How to Write a Best Selling Novel

If there were an exact formula about how to write a best selling novel the formula would definitely be priceless to novelists and ghostwriting services. There is simply no exact method to write a best selling novel, but there are generally accepted guidelines that are fundamental in creating any type of novel. Inasmuch as every writer has their own method of developing ideas, there are essential things that all successful writers must refer to every now and then.

Ghostwriting services know that the first and most important point on how to write a best selling novel is simply taking notes. The main feature that identifies a best selling novel is the quality, articulacy, and quality of the writer’s ideas. Unless one is especially talented with a photographic remembrance and a never-ending innovation of ideas, one is likely to be stuck after writing the first few words. That is why note taking is handy- the writer will refer to the notes any time ideas seem to diminish or lack consistency. Additionally, not all thoughts can be expressed in one story, so note taking enables the writer to reason logically and arrange ideas for a particular story rationally. Once the notes are written down, the writer can base a foundation on them and build layers as ideas crop up.

There is more to how to write a best selling novel. Once the notes have been used to lay a foundation, the writer has to move on weaving various ideas to form a steadfast concept that becomes the novel. The writer has to manipulate the main character or characters in the story such that the reader gets the theme through the various characters.

Writing Novels to Screenplays

Hire a Novel Writer

Hire a Novel Writer

It is strongly advised to avoid any agreement providing your publisher a portion of any deal made with cinemas or televisions. If your novel does make it to films or TV shows, consequently your publisher’s sales will surely increase. It will be excessively advantageous for him if he still gets a share. However if you think that there is very little probability for your novel to get to Hollywood, then you can offer your publisher a portion of film rights to get a larger advance. This means that your contract will provide that a sale made to film or television, will give the publisher additional income.

Do not expect to earn money when your novel is produced in formats especially made for the handicapped such as in Braille, since your publisher is unlikely to charge you in this kind of occasions.

This section of the contract should provide that the publisher should send you two royalty statements annually, each covering a six – month disclosing period. The arrival of each statement should be about 90 days after the end of the disclosing period. It commonly takes the form of a computer printout supplying you with the following information: number of copies shipped, number of copies sent back unsold, and the number most likely sold. The publisher will likely keep hold of a portion of the royalty just in case some copies might be returned. Whatever is left refers to the definite number that the publisher is liable of paying.

Most probably, you will not receive any check on the first or probably, also the second disclosing period. This is because your advance will likely have expended the total impending royalties on these two periods. Once your royalties will sum up greater than the amount you advanced, that’s when you’ll start receiving checks.

This part of the contract should be indispensable. Sign only a contact which provides that the publisher is obligated to send you two royalty statements in a year. Do not take the risk to go for years without being aware of the status of your sales by signing a contact that guarantees a statement only after the novel has produced more than its advance.

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Looking for Publishers and Agents

Novel Writer for Hire

Novel Writer for Hire

Publishers decided to accept manuscript submissions that are handed to them by professional literary agents simply because there would be too much work for them to do without the criterion. Reading manuscripts and only ending up pronouncing them as unworthy already takes all the time of several salaried editors. Requiring “agented submissions” will somehow serve as a preliminary filtration system. Agents, just like the publishers, do not want to waste their time reading stories that they think are not marketable.

To have a head start in the competition, it is important that you have incorporated some basic requirements in your work. You need to have an extraordinary however still plausible plot, with less narration but more action to reveal to readers what your characters are like, along with outstanding grammar, spelling and punctuation.

Writers should know the right market to present their work. Several novice writers make a common mistake in hastily handing over their manuscripts to an unknown publisher or one with a supposed esteemed reputation or just some publisher nearest to him.

Most publishers have special markets where they dominate. Some publishers govern only a particular genre where they have an expertise on what this classification of readers want. There might even be publishers who are so focused only in one genre of fiction that he is indifferent on the other kinds. A publisher who is a supporter of feminism wouldn’t know and wouldn’t want to know how to promote a men’s action – adventure novel. A children’s publisher would never know how to appreciate your remarkable murder mystery. These are only examples on how publishers can only correspond to the needs of particular writers.

So the first step is to study the publishing houses which are probable markets for your novel. Know the previous titles that they have published so you will get ideas on the kind of books that they successfully market. Your list of prospective publishers will be declining until you only have a few to choose from.

You can learn many things in Writer’s Market. Read about those impending publishers’ entries and take note the names of their editors in specific categories. You may realize that there are revisions that need to be done in your work. You may also read of how long it takes publishers to reply to queries and submissions especially when submissions are not made through agents.

Writer’s Market has a list of publishers sorted out according to the genres they publish. This list is only a guide. Before you rush off, know more things on the houses where you intend to make your submissions. Make sure that most of their recent titles in your genre are successful. If not, find another, or you might find yourself in the hands of a bad publisher and all your work gone to waste.

There are several sources which can give you up – to – date information which can help you: Publishing Trade Press, Quill and Quire in Canada and Publisher’s Weekly in US, The Writer and Writer’s Digest. You need to be aware of the publishers who are currently selling big in their genres so you can formulate the right marketing strategy.

You might find yourself in the situation when all your prospective publishers provide restrictions on submissions that are not made through agents. Then this means you really have to get one to do the job. Make sure you get a good one by checking out an updated list of agents in any library or the reference division of a bookstore. Agents Scott Meredith and Richard Curtis have also written books about the publishing industry.

The most ideal place to get an agent is New York City since most publishers are present in the city. Your agent needs to be an expert in the market of your genre. It will save you a lot of time if you have an agent who speedily sends your work to probable markets. Some agents get multiple copies of a work and submit them to all prospective markets.

But when looking for an agent, do not dwell too much on his location. Consider the other more important factors. Advance communication devices make it easy for any agent to go into New York market without the need of residing in the place.

Try to get good advice from published writers about their experiences with agents. You might find yourself confuse over either choosing a big agent with plenty of clients, or a small – time agent. Each has its own advantage and disadvantage. When you choose the big agent, he may have the influence and power to make you successful, however he has little to lose and little to gain if ever he fails or succeeds in promoting you. While the small agent may show admirable dedication, he may not make his way to some editors.

It’s the agent’s job to market manuscripts but he can not force the editor to purchase it if he does not want to. This is why agents choose the works that they deal with. Of course, they want the manuscripts that have serious sales potential, those that they are likely to get out of their hands at the least time possible.

Finding an agent to deal with your work might not be easy. It might be necessary for you to write query letters to a number of agents before you find one who will take your manuscript. You might even need to pay those respectable agents before they read what you present to them.

Agents respond in different ways after reading your manuscript. You might get a forthright response or a comprehensive criticism. You can either let it destroy your sense of self or you can let it educate you. When the agent sees that your work has a good potential in the market and that you are eager to formally become one of his clients, then he may not even ask you for a reading fee.

What your agent might ask from you might not be easy. It could be something as simple as making revisions, or as demanding as changing your story. Listen carefully to everything that he is saying because he knows how the market works. There are different ways on how you can make an agreement with an agent. It could be something as formal as a comprehensive contract or something as unfussy as a settlement over the phone. Whatever way you both agreed on, what is important is that you understand the conditions and provisions of your agent such as the commission percentage, terms on other expenses and his extent of control over your written works.

It would be better that the communication between you and your agent be kept strictly business in nature. The agent will inform you if he has something to tell. On the other hand, call him only if you have something to report to him such as an update on your manuscript or a plot regarding your novels.

There are a small number of instances however, that the writer is able to sell his novel by himself to a publisher before he decides to get an agent. When this happens to you, it must be easier for you to find an interested agent. You can negotiate the first contract with the publisher on your own or you can let the agent do the process. Most publishers have respectable and honest characters. However your first book would probably profit so little that they wouldn’t probably bother cheating on you.

Writing a Query Letter about your Novel

Novelist for Hire

Novelist for Hire

A query letter is a quick way to offer your novel to a particular publisher that can save you the time spent waiting for an editor to find your manuscript amidst her other piles of papers. A query letter is a very important factor on whether your novel will seem interesting enough for the publisher that she will be prompted to read your manuscript. In the query, you provide the editor an impression of your story that will have to convince her that it will be worth mulling over. If you fail to do so, she will explain to you her reasons and probably advise you to try a new course or a new publisher.

Queries vary in length and some are actually just novel outlines presented as queries.

Here are some helpful guidelines:

  1. Provide a brief but strong description of the novel
  2. Indicate who your prospective audience is: hardcore sci – fi fans, girls in their adolescence, romance-novel readers.
  3. Inform the editor what makes your novel distinctive from others classified in the same genre: an unexpected turn of events in the plot, a new aspect on the hero’s personality, an uncommon setting.
  4. Indicating your credentials is unnecessary. The most important qualifications when writing a novel is on how devoted and knowledgeable you are in the genre that you chose and how much you know of the place where your novel is set. If the answer to both questions is not much, it will show. The story will give the impression of superficial.
  5. Let your editor know why the novel is important to you so it will also become important to him. Present your query with the same enthusiasm and energy that you want to be associated with your novel.

Letter Construction

It is preferable to have your query letter be comprised of one or two pages. Contents are organized in a manner similar to this:

First paragraph:

  • The category where your novel belongs
  • The length of your novel
  • The setting
  • Description of the hero and heroines and two other major characters
  • The conflict of the story
  • The characters’ scheme of resolving the conflict
  • The things at stake for the characters if the conflict is unresolved

Second paragraph:

  • The events that happen in the middle stages of your story
  • The interactions occurring between the characters
  • Conflicts among them

Third paragraph:

  • The last stages of the novel: climax and the conclusion of the story.

Fourth paragraph:

  • Answers to these questions:

    Why were you interested in making this story?
    What are your qualifications for writing this kind of novel?

  • Questions for the editor:

    If you find this story appealing, how would you want me to present the novel to you? Would you want the whole ms. or an outline?

    Do you have any specs on ms. that I should know?

This guide will not be the same for all query letters because they may vary in nature. You might think of adding in an outline and sample chapters, then providing a plot summary will become unnecessary. Your query’s focal points are on your novel’s background and your inquiries for the editor. It will be easier for you to provide the plot summary when you have completed your novel.

The query letter serves as an advertisement for your novel. Just as an advertisement, it is important that you arouse the interest and curiosity of the readers. Make sure that your query letter is superlative. Take note of your spelling and grammar, as well as the content. This is very important if your letter does not come with impressive sample chapters of your novel. A gauche query can ruin the chance for you to have your novel read.

The main advantage of using query letters is that you are able to identify prospective markets and certainly impossible markets without the need of investing too much time. Do not expect that it can pre – sell your novel. The best response you can get is a cautious welcoming message from an editor.

It is very common for novice writers to obtain an anxiety of having their idea stolen by the publisher. However, here is a sad fact: Your novel might even just be a typical variation on some very old plot that the editor has read for the umpteenth time this week. Most stories are indeed derived from older written materials. You just have to make the adaptations seem innovative, astounding and packed with the power of a probable prominent writer. There’s no need to add very eccentric ideas to your novel.

During the earlier times, query letters were handed personally by writers to editors. However, nowadays, most publishing houses only receive queries or submissions coming through an agent. This fact has implications in the promotion of your novel.

Rules When Making Dialogues

Novel Writer for Hire

Novel Writer for Hire

Dialogues of different speakers should be written in different paragraphs. It should have proper indentation and started with the use of quotation marks. Double quotations should be used (“). It is imperative to put commas and periods inside those quotation marks.

Example: “Do not leave,” he ordered, “or I will have you captured.”

If a speaker’s dialogue extends to another paragraph, then do not put close quotation marks on the first paragraph. On the second paragraph, you begin with open quotation marks and end with a close quotation.

Using terms such as “he said,” “she said” are helpful indicators that will prevent readers from getting confused. A shift from “he said” to “he yelled” or to other more rigid words is an effective way to increase tension; however, it is best that the dialogue stimulates the effect devoid of such comments.

Speech is not the only component of a dialogue – action is as well. It also plays a very significant role. Readers want to know when the speakers halts briefly, where they’re eyes are focused, what they’re hand gestures are, what their reactions are. This is an important ingredient in order for you to be able to convey your message more effectively to them, such as in the case when the characters words and real emotions are conflicting. Their actions will “speak” more than the words they impart verbally.

Try articulating your written dialogues and make sure that they sound natural, including the rhymes and rhythms. If it doesn’t, then you will have to revise.

If your objective is to emphasize dialect and accent to the readers, applying the appropriate rhythm and choice of words will do. Spelling words phonetically can create confusion.

Italicize your character’s exact unspoken thoughts.

How does he run so fast? he asked himself.

However, if you have them paraphrased, you can use your regular font.

Dave wondered how he runs so fast.

It is not advisable to give readers a long series of thoughts because of the discomfort it can give them. Shifting a word in a line of italics to regular Roman is a good option for emphasis. He will never forget her.

Creating Novel Characters Resume and Dialogues

Fiction Writer for Hire

Fiction Writer for Hire

The Character’s Resume

Make sure that you make your characters appear as realistic as possible by designating him with distinct details on his personal life. An effective way is making your own character resume where you can fill in important information. Besides the information required in the standard resume, you can also include some queries commonly found in autographs such as his hobbies or recreations, personal qualities, ambitions, most painful experience, most meaningful experience, preferences in food, drink, art, music, literature, clothing, or you can also include his attitudes towards life and death. You can also provide information on the character’s philosophy in his life. Making a character’s resume will sure help you get ideas on what events to put in your plot that will enlighten the readers of the character’s motivation and his personal qualities. This is also an important part of your project bible in order to achieve consistency throughout the whole story.

Characters’ Dialogues

Dialogue has to sound like an actual verbal conversation between the characters and not just a record of texts. A Good dialogue is important for several reasons:

  • To reveal to the readers what kind of characters are in your story.
  • To enhance the readers’ experience as well as give them knowledge on the distinctive manner of oral communication, language and regularity of the specific kinds of people that exist on the time and place the story is set.
  • To let the readers know important information that will make the story sensible
  • To show how people make use of speech in controlling others – what factors make them succeed or fail to do so; thus ending up building conflicts between the characters.

These are things to consider that can endanger your characters’ dialogue:

  • Applying too much realism to discourse: “Well, uh, um, y’know”
  • Using spellings that are unusual: Using “Yeh” or “Ya” instead of “Yeah”
  • Using speech indicators too often such as “he said,” “she said”
    Frequent change of discourse of characters distinguished by the use of indicators such as “he affirmed,” “she retorted”
  • Exaggeration of vernacular for example is the use of words such as “Miz Scahlut,” “us’s wuhkin’jes’so fas.’”
  • Using direct address more than what is necessary: “I would like to hear, Daniel, what you think of Jessica.” “I despise her, John.” “Why is that, Daniel?” “She intimidates everyone around her, John.”

Constructing a Novel Scene

Novel Writer for Hire

Novel Writer for Hire

The scene is the most essential component of fiction. It has a verbal content where you have lines spoken by the characters. For instance, you may have a young girl being ardently courted by a man. A scene also has a nonverbal content.

If a fiction story writer has convinced the readers of what he wants them to think, then the scene is a successful one. In every scene, there is a conflict that one or more characters have to face. The way the characters deal with these conflicts tell us something about them. It also lets the story progress. There are good exercises that can help beginning novel writers to develop their novel writing skills to construct scenes. This is one exercise that novice novelists can practice. Get a list of simple elements such as:

  • a transportation strike causing downtown traffic
  • a young business man named David Williams, has aggressive personality and faced with many business plights
  • Joey Arthurs, fresh and successful lawyer yet unhappy with his profession

These are only examples. The list may go on as you desire. Using these elements, give yourself 30 minutes to construct a scene that makes use of the elements and leads to a significant conclusion. You will be amazed how easy it is to construct a scene and how other scenes logically come to mind instantaneously just after you’ve thought of one. When constructing a scene, a freelance novelist or someone who is hiring a ghostwriter should know what they want to show their reader regarding the characters and their predicaments. Once the writer has decided on this, producing the scenes is already very easy.

So the fiction writer needs to take into account the events that are put into the story. Make sure that they will help you influence the readers on how you want them to think of your characters, your characters’ traits and values. Write down rational and believable events that will effectively reveal the attributes of your characters.

Sometimes, scenes will present themselves consequentially after you have had your plot. For example, if your protagonist is on a flight to a certain destination, maybe some people from the customs are going to go against her from some reason and the protagonist faces up to this people. This is only an example and there are actually numerous of automatic scenes that will suggest themselves to you.

There are no specifications on the length of a scene, for as long as it is able to convey the message to the readers. A scene could comprise of a single sentence or it could run to as far as 20 pages. The goals of every scene should be met by the time that it ends: to let the readers be more familiar with the characters and the conflicts should have intensified. It is not necessary to set an endless series of conflicts. What is meant is that once the characters succeed on one conflict, another tenser scene follows. After the hero has gotten rid of the terrorist bomb, he becomes a celebrated man. But the terrorists are furious and they plan a scheme to kill him and his loved ones.

There should be as few characters as possible involved in a scene. If your plot however, require you, to include several realistic characters in your story such as in cases when your protagonist is a commanding officer of a military quad, or the head of a school, then follow this tip. Introduce your protagonist first before any character in the story. Put him in a scene that will give the readers ideas on his personality and nature. After that you can establish another scene where each of the supporting characters can be phased in. Make sure that this scene will also be beneficial in the exposure of the qualities of the protagonist. This should also help in the progress of the plot.

If you can successfully build interest from the readers to the different character, then this is a great step in your success of building up their interest in the whole story.

Plotting your Novel

Novel Writer for Hire

Novel Writer for Hire

Third-person omniscient offers writers the most effective opportunities to develop a story. It is most frequently used in stories with complicated plots or large settings where using multiple perspectives is necessary to tell the story. The only disadvantage that it gives to the readers is that they can feel confuse on whom to empathize with in the story. Skipping from one point of view to another should be done in the early stages of the story before the reader has placed emotional investment on the initial point of view.

The author’s persona is indeed a very powerful tool. It can control the reader’s reactions by manipulating his attachment with the characters. It is important that your freelance fiction writer knows how to apply a persona cautiously in your story in order to avoid the three hazards namely:

  1. Failure to evoke emotions. This seems to be a common problem for the narrator who displays evident attitudes towards the elements of the story and makes frequent remarks. It should be the goal of every writer to be able to induce emotional responses from the readers regardless if the events in the story are worthy or unworthy of these emotional responses.
  2. Failure to emphasize the presence of the persona. The author needs to consistently bring to the mind of the readers that the persona is more focal than the story itself through stylistic elaboration, eccentric articulation, or direct expression of opinions about the characters and events of the story. However if the author uses the first person who has stylistic elaboration, eccentric articulation, or direct expression of opinions about the characters and events of the story, then the author will be successful in emphasizing the author’s persona as that of a self – centered individual.
  3. Making the character’s seem trivial. This is common for hard – edged fiction novels told in a detached and disinterested manner, whether first person or third person is used. The persona’s disproportionate detachment makes the events and the character’s problems seem trivial.

The verb tense is a significant aspect of narrating a story. The past tense is commonly used is most stories. However using the past tense for flashbacks can be uncomfortable for readers.

There should be a consistency in the verb tense your novel writer chooses to apply in your story, unless you intentionally illustrated a narrator as a person who changes tenses.

The result of using the present tense is the development of a close relationship with the readers. It seems that neither the narrator nor the readers know the subsequent events because they are occurring as they are being read. However readers of genre fiction novels do not like having the present tense used although using it seems experimental for writers.

How to Write a Novel Defining and Describing Characters

Hire a Novel Writer

Hire a Novel Writer

Developing characters in a novel could be a headache without a plot outline. Plot and characters are greatly interrelated you need to know what part of the character’s life you are going to work in a certain setting. Start to imagine and draw some section of the scenes in your mind. Start to figure out how the main character would react and why they should act that way. Give bits and pieces of revealing information each time. Remember that each time you interact with real people you tend to change the intensity of your feelings by how you relate to them. Their behavior, attitude, outlook, and life events kept on changing and this include how you see them in their phenomenon too.

Life is what you give them! Your characters life experiences are what you give them. They gained what you give! It is an author’s most interesting but difficult job to define each character in the novel and give them intriguing life experiences. Developing fictional characters could be easy or difficult depending on how good you are at observing people and taking other people’s real life experiences beside your own dramatic experience.

Look at the people around you and start feeling how they feel. This will help you relay and emote their experiences on paper. One way is to go to the center of a very busy area or park and just sit down in a coffee shop then look at the passersby. Look at the people passing by and observe their faces. Their expressions could complete section and sections of your story. Expressions are everything. It tells how they feel, the level of their happiness or contentment, and how they take life. Then start defining your characters. You may need more than a pen and a paper for this task. Sometimes a mini laptop, a recorder, or a wi-fi phone by which you can type or record would be crucial and may come in handy anytime, anywhere you feel like writing your thoughts.

Make a sketch of how your character would look like. Appearances help build characters and attitudes. People usually present themselves for what they are inside them. This holds true with creating fictional characters. You are creating people, giving up life experiences, and building up emotions. Describe your main characters appearances, likes, and dislikes first before you create the list of supporting characters. A short or long description depends on the role the characters play. The main character is the only one who needs long description.

How to Create Characters for Novels and Short Stories

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Creating characters in a novel is actually describing each of your characters appearance, likes as well as dislikes, type of personality, and providing history of your character. Type of personality refers to your character being dumb, intelligent, in a pensive mood, observant, sensitive, serious, moron, always happy, reclusive, and outgoing or does not care for anything at all. Reveal your characters personality in bits and pieces in each section often through action description and dialogue. This is the most tricky but interesting part.

The best way to create novel characters is to use real people you observed along your life and develop the rest of the description in your mind. Writing believable characters is simply a matter of writing character driven novels. The reader’s attention center on the main character or other characters to which they can easily understand, feel, connect, and at the same time empathize. The readers’ empathy or emotions play a crucial role to the success of your novel. This goes with the cause and effect theory that we can describe as phenomenon and reaction. You give the phenomenon and let the characters react in their own unique ways base on their personalities.

The novel author must have full awareness and understanding of his own emotional makeup. It would be difficult to write about a characters thoughts and feelings about separation, divorce, relationships, or friendships if the author does not have first hand witnessing or personal accounts of the situations involved. You are right! You may have guessed that the best way to build characters and their life experiences is to witness them your own. Popular movie authors actually spend time experiencing the life experience they give to their protagonist.

Create and define your characters from the onset of your novel to avoid considerable rewriting later on. Make an outline of your plot and put side comments about the character role in that particular section. This way it is faster and easier to edit and redefine your character’s personality. When you create novel characters, it would be advisable to create believable, memorable characters that may fulfill dramatic functions later. Not all of your characters may assume the memorable character criteria but this is a requirement for the main character.

Impressions are lasting and creating memorable character is a lovely technique to create one. Let the reader’s impressions linger in their minds making it memorable for the rest of their lives. The list for a memorable character can go on to as long as defining physical traits, stating clothing preferences, habitual mannerisms, hairstyles, speech habits, or anything that could make him stand apart from the rest of the characters in the novel.