Want To Write A Book That Sells? Don’t Make This Mistake

Everyone wants to write a book that sells. And this inner drive can lead writers down the wrong path and writing the wrong book.

They try to write a book that they think will ‘sell’ as opposed to a book they really want to write.

This is the mistake that will ruin your book.

Once, I worked with an aspiring (fiction) writer who wanted to write a ‘romance.’ He said it was going to be ‘the best romance ever’ because it wasn’t going to have any of those ‘tired old romance tropes all the other books had.

Alarm bells went off in my head. I asked him which romances does he enjoy reading. He proudly told me ‘none’. He thought they were too cliche, but they sell well, and he knew he could write a better one.

Full stop.

He could NOT write a better one because he HATED the genre.

What he referred to as ‘tired old tropes’ were really the heart of a romance book. They’re the whole reason the reader bought the price of admission. If he left them out, he would have had a lot of very disappointed and angry readers.

Because here’s the thing. Whether you love or hate your genre, it shows in every paragraph. The readers can feel it. And it can totally turn them off your book.

Permanently.

So take a good hard look at that book you’re writing.

Consider if it’s the type of book you would read. If it was the book you wish you had a few years ago before you knew what’s contained in the pages.

If the answer is no, then you are writing the wrong book.

Post in the comments a book you started writing before you realized it was the wrong one.