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- Seven Strategies in Every Best-Seller: A 186-Page Guide to Extraordinarily Successful Writing
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- Author: Tam Mossman
- Reviewer: Sonali T. Sikchi
- Publisher: Tiger Maple Press
- Format:Adult, Nonfiction, Paperback, 192 pages, 1998
- ISBN: 0963294717
- Rating: * * * * Quills
- www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/0963294717
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- "To earn my definition of best-seller," says Tom Mossman, "a book must soar onto the New York Times bestseller list and stay there, month after month, purely under its own steam." And then the book must remain in print and continue to sell in healthy numbers year after year.
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- While every writer fantasizes about writing just such a book, given the high rate of rejections in the industry — ninety percent of books received by agents are rejected, and ninety percent of those remaining ten percent agented books are rejected by publishing houses — the majority of the writers are bound for disappointment. So when a guide comes along that claims to have extracted seven strategies inherent in every bestseller while guaranteeing success to the writer who employs them all, the book is naturally treated with great skepticism.
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- However, careful reading of Mossman's book reveals a step-by-step logical examination of what works and what doesn't work. He illustrates his propositions with practical examples from the classics, modern bestsellers and manuscripts he has perused in his career as an editor. The strategies and lessons from the slush pile are all geared towards achieving that most important objective of every book: two or three compelling "...motives for the reader to keep on reading."
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- Strategy One is "The Paranoia Formula," which "always yokes the negative [stick] with a positive [carrot], hoisting the dramatic stakes as high as possible." This is usually employed on the first page of the first chapter, or when a major character is introduced, or when an important event occurs. Sometimes, this is done in the title and subtitle itself. While the conflict remain unresolved, a glimmer of a solution is offered. The inducement here being that if the reader were to continue reading, they would be able to decipher the solution in its entirety.
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- The second strategy "Best Seats in the House" exploits the real-estate mantra: location, location, location. A bestseller takes the reader directly heart of the action or to the place where the action is taking place. This is a good strategy for a chapter opener, however, it is a technique to be employed all throughout the book. The characters need to be deeply enmeshed in the scene: in the events, in the dialog, in the ambience. That is how we live our lives, and that is what readers find vicariously entrancing, especially if the locales are exotic or unfamiliar.
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- "Gifted Underdogs," the third strategy, talks about sketchy ancestry of the main characters. Lack of overprotective parents or other authoritative figures, gives the characters license to take risks and indulge in hair-raising adventures. As a strategy for a bestseller, this one is the shakiest. There are plenty of bestsellers with strong memorable parents as role models for equally strong memorable children. Atticus and Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird immediately spring to the mind.
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- The fourth strategy says that an author, by being "A Kind and Trusty Guide" to the reader, provides the motivation to the reader to invest their time and money. One way to reassure them that the author is worth their investment is to fulfill the carrot part of "The Paranoia Formula." Many writers make the mistake of writing a killer prologue and first chapter only to fail in following through with the promises made therein.
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- Strategy Five explains how "Every Fact Tells a Story." By miserly using telling details and allowing the reader's attention to linger on them, without flooding the reader's conscious with too many details or repetition of the old ones, the writer allows the reader to participate in the storytelling, one observation at a time.
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- Strategy Six outlines "The Slope of Curiosity." Simply put, this is the technique of foreshadowing. This can be within a sentence, such as in Dante's Inferno, or within a paragraph, such as in Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, or within a short succession of paragraphs. And because the author has successfully proved to be trustworthy by employing the fourth strategy, this strategy will willingly tug the reader along through seemingly tangential digressions, because they know the author will untangle threads and clarify the muddled skeins of the story. Foreshadowing works powerfully well for mystery writers.
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- "Progress, Wisdom, Evolution" is the last of Mossman's strategies. Every book needs an overarching path of achievement and a relentless drive towards a goal. Characters need to change and grow (whether good gets better or evil gets worse). They need to learn from the events thrown at them and modify their personalities accordingly. There always needs to be something extremely important at stake for the main characters, which is the driving reason for the story to move forward, and for the reader to hang on to every written word.
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- All in all, this book is a gem and requires multiple readings to gain a thorough understanding of the seven strategies from their various angles.
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