How to Write A Bestseller (Part Two) - Advice from 4 Well-Known Romance Authors

by Enisa Haines

Welcome to Part Two of my investigation into How to Write a Bestseller where again I get a sneak

peak into just how four beloved Aussie romance authors make a book a runaway success.


Melanie Milburne, USA Today Bestselling Romance author:

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Writing a best-selling romance...Write real but larger than life characters. Make them believable people you can relate to and empathise with and feel sympathy for. Make sure their dialogue is true to their character and to their emotional state in each scene. Don't over-complicate the plot but rather draw out the emotional conflicts unique to each character. When you think you've got enough emotional punch, double it.






Valerie Parv, Bestseller and Pioneer in Romance Writing:

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Firstly, I don't believe you can set out to write a bestseller. At most you could analyse numbers of successful books and try to identify common elements. But Hollywood does this routinely and still produces some astonishingly expensive failures. I believe it's far better to pour your heart and soul into a story you can't wait to tell, trusting that your passion will resonate with millions of readers. If you avoid writing your story thinking it has to be a bestseller and you're afraid nothing else will do, the only way is to plunge in and write the book anyway. Move past your need for the work to be perfect - it never will be. Focus on the story you're eager to tell about characters who are alive in your mind. Let your passion carry you away and there's a good chance you'll have the same effect on your readers. If you're lucky they will talk about this wonderful story they've read and urge their friends to read it, too. Those friends will tell their friends until readers everywhere want to share the experience. That's how you make a bestseller.

Annie West, USA Today Bestselling Romance Author:

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What makes a Bestseller? Ah, if only I knew for sure. Sadly, there's no set recipe for how to write a bestselling romance. But here are a couple of ingredients:

• Writing that makes us feel!
• A different take on a familiar romance theme. Something fresh that sparks and comes alive so that, before we know it, we're sucked into the story and don't want to leave.
• Characters we want to spend time with. Maybe they're engaging from the start. Maybe they get our sympathy initially because of their circumstances. Maybe we don't want them to like them but there's something about them that overturns our wariness - they surprise us or tug at our emotions despite our reservations. These are people who, for whatever reason, won't fade into the background. We care about them, relate to them and wait with bated breath for their happy ending.
• A vivid world that is real and fascinating.
• Passion. By this I don't necessarily mean a love scene. But passion from the author and in the characters. This place, these people and their problems must matter. And of course, I think characters who are passionate about what's important to them, draw us in all the more.

Helene Young, Award-winning Romantic Suspense author:

I think the most important aspect of storytelling is to have characters your readers care about. Our readers need to worry that the characters might not get their happily ever after, might not survive to see love blossom. They need to go on the emotional roller-coaster with our hero and heroine, laugh with them, cry with them and feel that solid punch of love when the world jolts off its axis. They need to barrack for them when times get tough and forgive them when they make mistakes. A solid plot is a handy thing as well, but for me there is no greater compliment than a reader emailing me to say that they couldn't stop thinking about my characters.

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Great advice, each author saying in their own way: "Write from your heart and soul. Write with passion."

How do you keep readers turning the page?

Love to love: seeing kindness in others

Love to laugh: at funny yet clever conversation

Love to learn: about far-away lands

10 Things I Loved About the Australian Romance Readers Convention Canberra 2015

with Cassandra Samuels

Hi, Cassandra here. I had the great privilege of attending a day at the Australian Romance Readers Convention in Canberra on the 7th of March.

Here are just a few of the things I loved about the weekend..

1. Helene Young's keynote speech. Wonderful and inspiring to all women, Helene proves that there is no limit to what a woman can do. She told us how she became a pilot against the odds, how she bluffed her way to a job in England, and how she came to write some of her fantastic Romantic Suspense novels.



2. The hilariously funny launch of 'Tribal Law' by Shannon Curtis. She wrote the book based on the suggestions of ARRA members and all profits from sales go back to ARRA.








3. I met John Purcell, part of the Booktopia team and author of the Emma Series (under his pen name Natasha Walker). He was was very tall and a lovely person to talk to. Believe it or not, he is the runt of the family. Or so he says.








4. The hot air balloons that rose up over Lake Burley Griffin in the early morning. Amazing site.









5. The goodies table was full of amazing things for readers to take home. Everything from bookmarks and pens to notebooks and chocolates.




6. It was my first ever ARRC author book signing. I met so many wonderful readers and found out that pens are a very popular giveaway item.









7. The Awards night was flappertastic, the theme being the 1920s. There were feathers as far as the eye could see (mostly on the floor). I wasn't a winner this year but I had an absolute ball with my new reader and writer friends.









8. The 'bling off' was great with at least a dozen up for the prize for best dressed. Even Fabio tried to get in on the act. The prize went to a lady who had an authentic 1920s dress that was divine.







9. The volunteer ARRC team did an amazing job of putting the convention together. I can't wait to go to the next one.



10. All the wonderful authors who gave up their time to come to the convention and participate in so many ways, in particular, the author signing. It was great catching up with so many friends.

All the authors who attended this year in all their flapper glory.

Which author would you like to see at a readers' convention?

Love to Love: meeting new readers.

Love to Laugh: at the amount of feathers lost during the Awards night.

Love to Learn: about other genres and how those authors approach writing their books.