TRISTA FRANK

As a writer, I struggle a lot with whether I’m good enough to do this for a living.

It seems sort of arrogant that I should expect people to pay money for something that I would do anyway. I think a lot of other people feel this way too, as the prevalence of electronic books has gotten cheaper and cheaper until it’s almost as if writers are giving away their work just so someone will read them.

It’s a tough situation. Made worse that careers in the Arts rarely get the same respect as someone in business or marketing or other white-collar jobs.

Of course this is something that everyone, not even writers, struggle with. Am I good enough?

Truthfully – I actually believe I AM a good enough writer to do this and making money from it. I do think that if someone spends time (and let’s face it – writing a novel takes a heck of a lot of time) and produces something entertaining – that people searching for that type of entertainment will pay for it. Not astronomical prices, mind you, but something.

But what? What is a fair price to pay for a book these days?

I don’t know the answer. I do know what *I* like to pay, but I’m not sure I’m a typical reader.

Personally, I’ll pay up to $9.99 for an author or book I’m really interested in. I rarely pay more. That’s my tipping point. It sucks that since I’m in Australia that I don’t get a lot of the lovely cheaper prices for many books (I really want Cuckoo’s Calling, but it’s over $15 for us Aussies – and yes Amazon I can see it much lower so why can’t I buy it at that price too (don’t get me started)).

While I will pay that much, it also depends on a lot of things: genre, cover, premise, author, what comparable books are priced at, and so on.

I’ve also been conditioned that the range of $2.99-$4.99 is a reasonable price. Whether I would pay more or not for some of those cheaper books is a conundrum because I don’t know (because I don’t have to).

I rarely buy books at 0.99 cents. RARELY. It’s such a non-price that it also doesn’t seem worth it. Either price your book at free or bring it to $2.99 or higher. The exception is short stories.

I don’t know when I’m going to write another book and publish it. I do know it will happen, but when is the big question. I’m busy with other writing projects – other more profitable ones that it seems I have no time to write another dark fantasy or suspense novel. But I want to. It’s always in my mind. I considered delaying another writing project of mine so I could do just that. But then I saw the bills. Maybe if I can build up my savings a bit more, first.

Or I could write a book slowly. 100 words a day which doesn’t seem that difficult. That means for a typical 60,000 novel it will take me 600 days, or just shy of two years. Two years … on second thoughts I might wait until I have more spare time – I don’t think I could remember what I wrote at the start of the book if it took me that long to write.

My favorite author is Dean Koontz. In particular, I absolutely love his Odd Thomas books. Apart from being a brilliant writer and a master at suspense, I think Dean is one of the best cliffhanger writers I’ve read.

A good cliffhanger (in my opinion) hooks the reader into wanting to read the next chapter. They simply must turn the page to see what happens next. Even if it’s two o’clock in the morning and they have to get up for work the next day, the reader is compelled to read ‘just one more chapter’.

Dean does that for me. His cliffhangers are often some sort of twist, an unexpected plot development, or simply the character in peril (hanging off a cliff, so to speak).

But good cliffhangers don’t have to have a character in peril. Look at romances. Romances use a lot of emotional cliffhangers. It might be as subtle as a character turning away from their love interest, or a longing look at another. Or perhaps it’s a witty offhanded comment made by a secondary character.

The brilliance of cliffhangers is that they aren’t always physical hanging-off-a-cliff stuff. Nor should they all be, even in a thriller or a suspense novel. You need some softer cliffhangers to give the story more depth.

But what about writing your own?

This is a tricky one. Tricky, because it depends on the story. Cliffhangers should match the style, the pacing, and the flow of the story. So if you are writing a fast paced action scene, it probably makes sense to end the chapter on something physical. But a love scene? Not so much.

It’s function is to get the reader turning the page, get them excited about reading what comes next. Therefore it’s kind of a, you’ll know when you read it, kind of deal. Or at least it is for me. Often I’ll write something and then look back and say cool – there’s my cliffhanger. I might have even written right past it with my first draft and only spot it when I’m cycling back through.

Generally though, you’ll be able to write better cliffhangers by reading more books. Especially those that readers love. If a reader loves a book and say they ‘couldn’t put the book down’. It’s usually because that author is great at writing cliffhangers. That’s a book and an author you should read and study.

My goal is to get better at them as I write more. As I become a more experienced writer I can see that Rabbit Farm wasn’t the great novel in the world (understatement?). It was the first novel I’d ever written after all. I have a few novels under my belt now, and a few writing courses. I’ve also written a ton of short stories. Nothing published under this name. Most of them just for me. Just for practice.

I expect the next novel will be out next year. I can’t see myself writing one this year, especially since the year is mostly over. But who knows what will happen? Maybe, I’ll be motivated after all?