Thursday, July 5, 2012

Indie Writer Tip – Taking the Rowling Method to Success


It’s all in a name...

Indie authors listen up, a big name publisher with a big name author is about to show us how to do it right while doing it badly. Do it and sell millions. Okay, maybe not us..

First, let me start I am not knocking Rowling and Harry Potter.

Six years, is it? Since J.K. Rowling put out a novel and this is what they give her readers? A grade C cover and a synopsis that not only is poorly written, it fails to even tantalize. And what makes it worse is she’ll sell millions. It is hailed as her first adult novel. People will buy it just because ….

It burns me that we indies work hard to get an eye pleasing novel, we try diligently and labor over a synopsis.  I know I do. I work, rework, tweak the synopsis to make it as best as it can be and gripping enough that my readers click on “Read a Sample’, praise be if they buy it.

Am I bitter? Yes. It’s tough to swallow.

Look at the Rowling synopsis. Read it. Really read it.

When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock.
Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.
Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils…Pagford is not what it first seems.
And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity, and unexpected revelations?
This is the writing and ‘Tantalizing story line’ we have come to expect from Little Brown and JK Rowling? Or is it me?

Just to prove my point. I made adjustments to the cover and changed the author name to show you how bad it is without Rowling on it. Imagine if he put that cover and synopsis on Kindle. How many do you think he’d sell?

HOLY COW I just had a Revelation!

Maybe this is the new thing. Perhaps all along I have been missing the boat. Duh, slap me in the face, hit me on the head, and open up basic Microsoft Paint. Maybe simplicity and a grade school approach is the key for gaining attention to my books. Yes! For my next Apocalypse Release (yes, it's a real release), I’m throwing out the artwork I paid for and the synopsis I wrote and this will be my cover and synopsis.

When an earthquake destroys New York City, the world is in shock. But as people go on with their lives, things are not what they seem. Just wait. It is only the beginning.

The world is going to change. Things will happen. Things will get bad. Man is bad. Children are bad. God is mad. No one will be glad when it is all said and done. Is there any hope?


I’ll let you know how that works for me. The release is planned for the end of July.