The series, an essential for Indie Writers
Indie writers get a lot of advice about how to be noticed, how to attract readers and how to keep them. One of the most consistent pieces of advice is to write a series.Three years ago I took the leap and started my own featuring a handsome, engaging Frenchman who I named Victor Roth. By the way, Victor has a liking for hot air balloons. More about that later.
A series is a way of building a following. If readers like the first story and your characters they'll want more. That's why we write series. Changes of genre or style lose the most precious thing you have, readers.
When the series began in 2014, Victor was 38, single, rich and a desk-bound analyst in the Paris office of Interpol. His specialty is counterfeting and forgery. He lives in Montmartre and is single by choice. He has his suits and shoes made and wears black tie when he dines with friends. He also carries a flick knife. I love him but he may not be to everyone's taste. I can't help that, he is what he is. My characters sometimes go their own way. Victor is certainly one of them.
The title of any novel is critical to its success. The title of a series is even more important - it has to be memorable, easy on the tongue and suggestive of the stories you've written. Some of the most famous, such as Maigret, (which sold millions) use the protagonist's name in every title, e.g. Maigret and the Maid. Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne is a more recent example, The Bourne Identity, etc.
I took a different tack and have tried to integrate the series title with the "hook", that appears on the front cover. Alex Epstein defines the hook in his book Crafty Screenwriting, as "the concept of the picture in a nutshell".
You can apply this to novel writing. The hook is your novel's concept in a nutshell. Quoting from Epstein one memorable hook for an English film is, "A bunch of unemployed Brits decide to put on a striptease act to earn some money". The film was The Full Monty. When you pitch your book to a literary agent or publisher, or to the public as an indie writer, you always need a hook - the few words that grab your listener or reader's attention and tell them what your story is about.
The cover hook for Roth is, "In his world philately is a blood sport". If I had it over I would have written "stamps are a blood sport" instead of "philately" but people got the message. It may having been the lurking boar in the bottom of the image. Roth was well received. Lots of downloads.
In choosing "Roth" for my hero's surname I was careful to ensure the name was French which involved trawling through lists of French surnames. Roth isn't common in France but it is French and one syllable. Most importantly, it's a strong name for a virile character. When Victor introduces himself to someone as "Roth" he gets people's attention. If his name was Levallier or Villette-Mursay or Uzès it wouldn't have the he'd spend half his time spelling it. I can't see it as the "Villette-Mursay" series, can you?
Worse, my precious reader, who I hate to put to trouble, would have had their reading constantly interrupted with a tongue twister. And a short name doesn't hurt when you're designing covers either. Roth is better, easier, punchier. Victor is another strong name which I chose because I like it.
Setting my stories in Paris within the French legal and law enforcement
systems was a little more problematic. I saw the main problem as my
reader grasping the intricacies of the systems Roth works in and with.
My solution was
an author's note at the beginning of each book where I explained as clearly as I could what it took me months to research. Luckily I had a
legal background so the principles, if not the procedures, were
familiar.
My main characters are French and live in Paris. I wasn't going to write in French and I wasn't going to put up barriers between my reader and the characters by having them launch into French expressions in moments of crisis. You know the sort of thing, "merde" or "mon Dieu". None of that. When mine swear they do it in English.
Without making them sound English, or worse, Australian, I chose to make them human and above all, self-deprecating and witty. I think a story about smart people who aren't witty is deadly dull so when Roth and his boss, Alain Beck, had just avoided being blown up they had this exchange about Roth's tie:
An exchange like this isn't a digression, it's character enhancing. It makes your characters live. In these few words the deep friendship between the two men is obvious, as is the fact they don't fall to pieces when shit happens. They put it in perspective with a good lunch and move on.
By the way the tie was yellow silk with a design of hot air balloons. I can't find a comparable image on the net. Knowing Victor he had it made when he was visting his tailor in Savile Row.
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| Der Luftballoon, Paul Klee, 1906 |
When the series began in 2014, Victor was 38, single, rich and a desk-bound analyst in the Paris office of Interpol. His specialty is counterfeting and forgery. He lives in Montmartre and is single by choice. He has his suits and shoes made and wears black tie when he dines with friends. He also carries a flick knife. I love him but he may not be to everyone's taste. I can't help that, he is what he is. My characters sometimes go their own way. Victor is certainly one of them.
The title of any novel is critical to its success. The title of a series is even more important - it has to be memorable, easy on the tongue and suggestive of the stories you've written. Some of the most famous, such as Maigret, (which sold millions) use the protagonist's name in every title, e.g. Maigret and the Maid. Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne is a more recent example, The Bourne Identity, etc.I took a different tack and have tried to integrate the series title with the "hook", that appears on the front cover. Alex Epstein defines the hook in his book Crafty Screenwriting, as "the concept of the picture in a nutshell".
You can apply this to novel writing. The hook is your novel's concept in a nutshell. Quoting from Epstein one memorable hook for an English film is, "A bunch of unemployed Brits decide to put on a striptease act to earn some money". The film was The Full Monty. When you pitch your book to a literary agent or publisher, or to the public as an indie writer, you always need a hook - the few words that grab your listener or reader's attention and tell them what your story is about.
The cover hook for Roth is, "In his world philately is a blood sport". If I had it over I would have written "stamps are a blood sport" instead of "philately" but people got the message. It may having been the lurking boar in the bottom of the image. Roth was well received. Lots of downloads.
In choosing "Roth" for my hero's surname I was careful to ensure the name was French which involved trawling through lists of French surnames. Roth isn't common in France but it is French and one syllable. Most importantly, it's a strong name for a virile character. When Victor introduces himself to someone as "Roth" he gets people's attention. If his name was Levallier or Villette-Mursay or Uzès it wouldn't have the he'd spend half his time spelling it. I can't see it as the "Villette-Mursay" series, can you?
Worse, my precious reader, who I hate to put to trouble, would have had their reading constantly interrupted with a tongue twister. And a short name doesn't hurt when you're designing covers either. Roth is better, easier, punchier. Victor is another strong name which I chose because I like it.
My main characters are French and live in Paris. I wasn't going to write in French and I wasn't going to put up barriers between my reader and the characters by having them launch into French expressions in moments of crisis. You know the sort of thing, "merde" or "mon Dieu". None of that. When mine swear they do it in English.
Without making them sound English, or worse, Australian, I chose to make them human and above all, self-deprecating and witty. I think a story about smart people who aren't witty is deadly dull so when Roth and his boss, Alain Beck, had just avoided being blown up they had this exchange about Roth's tie:
'What about lunch?'
Victor asked.
'Are you buying?'
'Of course.'
'In about an hour. You
should clean yourself up first and lose that tie, it's ….'
'What?'
'Bloody annoying.'
An exchange like this isn't a digression, it's character enhancing. It makes your characters live. In these few words the deep friendship between the two men is obvious, as is the fact they don't fall to pieces when shit happens. They put it in perspective with a good lunch and move on.
By the way the tie was yellow silk with a design of hot air balloons. I can't find a comparable image on the net. Knowing Victor he had it made when he was visting his tailor in Savile Row.
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