I would have been wrong.

Now there is good reason behind my previous thinking. More often than not I don’t remember the actual title to the last book I read. I remember characters or plot or author, but the title, especially with romances, tend to fade. And in a bookstore I don’t grab up a book for the title…cover yeah, but title? No way.

But the fact is titles can sell a book. They can sell it to an editor or an agent. They can sell it to readers. They can even sell it to Hollywood.  Here are a few examples of titles that I believe helped sell the book:

The Naked Duke

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Eat, Sleep, Poop

Carpe Demon: Adventures of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom

Do any of these titles get your attention? They do mine and I guarantee they have helped the success of these books. Why? Because they are high concept. They in seven words or less grab your attention and tell you this book is going to be different while also playing on some concept you already know and love.

The known and popular, but fresh. It’s a killer combo and if you can relay it in a book title you have a very marketable gift.

Another thing about these titles is they all show contrast. They put the unexpected together. Think Duke. You think aristocratic, noble, if you are a romance reader, maybe alpha. You do not think naked. Pride and Prejudice? Well, before this book, your brain certainly didn’t go to zombies. Eat, sleep….fill in the blank. Love? No POOP. (Dreamworks by the way just picked up the rights to make this into a movie. A how to book being made into a comedy! I have to think the title helped that deal come to be.) And finally, soccer mom does not equal demon hunter.

None of these things go together and that is exactly what makes all of us go “Oh, I need to read that.” And that, people, is what makes them high concept.

I, like many published romance authors who are members of Romance Writers of America (RWA), judge RWA’s big contest, the Rita. I haven’t started my entries this year, but in the past I have received books entered as romances that just weren’t. In fact I have received books that had zero romance in them. Yes, there was a boy and there was a girl….uh and that is where it stopped. (An aside…the Ritas have a box for judges to check that says either “not a romance” or “wrong category”. If a certain number of judges check the box for one book, it will be disqualified from that category.)

So, what makes a book a romance novel?

Romance.

Not a clear enough answer? Okay, I’ll go a little deeper, but first let’s clarify a bit. My definition is for today’s genre romance. It is not for classic romances written two hundred years ago, or even literary books that might be romantic. This is for genre romances.

Okay, so there is romance. Someone (in mainstream fiction this still means two people) falls in love. But and this is huge, not only do these people fall in love, but the story of their romance is KEY to the novel. How key will vary by sub-genre (in romantic suspense the romance plot may take up less than half of the book), but if you yanked the romance plot out of the book, the story would fall apart. You would not have a book that stood on its own. Period. No way around it.

This does not mean any of the cliches you hear about romance is true. The hero and heroine do not have to meet on page one–although since the romance is one of the, if not the, key plot line you can see how this might be a good idea. The hero doesn’t have to be rich or dashing. The heroine does not have to be a virgin or feisty. You just have to have a romance!! And that romance has to be important to the book! Very important!

Oh, and if the book is a GENRE romance there had better be a HEA (happily ever after). In murder mysteries the reader wants the killer caught. In romances we want the love to last. Just the way it is.

And that, people, is about it.

One last word of warning. You can not tell a romance by its cover or what is written on the spine. You may in fact pick up a book that says “romance” on the spine. This does not sadly guarantee that what you are reading is in fact a romance. What it does guarantee is that the publisher and their marketing team think the book will SELL better as a romance. Yep, that’s right at times books are labeled or packaged just to sell the book. But you now will know if you are reading a romance, right? And how? Because there will be romance important to the overall success of the book in it!

I’ve been wanting to start something new for a long time that focused on writing–the business and craft of writing. And I had an idea for a book club! Every four to six weeks we will pick a new book on writing, read and discuss it.

The group is open to anyone who wants to join. There are a few rules. The big one being NO PROMOTION. This is about writing not selling our books. Anyone guilty may be booted off immediately. Also, no flame wars. I have enough stress in my life, as I’m sure you all do. Other rules may follow, but honestly, as long as we stick to talking about books on writing…how many can there be?

Our first book is Save The Cat by Blake Synder. It’s a screenwriting book, but also an excellent resource for novelists.

If you are a writer, I hope you’ll come play with us!

Hope to see some of you there!

Tameri Guide for Writers: Plot and Story.

I love tricksters. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the trickster (or don’t think you are, I’m sure all of you have seen a trickster or two), tricksters are(quoting Terri Windling) “contradictory creatures: they are liars, knaves, rascals, fools, clowns, con men, lechers, and thieves — but they are also culture heroes whose tricks can do great good as well as great harm, and whose stories serve to uphold the very traditions mocked by their antics.” They are also frequently shapeshifters.

In Norse mythology (which I base my Unbound series on) you have the god Loki. Loki is always poking a stick at someone. In Native American lore you have coyote and raven. In African the god Anansi, a spider. Rabbit is also a trickster in various cultures–obvious U.S. examples are Br’er Rabbit and Bugs Bunny. In literature Neil Gaiman had an entire book about the trickster Anansi (Anansi Boys). Terri Windling edited an anthology The Coyote Road and Tony Hillerman wrote the novel Coyote Waits. In Amazon Ink, I use rabbit in the form of an actual rabbit, but I also have a character who plays the trickster role.

The trickster is often seen as mean, but really he is teaching a lesson. Without the trickster, other characters would go unchallenged and without challenge we get comfortable with the status quo. Tricksters promote growth and from an author’s point of view, provide conflict. But they do it in an entertaining way. They don’t walk up and poke a finger in the hero’s chest saying “You need to change.” No, they, knowing the hero’s weaknesses, set him up. They provide the setting for the hero to be his own downfall. And in the end, the hero (hopefully) grows from it.

So, that’s a brief overview of trickster and where you might find him today. Where do you find him, what books, movies and TV shows do you see that still use him, and do you love him or hate him? (As I said at the beginning, you can put my check firmly in the love column.)

I’ve written a number of books, and plotted even more. For the first four or so, my process changed with each book. I thought I was incapable of having a process. Then I hit on one that seemed to work for me…for a FEW books. This is where I made a mistake. I tried to force myself to stick with that process because, “HEY, it worked before.” Unfortunately, a book can not be forced. If you try to force a book or any element of a book (characters, romantic connection) it reads like that and I can feel it as I’m writing it. This makes me twitchy. It is way far from fun.

I have three projects to plot and I’m taking bits from the processes that worked before and mixing them into something new. So far its working for me.

I started with the characters, not just their goals, motivations and conflict, but their physical appearances. I did not, however, do the fill in the blank thing–this has never worked for me. Instead I trolled the Internet and found pictures. Then beside each I write the book title, the character’s name and what they are (werewolf, vampire, Amazon queen). From there I open Word and just start typing.

I love this part–this is the story telling part. First I write a short blurb describing each of the main characters–like you might find on the back cover of a book. Then I move on to the actual book–a synopsis. I keep this like back cover copy in tone too, but longer and with an ending and plot twists.

I just tell the story, writing it down as I do. It is FUN. And by doing this I keep from slipping into the analytical part of my brain. I think that is why writers freeze while trying to write synopses. They move out of story-teller mode into business-writing mode. A synopsis is your story–just a boiled down version, don’t get so caught up in the facts, let it flow. Then later when it is on the page you can do exactly what you do with your book…revise.

(FYI, the main difference between this process and my last version is that I was charting turning points before I started the writing. That’s what began to feel forced. I have that form on my web site, if you are interested. It might work for you and even if you do the more story-teller oriented version of this, plugging those pieces in afterwards is a a great way to check and make sure you have them all there. Also the pictures. I used to do that, but then I let my A personality take over and I tried to rush things. To write a book you have to be relaxed. That’s my new mantra. :) )

I tried it. I liked it. So should you. :)

For further inspiration, check out the developer’s blog. I especially liked the second entry down where he talks about the 48 minute rule. DrWicked.com.

I have now worked with three different publishing houses and they all pretty much work the same way. We’re going to start this AFTER you have completed the book and it is sold.

The first step is revisions. My most extensive revisions were on my first book, but even those weren’t too terrible. Revisions can come though in the form of say a 20 page letter. The tough thing about revisions, no matter how minor, is getting past your initial gut reaction to pitch a fit. :) Thoughts like “if it is so bad why did they buy it?” are pretty common. At this stage it is wise to stay away from all forms of communication with anyone anywhere except maybe a trusted writing friend who understands your moment of temporary insanity.

So, you work all that out and send in the revisions. Life is good again.

Then come copy edits. Copy edits are after a copy editor has (in addition to your regular editor) gone through your book and made changes by marking on the manuscript manually. These changes range from grammatical to good Lord knows what. My favorite part of CEs (and I mean this sincerely) is the continuity check–things like pointing out your heroine had blue eyes on page 6, green on page 200 and brown at the end. But copy edits can be as painful as revisions. Like all things, there are good copy editors and bad copy editors. You can get a copy editor who doesn’t get you–or thinks all of your dialogue should be written like an English text book. Or in one personal instance deleted all of my scene breaks where a character point of view happened, making it look like I was a head-hopping fiend.

So, you have to re-read everything and decide which changes you like and which you hate. You write STET to keep things the way you had them and draw little lines, etc. to insert new bits you’ve decided you need. At this stage you can do those things; it is totally acceptable to add a full page of new stuff if you like.

You send off the pages you had quibbles with (not the whole manuscript) and life is good again.

Then about the time you are fully engrossed in some new project, galleys arrive. This stage is the only place where one of my publishers (Harlequin) does things differently. They don’t do galleys; they do something called Author Authorizations or AAs. Galleys look exactly like the final book will look, the pages the same size, the type the same size and set in whatever font it will be set. AAs are more like a manuscript page but with each line numbered. This is actually kind of handy because if time is short you can email back the changes with the page number and line number noted. You can do this with galleys too (because of time restraints that is what I’ll be doing with Amazon Ink), but it isn’t quite as smooth.

At the galley stage you can not add a new scene or delete three pages. Well, you can, but people are not going to be happy with you and can in fact charge you for that. Galleys are not for changes–they are for making sure the copy edits were done as you requested.

But, like copy edits, you have to sit down and read the whole thing again. Trust me, by this time you do not want to read this book again. And galleys are the worst because if you hate something major, you are probably stuck with it. (Which actually is good because whatever it is is probably fine and you are just psychoing out….)

After this, you are done. You do not ever have to read your book again, and for what it is worth I never have. I have never picked up one of my books in the completed, bound form and re-read more than was necessary for a reading at a bookstore. I have friends who re-read their books, but I like living in ignorance–the thing is done. I’d much rather read something brand new to me that I didn’t write. :)

Oh, but you do wait eagerly for those author copies (free copies of actual book that you negotiate in your contract) or ARCs (advance reader copies that are sometimes produced). I love getting those boxes!

I know how I write and I know another 1,000 plus words will come out in revisions. There is a distinct possibility an entire scene will appear–which would put me nicely over the 85. So, as I said, I am DONE!

Yay! Funny how good you feel when you finish even though I enjoyed writing this book (for the most part). There was a section where things got dicey, but I pushed through and got to the last act where a lot of lovely action ensued. I love the action. Love writing it. I think if I could write a book of nothing but fight scenes I would oh so happy. And really good conflict filled dialogue. I love that too.

So, now I will pay bills (something I don’t love) and tomorrow I will set to work revising either this or the Bite that is due July 1. Maybe a bit of both….