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

How to Write a Bestseller (Part One) - Advice from 4 Well-Known Romance Authors

by Enisa Haines

What is it about some books that they hurtle onto bestseller lists? Four popular romance authors share

their tips on the writing of a bestseller.

Anna Campbell, Award-winning Regency Historical Romance author:

Hi Breathless gals! Thanks for much for asking me to contribute to this blog about what makes a

bestseller - to which my immediate answer was "I wish I knew". But then I thought a bit harder about

books of mine that have done particularly well and it all came down to hooks that draw in the reader.

So for example, my very popular novella Stranded with the Scottish Earl is pretty much what it says

it is - cabin romance with a handsome Scotsman. Seven Nights in a Rogue's Bed is my bestselling

full-length book, and it has a lot of hooks - sexual premise, Beauty and the Beast story, tortured hero,

brave virginal heroine, gothic setting. There's a couple of tried and true hooks that never lose their

appeal. Examples include Cinderella, fish out of water, marriage of convenience, friends to lovers,

enemies to lovers. Even better, if you take one of those beloved tropes and manage to twist it in a

new and exciting way, you're well on your way to a bestseller.

Anne Gracie, Award-winning Regency Historical Romance Author:

How to write a bestseller? Of course a good story is crucial (actually better to have a blow-your-

mind-knockout premise), memorable characters and good writing. But there's also a lot of luck

involved - who first reads it, being 'discovered' and how they spread the word, and whether you're

being built through intense publisher promo, or slower word of mouth. And being prolific certainly

helps, especially in indie publishing. If you're not an instant smash hit, then you need to build a body

of work - when a new reader enjoys a new book, they look for your backlist. That's why all my books

for Berkley are still in print - people keep buying my backlist. But I can never tell which of my books

is going to do well, and often it surprises me. I was worried that my book Autumn Bride would be a

flop, because the romance really begins in the second half of the book. Instead, readers bonded with

the female characters, and the book sold really well.

Kelly Hunter, USA Today Bestselling Author:

Thanks for the opportunity, Enisa! Oh, if only I had the recipe for perpetual bestseller creation.

Because my personal favourites (namely my quieter stories that have often been my award winners)

have never been my USA Today bestsellers. I've analysed the why of it and come to the vague

conclusion that my volume bestsellers all have brand recognition and a strong and unique story

premise. If you can distill that premise down to a you-beaut log line, do it. For example, a pretend

wife inadvertently orders a hit on her new 'husband' while holidaying in Hong Kong. A memorable

title helps (Wife for a Week). So, too, does publisher promo support. Simple! (Not simple.)

Rachael Johns, International Bestselling Author:

I'm a totally organic writer so my tip is to write from your heart, to write something you'd love to

read.

For years I tried to write literary romance because that's what they wanted me to write at university

and after that I tried to write sexy romance for Mills & Boon because I thought surely that had to be

easier than literary fiction. Bahaha! Both are equally as hard in different ways - all writing is hard,

but I strongly believe it should also be fun. And for me writing stopped being fun and I was ready to

give up, so I decided to forget about literary fiction or category romance and just write a book I

would love to read. I decided to try and forget about being published and just find the love again. The

book was Jilted (my first print-published book) - I forgot everything I'd been taught so far and just let

the words pour out of me as they would if I'd spoken them.

Even when I later changed genres and tried my hand at women's fiction (with The Patterson Girls), it

wasn't a conscious decision to write in another genre - the story came to me first and I fell in love

with the premise before I started writing.

I'll admit not every book is a joy and ideas don't always come when I need them to, but the ones that I

have a strong idea about, the ones I'm excited about, do flow easier and I believe that comes across on

the page.

My second piece of advice would be to stress less about the so-called rules of writing - following

these rules to the letter can make you sound like every other writer out there. Your voice is your point

of difference, don't let trying to do everything 'right' strip you of your essence!

There you have it, writing a bestseller isn't as simple as it sounds. Watch out for Part Two where four

more beloved romance authors offer their hints for bestseller success.

What, to you, makes a bestseller?

Love to love: romance novels you just can't put down (and I'm so thankful there are many of them!)

Love to laugh: at the crazy antics of animals on YouTube.

Love to learn: about Medieval history. A brutal and yet fascinating time in our past.