Aspiring authors are always looking for the next right
thing—the hottest new trend. They read voraciously, pouring over the latest
blogs and the buzzing new titles, trying to discover what other writers, agents
and publishing experts may know that they don’t.
But despite all the great advice out there, and despite
also what the marketing gurus may have you believe, writing a bestseller isn’t
something that comes about by accident. When it comes to book publishing,
whether through traditional or independent channels, there is, and always has
been, a bestseller formula.
What is it? To begin with, the old publishing maxim:
“Plot sells” always applies, but in bestseller territory, that plot has to
operate according to some very specific parameters.
First, your protagonist must experience a life-altering
event, preferably in the first 10 pages of your novel. What that event might be
is entirely the author’s choice. They might discover a dead body, they might get
the job they’ve always wanted, they might take on a client out of the kindness
of their hearts, move to a new school, get abducted by aliens, or find out they
are in line for the throne. The specifics don’t matter. The important thing is,
this event changes everything, even if your protagonist doesn’t know it
yet.
Second, the event must somehow reveal to the protagonist
that, whether it involves good fortune or bad, things are not what they seem.
Thus, stage two of your plot development must involve, to some degree, a loss of
innocence. Maybe the new job involves compromises the protagonist is unwilling
to make. Maybe the dead body did not die of natural causes but was murdered, and
that murder is one of a string of such crimes. Perhaps the young Pro Bono
attorney discovers his client is an ungrateful SOB, who is nevertheless a
victim, or the heroine finds there’s something really weird about this new
school, or somebody is taking potshots at the heir to the throne. Again, the
choice is yours. But to deepen the reader’s empathy with your character’s
situation, a degree of disillusion has to happen, hot on the heels of the life-
changing event in question.
That loss of innocence involved must in turn serve to
strengthen your character’s resolve. Despite conflict and despite misgiving they
must win the court case, play office politics, discover the murderer, graduate
high school, or refuse to abdicate their rights to the throne. They are in
search of Truth, after all, and Truth must be revealed in the course of the
story.
In a bestseller, that quest for Truth will necessarily
put them at the mercy of forces beyond their control. Those might manifest as
some ancient Vatican secret, a war breaking out; corruption extending to the
highest level of government or discovering supernatural forces and being hauled
off to the funny farm for your pains. It might involve your parents trying to
marry you off to a philandering pipsqueak as your soulmate lies wounded on the
battlefield, or the serial killer is your old boyfriend. Whatever. But at this
point in your bestseller, it needs to be obvious to the reader that whatever
else is going on, your protagonist is in very deep doo-doo.
At which point they can only choose to pursue their
quest at great personal peril, confronting seemingly insurmountable odds. They
need to get fired, lose the fortune, be disowned, get expelled, get shot, or
have somebody cut their brake lines or plant a car bomb. Actual physical peril
is essential to the formula, and if you’re really good, these new events and
twists of plot will leave your protagonist more or less unscathed, but will cause them to lose a valuable ally or
someone they love—the spouse, the trusty sidekick; a lady’s maid who sips the
poisoned wine, the hapless, cheerful neighbor who borrowed the car. That element
of profound personal loss or sacrifice is another essential element of the
bestseller formula, but it’s also important to have it be something of a
surprise, to both the reader and the protagonist.
Finally, the bestseller must have a satisfying
resolution. Too many authors fail in that respect because they’re leaving
themselves open for the sequel. Regardless of whether or not you’re planning a
series though, by the end of your bestseller, secrets must be revealed and
conspiracies thwarted. Justice must be done, wars should end and true love
should triumph, at least to a degree. Sadder perhaps, but wiser, your
protagonist doesn’t need to emerge from your plot with the whole enchilada.
That’s a fairy tale, which is entirely distinct from a bestseller. In fact, it’s
often better when they don’t. What they do need to convey to the reader however
is a sense of ultimate satisfaction. Whatever happened, whatever they’ve done
and despite what they’ve lost, that sense of knowing, deep down, that it was all
worth it?
That’s the happiest ending of all.
Editor Teresa Kennedy is a specialist in story
development and author coaching. For more about her services, come see us at http://villagegreenpressLLC.com
