HOW TO ANALYZE THE BOOKS YOU READ!

Lesson 5: A Fresh Spin

Now that we know what a “fresh spin” is, how, exactly, do we put one in our own story?

Taking our marriage of convenience example and putting a “fresh” spin on it, we could say a H&H stuck together in a cabin in a snow storm would work. A H&H trapped on a ranch, in a burning building, running for their lives together … all work.
Just remember, whatever “stuck” situation you choose, it has to last for an entire book…so the burning building might not sustain your word count! But the H&H running for their lives would…Except, would it work as a Harlequin Romance? Maybe. But it would clearly be a better Intrigue because Intrigues like the suspense oriented plots.
Another way to examine this is to say you want to write an actual marriage of convenience because you know they sell. How do you make YOUR story different? You put the “fresh spin” on why they are unhappy to be married. Or put the spin on the problem. Why the heck in this day and age would somebody enter into a marriage of convenience?
Taking a look at the lowest common denominators of the whys (or motivations) and the problem that forces them to marry gives you the opportunity to see all the ways a marriage of convenience can be done and find your fresh spin.

What if you can’t find a lowest common denominator? What if a line or publisher has every character type. They like both alpha and beta males. The heroes are everything from a king to a plumber. There are virgin heroines and a former prostitute. Some books have hooks, some don’t.

What do you do then?

You keep reading!

This is why I tell people to read all the books from at least six or more months. Because there ARE lowest common denominators. Readers read these books/stories for “something.” They want to feel something as they read. It’s your job to figure out what that “something” is. Sometimes it can be something as simple as the fact that these books make you cry. Harlequin’s former Flipside line had books which made people laugh. And you know what? In a line like that there may be no more common denominators than that.  Readers bought the books to laugh.

But in most cases there will be lots of common denominators. As I said before, “Readers are reading for something…” If you’re having trouble coming up with lowest common denominators, it may be time to begin contrasting books from your line or the books from your publisher with the books from another line or publisher of the same kind of book. (For single title you would compare Avons to Berkley or Kennsington or Ballentine or Dell. Whichever company puts out books that compete.)

And that ends today’s lesson. As a little assignment, go to your bookshelf and assemble some of your books as if you were going to compare them. Put your Avons with the appropriate Pockets. Group all your category books by line.