perplexed us. Personally I want a story
that leaves me shell-shocked but not in an obvious, manipulative way.
But there's that page-turning quality as well. A book that's made me
hungry, that's kept me up at night because I can't sleep not knowing
what's happened to that character I've grown to care about and worry
about.
'All
right, so I
want an original voice.
Now that’s different from an original story, because I really do
believe that old saying that there’s only seven stories in the
world — there might be more, hopefully there are. But, it’s not
that you always have to completely come up with a new storyline, but
you do have to have a new way of telling it.
Your
unique voice, as a writer, has to come through, and I have to engage
with that voice. It has to draw on my emotions, one way or the
other... it
has to be something that is confident enough that it draws me in and
it’s a really well-managed tool to tell the story. And stories are
really important to me, so it has to have a story that I can think
about while I’m doing the washing up. It has to linger in my
head...'
Bernadette
Foley, Editor & Publisher at Hachette, Australia.
Foley touches here on another
elusive quality: narrative voice. The voice of a book is its
personality. It's a voice whispering in your ear – as intimate as
radio, even more so because it's right in your head. And the
narrative voice embodies the story. It grows out of the story, it's
the only way to tell that particular story. As Foley says,
'well-managed tool to tell the story.' This might be the voice
of a character-narrator or it might be the voice of a landscape of
events or all of those. But when you hear it, it casts a spell and
you're hooked.
'Because I’m only sent a
chapter, and you can tell in a chapter, it’s essentially, maybe
it’s what I’m looking for. I’m looking for either really good
raw writing style, that I think will have a great story. Or if in
my dreams, a manuscript arrives, or a chapter arrives, and the
narrative voice is really distinctive, and the reader has, I just
really want to keep on reading… So narrative voice is
probably the most important for me...When you’re reading, observe
the craft of how the person, how the author has set up a great
narrative voice, how they’ve developed characters, whether the
characters are likable... You know, just look at every aspect of
the craft. How they’ve moved their plot along, the structure,
and so on. So that’s my first thing. Read a lot, and read for the
craft... Go back to your favourite novels and look at why they are so
good.'
Louise Thurtell, Publisher at
Allen & Unwin
Thurtell hones in on the impact
of narrative voice but she also advises writers to study the
structure and pace of the novels they admire. It's that page-turning
quality again we're looking for. A while back, I picked up the
American classic novel Moby Dick. I knew that the subject
matter really appealed to me. He's got whales, icebergs, the wild
landscape of Newfoundland and its surrounding oceans, the story of
men locked in a boat for years on end and an obsessive captain driven
by a desire for revenge. Perfect book for a long winter read. When I
read the opening page, the first person narrative leapt out and
seized me. 'I could follow this narrator to the ends of the
earth,' I wrote on Facebook. But then ten chapters in, we were
still marooned ashore while the hero negotiated his way onto a
whaling ship. I have to confess, I floundered, I ground to a halt. I
will get back to Moby Dick, honest, I'll stock up on rations
and hunker down for the duration. But as a reader in the 21st
century, like the rest of us, I'm looking for the storytelling to
have that page-turning, can't-put-it-down quality. And as a novelist,
that's a challenge I have to meet myself.
So
here's a group of publishers in 2015, talking in The
Guardian about books they did
publish and why they were successful. You'll notice the same themes
coming through:
'Between the World and Me
by Ta-Nehisi Coates takes the form of a letter from the author to his
teenage son. Along with his powerful, personal and provocative
history of race in America, Coates also shares his hopes and fears
for his son’s future. Rarely are such “urgent” books written
in such mesmerising prose.'
Hannah
Griffiths, Publishing Director, Faber
'Drugs,
dubstep, eco-terrorism, racial politics, failing marriages, birding,
sex (in a canoe), the nuclear family: it’s all here. As the New
York Times said: “You don’t read Nell Zink (The Wallcreeper)
so much as step into the ring with her.” She is a total one-off,
a wild voice out of nowhere which seems to have no precedent. We
will be hearing much more from her over the coming years.'
Nicolas
Pearson, Publishing Director, 4th Estate
'Claire
Fuller’s rich and humane Our Endless Numbered Days
introduces us to Peggy, one of the most vivid child narrators I’ve
encountered. Abducted by her survivalist father to live in a
remote forest cabin, she seeks escape through music, nature and
books. It is a dark and massively suspenseful story which
abounds with references to fairytales.'
Juliet
Annan, Publishing Director, Fig Tree/ Penguin
An
urgent book in mesmerising prose, a one-off wild voice, a vivid
child-narrator and massively suspenseful story. We'd all love to have
written those books - but how? The
Writers' Shed notes that precisely these qualities are often
talked about but rarely taught. That's why the first Masterclass in
our new series will address Narrative Drive & Narrative Voice.
We hope to drill down to the techniques that can make your book stand
out from the heap on the slush pile table. And have your readers
celebrating the book they couldn't put away. To find out more, pop
over to The Writers' Shed and take a look. You'll find other free
resources there on the shelves too.
