I posted this Listmania List on Amazon. I’d love to hear what YOU think and if you have any recommendations to add to this list. I’m always looking for thrillers for thinkers!
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Tag Archives: writing
Should Indie Publishers Offer a Goodreads Giveaway?
If you are wondering if a goodreads.com giveaway is worth a try, the short answer is Yes!
I love the idea of reaching readers directly. I offered one signed copy of The Seventh Stone as a giveaway on goodreads.com for a time span of two weeks to give it a try. I tweeted to spread the word about the giveaway four times. In total, 548 people requested to join the giveaway. Now, 94 people have added The Seventh Stone to their “To Read” lists. And the lucky winner is someone who is an avid reader and enthusiast of thrillers. I was thrilled to send her my signed copy, and if I’m lucky, she might want to write a positive review on goodreads.
To sum up the Goodreads Giveaway:
My Cost of Giveaway: Price of one print paperback plus shipping
Time of Giveaway: Two weeks
Tweets about Giveaway: Four
Readers clicking on The Seventh Stone to enter giveaway: 548
Readers who added The Seventh Stone to their To Read shelf: 94
Lucky Winner: 1
Sales generated: This is the big question mark. I don’t know if this will translate into more sales, but I am extremely pleased with the exposure of The Seventh Stone to readers. It is definitely worth a try if you’re promoting your book.
The Advantages of a Series Character in Thriller Fiction
Lee Child, bestselling author of the Jack Reacher thrillers, offered these insights in a workshop which I attended:
A series character makes it easier for a reader to buy a book, and sometimes encourages them to buy previous books in the series.
You can’t design a series character to be succesful. Let the character be himself and hope for the best. Don’t worry whether the character will be liked or disliked.
Allow the main character to be a little rugged, a tad dastardly. Many writers use a sidekick to be the tough one so the main character can remain pure. The main character should have those “dark” elements. This can work well with female characters, too.
On character development, Child believes his readers are looking for the same character in different situations. Series characters don’t even have to age. Readers can always count on Jack Reacher. This works well for Jack Reacher, but not for all series characters, like Harry Potter, or Christa Devlin, the main character in The Seventh Stone, who are altered dramatically by the experiences.
But the most important tip Child offered: Be yourself. Close your eyes and jump. Don’t be intimidated.
Wall Street Journal’s Article on Indie Author Becoming Best Seller
If you haven’t read it yet, check out the Wall Street Journal’s article on how Darcie Chan’s The Mill River Recluse became a best seller. Review the comments, too, for an intriguing discussion on the new opportunities for both readers and writers through the world of e-books and self-publishing. Congratulations to Darcie Chan. Persistence and faith paid off. And thank you to Alexandra Alter for an informative and timely article.
Prince William and Kate Middleton’s Sapphire Ring – History remembered
By Pamela Hegarty
Prince William honored his late mother, Princess Diana, by passing on to his fiancée, Kate Middleton, the stunning sapphire ring that Prince Charles had given Diana. To me, it is a reminder of another sapphire ring in Britain’s history, belonging to Saint Edward, and the undeniable attraction of gemstones.
In researching my thriller, The Seventh Stone, I was intrigued by the fascinating and storied histories of some of the world’s most famous gemstones. Edward, King of England from 1042 to 1066, also wore a now famous sapphire ring. According to legend, the generous and kind Edward, upon meeting a beggar while travelling, had no money to give the man. Instead, Edward gave the beggar his sapphire ring.
Years later, in Syria, two British pilgrims got lost in a storm. A man guided them to safety. He gave them a sapphire ring to return to King Edward. The man explained that he was Saint John the Evangelist, and he had disguised himself as a beggar when he met King Edward. He asked the pilgrims to return the ring to Edward, and tell him that the King would be rewarded for his generosity and piety in the kingdom of Heaven in six months time.
Six months after the pilgrims returned the ring, King Edward died of natural causes. Edward became a saint.
The sapphire from his ring is now in the Maltese Cross topping the Imperial State Crown of Great Britain.
Of course, that’s the short version of the story. Edward’s Sapphire also shares a legendary history with a powerful Biblical artifact. But to learn that chapter in the story of Edward’s Sapphire, you’ll have to read The Seventh Stone.
The Da Vinci Code – Decoding Plot-driven vs Character-driven novels
Robert Langdon, literature’s most famous symbologist, is called in to solve a bizarre murder at the beginning of The Da Vinci Code. The murder sets the plot in motion, driving the hero into a race to solve the puzzle before the villains. Certainly, The Da Vinci Code must be a plot-driven novel.
BUT Robert Langdon uses his specialized knowledge to advance to the next step in solving the puzzle, so The Da Vinci Code must be a character-driven novel.
Writers have been arguing the advantages and disadvantages of plot-driven versus character-driven novels since the birth of genre fiction. At a recent workshop, best-selling thriller writer, William Bernhardt, had a different take.
Plot and character must be interwoven for a story to be successful. The character is chosen for the plot. The plot is chosen for the character.
Every scene should have something happening that changes the protagonist’s life. That change, in turn, affects the next plot twist. The character is revealed by how she reacts under pressure. The greater the pressure, the deeper the revelation.
So don’t try to define your novel as plot-driven or character-driven. To be successful, it has to be both.
Is There Anybody Out There?
No, I’m not talking about readers. I do have faith that you are out there, no matter what my Amazon ranking implies! When I see these amazing NASA images of the vast universe, I am both humbled and inspired. And I’m reminded that the best fiction is those stories that leave us with questions, not answers.
Top Ten Reasons to Read a Thriller
By Pamela Hegarty
Here are my top ten reasons to read a thriller novel–before the world ends!
10. The world is supposed to end in 2012. You want to know how.
9. And who is going to save us.
8. Thrillers dominate the bestseller lists. Yes, it is a conspiracy.
7. Seven out of ten NY Times bestsellers on this week’s list are written by women. No, that is not a conspiracy.
7. You want an escape from depression, drunkenness and dysfunction, not to read about it.
6. Thrillers make history, religion and politics exciting.
5. Good battles evil, and wins, usually.
4. You want to travel to another era, but the time machine hasn’t been invented yet, or has it?
3. You love figuring out puzzles.
2. And adventuring in new worlds.
1. And learning not only about a different time and place, but about yourself.
What kind of hero will you be today?
Three Key Elements of a Successful Thriller Novel
By Pamela Hegarty
Thriller novels range across a spectrum of exciting subgenres, including international thrillers, spy stories, political skullduggery, crime novels, paranormal threats and more. My personal favorites are quests for artifacts that delve into the meaning of life, the universe and everything. The three key elements I focus on when writing or reading a thriller are:
1. Our hero is after a goal that is not so much an object, but the essence of her destiny. It could be a clue to a universal question, perhaps a terrifying question, such as life after death. She must succeed to save the lives of others.
2. The villain is hellbent on obtaining the object of the hero’s quest. The villain is smart, powerful, ruthless, but he sees himself as the hero, not the villain. He, too, knows that it is not the object, but what people believe about it, that builds its power. Possessing the object will give him control of the ultimate power, the power of people’s belief.
3. Our hero and the villain battle across that threshold between reality and belief, and pull the reader along with them into a world we know can’t, but must, exist.
