Sizing Up Your Audience

By Elaine L. Orr

Authors think about their audiences from several perspectives. Yes, we want a lot of readers. But we have to write (and market) to a type of reader or our fans will be limited to friends and family. 

That doesn't mean we only write to please readers. But we have to decide who those readers are as we start a book. Then we can write something that we, and they, like. 

Audiences can be stratified by age, interests (including hobbies), sex, marital status, occupation, residence, and more. Picking an audience is important, affecting everything from vocabulary to book length to types of sexual interactions. Unless you're writing for pleasure and not income, you need to target a given audience.

You aren't writing to readers' characteristics, you're writing to their interests or preferences. In mysteries, is a lot of violence okay? Do they want fast-paced action or prefer to focus on background and/or the sleuth's internal thought processes? Do they want to escape the real world or read about crimes that sound like something that could be on the news each night? 

I believe a fiction author writes more easily if something interests them. That's possibly why many mysteries deal with a sleuth's occupation or hobbies. I was an economics minor, so one of my sleuths is a real estate appraiser and pays attention to business interests and community development. (Plus you can find bodies when appraising houses.)

On the other hand, I like to garden so another sleuth is a gardener. I've spent a lot of time on genealogy research that I could have spent writing, so I finally made a sleuth a family historian. In both professions you dig up stuff. (Lame joke.)

There are writers whose writing is so diverse they use pen names -- that's generally because the audiences for the two types of writing can be very different. The person who picks up a cozy mystery (no on-stage violence, usually small towns, and amateur sleuth) might not like a faced paced international thriller whose hero kills people in varied ways, which may be described in detail. That reader could be really annoyed to pay for a book from a cozy author that's not at all like that genre.

Yes, they can read the book blurb carefully, but if a reader likes an author they may automatically buy anything they see. (That's the hope!)

There are authors who appeal to diverse audiences. I'm thinking of how Kirkus Reviews characterizes author Carolyn Haines. “Stephanie Plum meets the Ya-Ya Sisterhood...featuring sassy Southern private investigator Sarah Booth Delaney." Haines also write's other series under her name, including Pluto's Snitch books, but uses a pen name (Caroline Burnes) for a romantic suspense series Harlequin publishes and R.B. Chesterton for some stand-alone thrillers.

If we don't use separate series by pen name, how do let readers know they may like some of our books better than others? I'm not talking so much about advertising as describing a book accurately so readers know what they're getting.

I try to write the blurb soon after I start writing the book. It keeps me from meandering as I write, but it also helps me know what more I need to tell prospective readers. I ask members of my critique group for comments, and revise the blurb as I write more. I generally don't look at it for weeks before publication, so I have a cold eye review. 

With electronic sales (which includes paperbacks advertised on retail websites) the keywords matter, and it's up to the author to use the right ones. I look at what authors who write similar books use, and I hope they feel free to consider mine. What you can't do (really) is use keywords bestselling authors use if those descriptive terms don't truly apply to your book.

I sometimes put "Cozy Mysteries With..." in the Amazon search box. There's a fairly new category -- Cozy Mysteries With a Little Paranormal Help. This describes my family history series perfectly. There's a ghost, but he's more a character than a spooky element. The new phrase is not an option for categories to select when entering or updating the book, but I now have it in each of the books' keywords. Great.

On the other hand, I found Appraisal for Murder (first Jolie Gentil book) on the site and looked at the book rankings (just below Product Details). All of the terms were related to real estate! None for cozy mysteries. I went to that book's KDP page and changed some keywords and (since I had not updated categories recently for this 2011 book) changed some of those.

It would be more fun just to keep writing and not think about how to describe books, but in this age of search engine optimization (SEO) it's essential to stay current.

It also helps you describe your books and think about ideas for future ones.

                                                                          *     *     *     *     *     *

 Check out Elaine's web page or sign up for her newsletter

Who is Where in the Room?

By Elaine L. Orr

Though I wrote stories and poems as a young person, when I began more serious writing I went with plays or (how bold of me!) movie scripts. I realized books could have a wider audience. While I've written a one-act play fairly recently, I veered to novels.

However, the play-writing taught me something valuable. Two things, really. The first was how to write dialogue that said what I wanted when I wanted it, and nothing more. That doesn't mean a character can't be long-winded, only that if s/he is, it should be who they are -- not simply that I can't write concisely.

Perhaps even more important is blocking a scene -- yes, in a book. In a play, the writer has to be aware of where every character is and what they are doing on stage. You can't just leave someone sitting on a couch while all action focuses on two or three other characters. You can if the couch sitter is meant to eavesdrop. You can't if you simply don't know what else to do with them.

I learned to keep track of every character in a novel's scene and -- more important -- let readers know what s/he/they were doing even if they weren't the focus of the action. 

For example, my WIP is Phoning in a Murder, set in the fictional Ocean Alley and the 14th book in the Jolie Gentil series. The partial scene below is in the high school auditorium, just before the start of a contentious meeting about the school band. 

From Jolie's point of view:

The few people in the room were talking loudly enough for me to hear snatches of conversations. Generally, it was male voices that came through.

“…expects us to drive the kids to practice every…”

“…I haven’t missed any of the competitions…”

“…a lot of nerve to cancel…”

“…raised more than $500 for those buses…”

Scoobie had been listening, too. “Oh, boy.”

I shrugged. “It’s what I expected. You and I work at the co-op day care. We know how to tell people to pipe down if they get too rowdy.”

“Pipe down? Rowdy? You sound like Aunt Madge.” Terry looked toward the back of the room. “There’s George.”

“Is Ramona with him?”

Terry craned his neck. “I don’t think so. I see Kevin and some of the guys.” He moved toward a back corner.

“If Kevin’s here,” Scoobie said, “I wonder if his favorite uncle is.”

I turned toward the front. “I bet Sergeant Morehouse has better things to do.”

The scene establishes which of the key characters are present and mentions one who is not. Jolie and her husband Scoobie are together, initially Scoobie's brother, Terry, is with them. George is Scoobie's best friend, and Ramona (his girlfriend and Jolie's friend) could be expected to be there. Sergeant Morehouse is a key player in the book -- good to know what he's up to. (He shows up later.)

My offbeat humor has George explain why Ramona's not there.

“Where’s Ramona?” I asked.

“I’m not supposed to tell you she isn’t interested in high school food fights.”

“What are you supposed to say?” Scoobie asked.

George grinned. “Something about planning how to arrange paintings for the next showing at her art gallery.”

An author can simply say where a person is, but I prefer to show things through action or dialogue. That isn't always possible.

Note the above is written in first person, so the reader only knows what Jolie knows. If a book is in third person, there may be more description, or even a narrator who says who is where and what they're doing.  

I prefer to keep the reader guessing along with the sleuth.

                                                                          *     *     *     *     *     *

 Check out Elaine's web page or sign up for her newsletter

Words that Don't Say Much, Including a Rude One

By Elaine L. Orr

When I edited reports, I encouraged people not to use the word 'significant.' If they really liked the word, I'd ask what it meant in their context. For example, if they said a company's annual loss was significant, I could be told it meant the company had an "unusually large annual deficit." So...why not say that?

In daily use, if a weather reporter says there will be significant rainfall, a listener could infer there would be a lot of the wet stuff. So why not say something like, "Three inches of rain in one day?"

I listen to a lot of audiobooks, many are thrillers or intense mysteries. In some books, the F word will be employed dozens of times in a chapter. It loses all shock value, and forget any use in emphasizing a point.

If one character uses the word a lot, it says something about that person. If everyone uses it, it tells me either the author has a limited command of the English language or every detective in a squad is vocabulary-impaired. (Mind you, these authors sell a *** lot of books.)

I'm not being a prude here. I've used the word, most often in conjunction with a really high summer temperature. Or humidity.

I'm a big fan of the Virgil Flowers novels by John Sandford. When Virgil's friend Johnson Johnson (don't ask) is in a book, the F bomb is used a lot, by many characters.

"Get the *** off my lawn."  (Possibly an adverb, or maybe a noun) Could mean someone is to move quickly.

"I can smell those *** muskies from here." (Adjective) A colorful way of saying muskies are very odorous fish--and not a good odor.

"Let's get the *** out of here." (Noun) Conveys anything from being in a hurry to being frightened of something.

And the renowned classic, "*** you." (Verb)  A clear insult, sometimes used to be funny.

If you ask why I'm writing this, I suppose it's because I find the F word boring when it's used a lot.

Funny story. When my mother first moved into a nursing home, she could still listen to audiobooks. Our  tastes in books were similar. Since she was hard of hearing, she had the volume turned up. (I don't remember headphones being ubiquitous in the 1990s.) I should add that it was a Catholic nursing home. Eventually a sweet nun asked her to close the door when listening to her books. Cracked her up.

By the way, using effing a lot is just as lame. And if you're a twelve-year old, it will probably also get you in a lot of trouble if you use it in front of a three-year old sibling.

For now, I'm struggling with the 14th Jolie Gentil cozy mystery, in which I don't even use the S word. Have to get back to the *** manuscript.

                                                                           *     *     *     *     *     *

 Check out Elaine's web page or sign up for her newsletter

Reinvigorating my Pins -- Not the Kind with Needles

 I've had a nearly dormant presence on Pinterest for quite a while. There's no excuse for letting my Pinterest account flounder other than the usual -- there are only so many hours in a day. 

It's like anything else in the writing profession (or life); what you focus on gets done. Today, the Independent Book Publishers' Association sponsored a zoom session on Pinterest. I thought it might be the kick in the pants (excuse me, incentive) for me to update my Pinterest presence. It was.

I had no idea how out-of-date my pins were. Now, after an afternoon of updates, I don't need to be ashamed of old graphics and outdated covers. More work to do, of course, and more to learn about how to do it.

                                                                             *     *     *     *     *     *

 Check out Elaine's web page or sign up for her newsletter

Thoughts on Audiobooks with KDP Virtual Voice

By Elaine L. Orr

Audiobooks are my reading passion; probably 90 percent of the books I 'read' are performed by talented narrators. That has made it all the more joyful to have many of my books made into audiobooks.

I ran into a hitch with the family history mysteries, however. Approximately fifteen narrators (producers) auditioned tor the first book in the series, with my promise of doing all five books. I found the perfect person through Audiobook Creation Exchange (ACX). 

And then the delays started. They sounded reasonable. A bad respiratory infection, seasonal holiday interruptions. Pretty soon a year passed and almost nothing had been done. ACX permitted me to cancel the contract. 

It takes a huge amount of time to listen to a lot of auditions. I was about to start the process again when KDP developed the Virtual Voice program. I discounted it at first, but decided to explore. 

KDP has tons of guidance, but here are a few salient points. 

• Understand that ebooks are the source, and they must have a table of contents and be reflowable (largely text, not something like cookbooks).
• Listen to the samples of male and female computer voice options in American and British English, with several age ranges. Pick one that seems best for your book's characters.
• Recognize that while the virtual voice distinguishes punctuation, it cannot convey excitement or sadness with exaggerated changes in tone or inflection. It definitely would not work for foreign accents, as would be needed for M.C. Beaton's books, which are set in Scotland.
• Review the created audiobook to be sure you like the pronunciation of names or any nontraditional words.
• Rejoice that you have the option to correct the virtual voice's diction by giving it phonetic spellings of words that are mispronounced. For example, I describe my character Jolie Gentil's name as having French pronunciation (soft J and G, final L not spoken). I told the virtual voice that it should be pronounced Zho-lee Zhan-tee. It complied.

I'm fortunate that my mysteries can be presented in fairly straightforward narrations. Since I can't use a narrator with the talent of Jim Dale, who does the Harry Potter audiobooks, I have generally asked narrators not to attempt distinct voices for my characters. I ask for straightforward narration with good inflections and a steady volume. 

My book In the Shadow of Light used a lot of Spanish accents and I had a fabulous narrator who did traditional American and Spanish-accented English. Such a book would not be a candidate for Virtual Voice.

A talented narrator is clearly the best option. However, the nearly-instant creation of a Virtual Voice audiobook could work in some circumstances. You can explore without committing to publish. What's more flexible than that?

April 2024 update: Amazon recently let authors know they continue to improve the quality of the narrators and how they react to punctuation. Authors can republish a book to take advantage of the changes.

To find all my audiobooks, visit my website.

                                                                             *     *     *     *     *     *

 Check out Elaine's web page or sign up for her newsletter

Back to the Drawing Board...Keyboard

I'm not generally missing in action for a month. I'd like to say I was deep into a mystery and finished it. Not. 

I had colon cancer surgery and received my stage afterwards -- 2A. Way better than stages with bigger numbers. I'm meeting with an oncologist today to discuss chemo options. The surgeon said, and I quote, "It won't be the horrible kind."

There, I'm done. I'm not big on talking about illness details. I'm willing to listen if someone else needs to talk about their situation, but I'm generally more private. That said, I will tell the world when the chemo is done and I'm entirely out of the woods. 

At this point, you can say, "Tell the world? Who does she think she is, King Charles?" 

My Newest Book Project

I'm written several chapters of another Jolie Gentil mystery and am ready to move ahead more quickly. The break was good in that when I came back to it, I realized my choice of an opening scene would not draw in readers. 

Initially, the first chapter featured a scene with Jolie, Scoobie, their kids, and best friends at a high school football game. It relayed some important components of the book, but intuition tells me a lot of people won't keep reading if they think the book is too family-focused. Plus, nobody got killed.

I constantly consider the balance of personal life and mystery solving. So many TV shows became too much like soap operators, in my opinion, after lead characters got married. House comes to mind. It went from being a tightly presented, funny medical mystery series to one that focused on personal problems. Boring. I'm trying to avoid that.

Okay, back to work. More gripping blog posts to come, I hope for a long time.

Update: Turns out my tumors are among the 15% of colon cancer tumors that don't respond to chemo. The doctors think they got it all, but they can only be sure through future scans and other tests. I wish there were a magic pill, but I remind myself the cancer was caught through a routine colonoscopy -- much earlier than is sometimes the case. Lots of check-ups to come.

                                                                               *     *     *     *     *     *

 Check out Elaine's web page or sign up for her newsletter

Impact of A Character's Looks on their Lives

By Elaine L. Orr

A person's physical features affect them and those they interact with. This can seem obvious -- someone who loses a limb makes a number of adaptations. They might also quit sports activities, which were very important until now. That could foster resentment and even change some close relationships -- former team members become "only" buddies. A sense of exclusion builds.

A character's negative emotions -- anger, grief, fear, resentment -- play a major role in antagonists' motives. Big changes aside, how much do our everyday attributes affect who we are? A parent with a gorgeous girl or boy could often hear, "She could be a model. He could be an actor." The child comes to expect the compliments.

I believe it can be easier for good-looking children and adults to make friends, get hired, and find dates. If you're thinking that speaks to a certain human shallowness, you're right. 

I've never forgotten a secretary in the counseling office at my high school. She was not attractive in a traditional sense, but was universally liked for her helpfulness and upbeat attitude. She said, "My mother said not everyone can be good looking, but they can always wear a smile and good perfume." I wish I could remember the context of her comment. 

The phrase "beauty is only skin deep" is something I heard my own mother say many times. But not everyone grew up hearing that perspective. Other parents may have called people ugly, fat, or stupid. Probably not to someone's face, since nasty insults are generally thrown out by spineless cowards. Still, their kids learned it's okay to make hurtful comments and it affects how they see and treat people.

Authors describe characters through what they wear, say, do, or think. 

The kid with buck teeth and a limp can grow into someone who blends into the shadows or a tough guy (or gal) whose adult persona will take on anyone who looks at them with a smirk. An author could reveal the tough guy's past -- or not. Readers don't have to know why a night club bouncer likes that job, only that they tossed the hero out on their ass when they tried to gain entry.

The same bouncer may open the door for someone with a low-cut dress, good figure, and big smile. Or broad shoulders and a jersey with the emblem of a favorite team.  My point is that the glamorous woman or handsome man expects to be welcomed. They approach life with the poise of someone used to getting their way because their good looks helped foster success all their life.

It's an author's challenge to show if or how physical appearance has affected a character. In Deep Freeze, a Virgil Flowers novel by John Sandford, the murdered female banker was very pretty (though not the prettiest in high school), born into wealth, hung out with the cool kids in high school and at the country club, got glamorous jobs, and came back home to run the bank. 

Readers never know what she thinks, only how the ways she acted -- condescending, sometimes mean to those in lesser circumstances -- may have affected her death. (Hint, it was probably the arrogance.) 

Would she have been different without a life of good looks and clothes? Yes, other factors would make a difference. But it's the comment of a high school alum she snubbed that says a lot. That woman is portrayed a average, if now dowdy, and worked as a bookkeeper in a boot factory. She says she and her husband (shown as caring parents) volunteered at the food pantry and served as bell ringers collecting funds for the poor. She wasn't bragging, she simply characterized this as contributing a lot more than any check the dead woman had written to get her name on a publicized list of donors.

Looks don't matter if you're dead, of course. 

Awkward, not-so-handsome characters can come out ahead. Think of Bert in The Big Bang Theory. He's meant to look ungainly and badly dressed (though no guy in that series is a fashion trendsetter), and he works in a field (geology) that the main character mocks. But Bert gets a MacArthur Grant. (Sometimes called Genius Grants, there's no application process and it's a lot of cash to someone who achieves a lot). My sense is producer Chuck Lorre has thumbed his nose at stereotypes in a big way.

Stereotypes begin with fables, which portray the ugly stepsisters and handsome prince in Cinderella, The challenge with more subtle writing is to convey characters and motives through more than appearances.

                                                                                          *     *     *     *     *     *

 Check out Elaine's web page or sign up for her newsletter