What do endorsements for your genre say?
At the bottom of the novel’s back cover, four short words offered excellent advice for any author writing in that genre.
This weekend at a thrift store, I’d scored a British edition of Graham Brown’s international thriller The Mayan Conspiracy (subtitled “A deadly secret that could change the world”).
Bestselling thriller writer Steve Berry’s words on the back cover were meant to encourage people to read Brown’s novel. But his four, carefully crafted words of assessment offer a checklist for anyone wanting to succeed in the genre.
Berry wrote: “Sizzles with tension and twists.” Those are tough, but fair expectations for any thriller.
Sizzles: It’s a fast-paced story in which the characters play for high stakes.
Tension: Throughout the story, the scenes keep readers anxious about the outcome.
Twists: The characters keep encountering unexpected complications.
If you’re writing international thrillers, that’s what you’d better deliver.
Want advice for another genre? That’s easy. Visit those shelves in a bookstore and note the endorsements. They’ll give you a short course in what that genre’s readers expect.
