I was watching the telly a couple of days ago and I happened to catch a 100 richest celebs kinda show on E!
Now, most of them have had to work for their supper but some, like Steven Spielberg get paid on just waking up! Royalties etc, you got it. And guess who was next on the list? JK Rowling. According to the show she’s worth a billion plus pounds. And the show was produced in 2007! Since then there’s been Stephanie Meyers, too.
Now, I was filled with envy. Cross that. My new age guru will be horrified to hear that. *affirmation to self: Day after day I’m getting better and better and better. The world is filled with abundance and I live in this abundance. I deserve my good fortune and celebrate it*
Anyway, envy or motivation, call it what you will, but I decided to do something about my own, shall we say, considerably less salubrious pecuniary state. I called upon all my experience (and it is vast, spanning investment banking, adventure sports, publishing and writing) and arrived at a winning formula.
As you know, writing a novel is hard work and takes a lot out of you. Added to that is the uncertainty that it will be published. And even if it is, there’s no guarantee that it will sell, let alone be a best seller.
First things first. We have to begin the project by de-risking it. A good way to do that is to attempt a romance. According to the latest trends in fiction, romance still sells. In the wake of the Twilight series, a spate of vampire novels have hit the market but thre’s appetite for more. Well written conspiracies, spelling the doom of mankind, still work.
So, a good beginning premise would be a vampire romance set against the backdrop of an impending disaster.
Now that we’ve de-risked the model, we have to turn it into a multibagger. To do that you have to get attention. And not just the odd newspaper interview/review kinda thing. I’m talking serious, reams and reams of newsprint. The kind that’s devoted to the controversy of the day. Enter Raj Thakeray.
But. But, we can do one better. And that is, we can try and get the book banned. Based on all the above analysis, I’ve decided on what I’m going to write next. Watch out for it tomorrow. Meanwhile, do write in your thoughts on the subject.
When tall, suave, handsome Kaustav Kapoor walks into her office, ditzy private investigator Kasthuri (aka Katie) Kumar has anything but detection on her mind. He is, after all, a scion of Bollywood’s first family—perhaps he has a role for her? Perhaps she will, at last, get to sashay down the red carpet in a designer gown, with flash bulbs following her every move?
But Kapoor’s intentions are much more prosaic: he wishes Katie to trace the heroine of his new blockbuster (and, if Katie’s read the glossies correctly, his life) who is mysteriously AWOL. Despite her misgivings, Katie finds herself unable to refuse the task entrusted to her, and thereon follows a bewildering hunt for the film star across a trail of corpses.
And if that isn’t excitement enough, she has to contend with the maddening and mysterious, but, oh-so-hot, Tejas Deshpande.
The first in a brand new detective series.
IN BOOKSTORES NOW.
Smita Jain's Weblog 
Well Vampire based novels have been around for awhile now. There is “The Southern Vampire Mysteries” which is now turned to critically acclaimed HBO series (which you might want to watch :-)) and then “The Vampire Diaries” which is mother of Twilight in lameness. (Now they have a TV series too!)
But then again Southern Vampire…is not exactly a hit among young adults because it does not exactly evolve as a romantic novel. So there is your first risk.
I think the next risk would be complexity of the characters. Keep the characterization generic, make it as superficial as possible, you have already reduced second risk. (Going back to Twilight, in one page he wants to drink her blood and few pages later, they are declaring themselves. The transition between repulsion and attraction was completely lost on me.)
The third risk is, I guess, story line. Keep it simple and one that meets the expectation. (Boy meets girl, they like/hate each other, something goes wrong, they fight/go away/die/get together, things happen, they get back/go further away/reincarnate/patch up/move on/introduce new character, major twist, leave people hanging and pray that the author writes a sequel.)
The fourth risk is, target audience. Young adults. That’s the market. If not anything, you will find plenty of fan sites and discussion forum which automatically gives publicity to newer audience.
Do share what you think 🙂
Sookie
@Sookie, lol! About vampire novels, true, they’ve been around but none was the phenomenon that Twilight became. And you’re so right about characterisation / motivations etc. My publishers’ one directive to me always is: dumb it down. About the winning story idea, I’ll post it tomorrow. The post was getting too long.
Smita!
Tomorrow came and went!
Your post is nowhere to be seen!
🙂
Sookie
@Sookie, abracadabra! Blink and it’s here!