How to keep readers coming back by saying "thank you" with every word you writePlease stop. Stop!
Your writing is boring me to pieces. Well, maybe not your writing, but don't be so sure it's not you...
I am not ranting, darling. I am giving you very good advice. If you want to write for money--and as important, if you want what you write to have any impact whatsoever--then you need to think about your reader, not yourself. Read on. You'll thank me.
Get over yourself!
Bad writers abound these days. They always have, but they now have more weapons with which to assault us than ever before. Maybe you're one of the guilty, slopping piffle all over the screen and then hitting "send"--I won't call you out, but I suggest you might want to disarm yourself before you publish your next piece. The quickest way to do that is to remember that readers have choices--you are one of billions they could spend their valuable time and energy reading. Don't take it for granted that just because you thought it, it's worth sharing.
You're in business, dear
I'm not saying you won't get paid to type silliness and blather--sadly, many editors publish garbage all the time. But, not if they know better, and especially not if they don't have to! If you write what matters to readers--you'll get contracts, and then some. Think of yourself as a business person, because whether you're writing fiction, travel, memoir, or essays--if you're selling it, you're in business. And why bother to go into business if you don't intend for it to grow?
Gratitude grows your bottom line
Businesses that last have built-in ways of showing gratitude to their customers--after all, business is about relationships, right? And relationships where one party doesn't feel appreciated don't last very long, do they?
So, here's how gratitude works for writers:
1)Think in terms of customer service
Consider that your readers are investing their time in you. They deserve a return on that investment. Give it to them! Write something that makes your readers think. It might be something that causes them to reflect on their own lives; gives them practical information; helps them help others, improves their ability make money, or just makes them laugh. Whatever it is, the attention should be on the reader's needs, not yours--even if you're writing your life story.
2) Anticipate your reader's questions: if you are writing a travel piece, for example, your reader might want to know if they visit the place you're describing, what should they expect to wear? That doesn't necessarily mean--although it could--that you write, "Wear jeans." It might just mean that you somehow describe the climate. Why? Because anyone going on a trip wants to know what to pack. If you answer that question, in general terms anyway, you've made yourself very useful.
3) Borrow from Business: ask what about your subject will surprise and delight the reader, and then be sure to include that. "Surprising and delighting customers" has become a cliché in commerce, but that's because when done properly, surprising and delighting customers means repeat sales. So, don't dismiss it. Employ it. What can you offer readers that makes your piece memorable without being gratuitous or weird (unless weird works)? Take that travel piece again--you're probably not the first, and won't be the last, to write about the place--but what can you offer that makes your story unique? Did you discover that at a certain time of day, shadows of trees fall in a pattern resembling a Chinese dragon? That's cool! Write it down.
4) Know your strengths: and stick to them. You can always improve aspects of your writing, but if you know you are a very good feature writer--maybe you have a way of describing things that give people pause--then start there. A personal pet peeve is bad memoir writing. Just because something is "your story" doesn't mean you a) know what's important to readers about it and/or b) can write it without getting stuck in your own mud. If you can't find a way to get over your self pity or whatever type of self-involvement often reeks from memoir, then discerning readers will care less about your story. The strength of memoir writing is that it offers some insight gained from whatever happened. If that's not your long suit, skip it. (oh, and how would you know, right? Sigh. The world is full of sniveling.)
5) Keep the drivel to yourself, or among a "select" few: I keep a private Facebook account for when I feel like being silly, solipsistic, or obnoxious (no, this is not me being obnoxious; if you only knew). I do not use my channels of commerce to slosh the contents of my brain onto everyone who might actually want to do business with me, because if I did, I am sure I would bore them to tears. Technology really is pushing who we are in private into who we are all the time, but there's still a time and place where it's okay to have your nose in your navel, and times when it's not. Know the difference.
Why does it matter so much?
A dollar a word used to be the holy grail of freelancer pay--that was around the early 1970's. By the 1990's, it was the standard minimum for most national publications. Now we're back to having to practically fight to get paid that amount by many publishers. For books, it's a little different, but amortizing the amount you get paid over the number of words you actually write--well m'dear, the margins are definitely shrinking. Your best defense against this--assuming your writing is well-structured--is to cherish others' time.
Let me be a witness to this: bad writers make big bucks all the time. Their secret isn't secret at all; they think they deserve it, they know how to run their writing as a profitable business, and then they make it so. It's that simple. But oh, how sumptuous to find a writer who's not only business savvy, but also gracious!
If that's you, your readers--and editors and publishers--will return the favor by coming back for more.
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