authorsuccess

You’ve probably seen this advice a dozen times or more: “You need to have cliffhangers in your stories to keep people reading.” And if you’re coming from novel-style writing, this goes against a lot of writing and publishing advice, because novel readers can react negatively to cliffhangers. But why  do cliffhangers matter so much? Why do novel readers often hate them? And how can you use that to your advantage in serial fiction? Readers hate waiting more than they hate cliffhangers. The...

by Arielle Bailey I know it’s tempting to groan at the idea of an Ideal Reader. After all, it sounds like a lot of work to define someone nebulous, and it can sound elitist. However, an ideal reader is not about excluding your stories to groups of people and it’s not about creating a dream reader out of thin air with no data. Why Finding Your Ideal Reader Matters Authors need readers. They write for readers. But when it comes to marketing their story or telling others about their story, it...