Welcome to Tuesday Book Chat. This is where we encourage book lovers to answer our bookish question of the week.
Today’s question is:
What is something you wish writers knew about readers?
We look forward to hearing your thoughts. Please join in the conversation by commenting on this post or on the blog post shared in our Australasian Christian Writers Facebook Group.
Let’s chat!
One thing would be that not all readers like all genres. So if you write different genres and subgenres its ok if readers don’t read all your books.
As readers (and readers only) we don’t know all the writing jargon but do know what we like and don’t like. Often we don’t know what a trope is or other names. Even if we know what a trope is we don’t necessary need to be told this is a enemy to friend book or a secret baby. Sometimes being told what the trope is doesn’t always make us want to read the book. Sometimes we would rather just read the book and decide for ourselves what the books is.
Oh and one other thing if you have a newsletter and ask questions or if a reader replies please answer. There is nothing more discouraging than an author asking a question and you take the time to reply and then hear nothing and the next newletter no mention of the previous question. The same goes for blogs if you ask a question check the comments. (Actually if you are posting check and reply to all comments as not responding is a good way to lose readers)
Your turn.
I look forward to reading your comments here or at the FB group. Remember all comments go into the monthly drawer for a gift voucher.
As a reader, I don’t mind being told the trope. It actually helps me know if I want the book or not. There are some tropes I don’t like, so I’d rather know right away (like the bad boy/one of them is unsaved trope). But they don’t always have to spell it out. I think there are ways to slip in the trope with some clever wording which would make it feel fresh while still letting me know the basics of the story.
I definitely agree that if you write multiple genres that an author shouldn’t expect their readers to read them all. And even if it is the same genre, I’ll still skip some books in a series if it just doesn’t appeal to me or is a trope I don’t like.
Thanks Dienece you said it better than me. if it read secret baby I would probably give it a miss but if it wasn’t said that way at the beginning I may read it. I can handle it more in a suspense. I struggle with the enemy to more trope. To me an enemy is not what most in books are. To me its like right now with the war in the Ukraine enemies are the two apposing sides. or less extreme someone who committed a crime against the other or even a bully. A bully who has tormented and made life unbearable for someone say in high school to then 10 years later becoming the hero/heroine. I would really struggle to read this sort of book and I would really find it hard to believe it, even if the bully has changed and turned their lives around it would take a lot to convince me. So if a book like this was in a series I would probably give it a miss regardless of the author.
Sometimes readers don’t always understand the big or more obscure words that are used. It is extremely frustrating to have to pull out a dictionary to find out what a word means. There is also the trick of using very colloquial words – unless you’re from that particular region, they really don’t mean much or could mean something very different entirely.
Thanks for commenting Beth. I agree. It really pulls you out of a book and is often not needed. One author will use bigger words due to the character but its clear what the word means or she explains it but other times it’s so unnecessary. I agree with colloquial words too. I like when an author who is using these words for a region has a glossary at the front of words and meanings.
Its the same with names of characters that are different. There are names in America often in the south I haven’t heard of or have no idea how they are pronounced. I like when an author will show how the word is pronounced. One author had the girl introduce herself to the hero and she showed how the name is pronounced for him. It really helped.