Writing with the Reader in Mind:Tips for Writing Commercially Selling Fiction

by Jennifer Ashley

1. Writers get caught up in critiques, contests, awards, reviews, workshops, conferences, etc. Often the reader gets lost or forgotten entirely.

2. To write commercially viable fiction, you must entertain the reader. Best-selling authors write what people are interested in reading about.

3. Readers of romance want:

1. Characters (over-the-top, especially the heroes)

2. Detailed description. (Forget “less is more” or writing “tight and clean.” Romance is not 1940s noir. Readers like exact and vivid description of characters, settings, action, love scenes, emotions, etc.)

3. Sensuality and sexual tension. (Note, a sensual book does not necessarily have many sex scenes. Consummation is closure. Sensuality is anticipation and tension. Even in erotica!)

4. Subgenre elements (e.g., vamp romances with interesting/fresh vampire lore; paranormals with lots of magic, shape-shifters, etc.; erotic romance with graphic sensuality; inspirational romance with spiritual growth and awareness; romantic comedy with over-the-top humor; romantic suspense with gritty darkness.)

4. The market changes all the time (is dynamic). Always keep your eye on it. Read, read, read.

5. Determine not so much the trends, but what the trends have in common. (For example, paranormals and romantic suspense are popular in the romance market today, while sweet Regencies and romantic comedy has faded somewhat. Commonality? Paranormals and rom. sus. are plot driven. Sweet Regencies and romantic comedy are character driven.)

6. Write for readers, not other writers! Writers judge your work by a different criteria. What drives them crazy (e.g., an over-the-top alpha hero) might be loved by the readers. Trust the elements in the novels that have been published and are selling well. Use writers to tell you if your grammar is correct or your transitions and pacing are good—but don’t let them tell you to change elements you know in your heart that readers love.

7. Learn to accept that the market is the way it is—not the way you want it to be.

8. Realize that in the marketplace, there is something for everyone—find what you are willing to write to make a living.

9. Bookstores and readers determine what the market is, not the publishers. If a certain type of book or setting/time-period, etc., isn’t in the bookstore, that is because it doesn’t sell in great enough numbers for the bookstore to want to stock it.

10. Study Bookscan or bookstore best-seller lists or USA Today for authors who are fairly new, and read them. These authors are selling because of what is in their books, not yet because of their names.

11. Don’t go by Amazon rankings to determine whether a book is selling well. Outside the top 500, it’s completely useless.

12. Listen to readers! Listen to what readers are excited about, what books they are anticipating. Go to reader conferences and eavesdrop—see whose “goodies” are scooped up and kept.

13. Don’t write to what readers or authors complain about. Often readers or writers are disgruntled because their favorite author or subgenre is no longer popular. Writing to please them will likely fail, because they will not buy in sufficient numbers to keep you employed. The reason their favorites are not popular is because the majority of buying readers are interested in something else.

14. The above tips are not about writing award-winning novels, or the Great American Novel, or the novel that will thrill your creative writing teacher or reviewers. These tips are about writing and selling commercial romance novels in great enough numbers to put you on a best-seller list.  If you both sell and gain critical acclaim—wonderful! You have the best scenario of all!

Recent Bibliography:

As Jennifer Ashley: Penelope & Prince Charming (Leisure, Apr. 2006); Just One Sip (anthology with Katie Macallister, Oct. 2006); The Mad, Bad Duke (Leisure, Dec. 2006); The Calling: The Immortals Book 1 (Love Spell, May 2007),

As Allyson James: Dragon Heat (Berkley, July 2007); Dragon Magic (Berkley, Nov. 2007);

As Ashley Gardner: A Covent Garden Mystery  (Berkley Prime Crime, July 2006, book 6 of the Captain Lacey mysteries)

Copyright © 2007, Jennifer Ashley
All rights reserved.
You may reprint this chapter in whole or in part
provided credit is given to the author.