Giacomo & Slick

Creating a Successful Mystery Book

When you talk about creating a mystery book, there is one huge looming question that needs to be answered first—what kind of mystery book are you talking about? A cozy mystery is different than a hard-boiled detective, and a police procedural is quite different than a thriller. Each one of these sub-genres has its own style and it takes a different type of person to write them.

There are certain things they all have in common, at least the successful ones: Well-developed characters, a solid plot, and a smooth story.

Plot

As far as plot goes, an author has a lot of options—a simple plot with twists at the end; a complex plot that has the reader guessing the whole time; a plot revealed right up front, but the detective has to figure out how to catch the bad guy. The list is long, and which plot you use determines how your story will be told, and even what type of characters you will need.

The devious serial-killer type might require an intellectual detective, one who focuses on analytical skills to solve the crime. A drug-related plot demands a detective who is street smart, with connections on all the corners. A police procedural calls for a detective to be wired into the political scene, with media contacts, and perhaps that cozy mystery needs a protagonist connected to the right social circles. Imagine anyone but Peter Falk playing Detective Colombo in the old TV series. And who could have replaced Telly Savalas as Kojak? The same thing applies to your novels.

Character

We don’t have anywhere near enough space to go into what is needed with character to make a book successful, but we can at least hit the highlights. For me, character is everything. Character is what drives a story, what stops a story, what makes people read, and what makes them put a book down.

When you think about “Gone With the Wind” you think of Scarlett O’Hara. The “Count of Monte Cristo” brings Edmond Dantes to mind. If someone mentions “The Usual Suspects,” an image of Keyser Söze limping down the street appears in your head. “The Godfather” almost surely will evoke a picture of Marlon Brando, his cheeks puffed out from his cotton props, mumbling the now-famous line, “I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse.”

In none of these situations do you think of plot; you think of character. As far as I’m concerned, character is story.

Story

If plot determines character, and character is everything, then story ties it all together. Story is the magic that makes it all work. Give five writers the same plot and the same characters, and you’ll get five different stories. Story isn’t just a writer’s voice, but the way a writer chooses to use that voice.

In my novel, “Murder Takes Time,” the story is told in a combination of first and third person point of view. It also goes back and forth in time as the detective finds clues from the past at each of the crime scenes. I struggled to find a way to tell this, and it proved to be a more daunting task than I originally thought it would be, but I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. When I was shopping this to agents, several of them told me to only use one POV, and others insisted I tell the story in a linear fashion. I stuck to my guns though, and I’m glad I did. The feedback I’m getting from people is that they love the way the story is told.

Bottom Line

Thousands of books have been written on writing, and more come out every day. Each one tries to teach you how to write in a different way, and they are all filled with rules. As far as I’m concerned it still boils down to the same thing it’s been for thousands of years: plot, character and story. Get those down right, and you’ve got a good book.

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Giacomo & Slick

The only books writers buy are advice books: how to write, how to edit, how to create dynamic plots. The list goes on and on. But writers do not buy fiction books.

Excuse Me While I Dodge Stones

I know. I hear all the writers screaming. I buy books. A lot of books.

I understand that. I buy a lot of books, too. But there’s a difference. It’s not me, the writer, buying these books; it’s me, the reader, who is buying them. I don’t buy your new romance novel because it got great reviews at Romance Times. And I don’t buy Author X’s latest horror because of it’s meteoric rise up the charts on Amazon. I don’t plunk down my hard-earned $2.99 or $4.99 or whatever the price is, for the latest urban fantasy, or YA novel, despite the new dystopian spin it has. I don’t even buy erotica, though it seems as if I might be the only person on the planet that doesn’t.

But…if a new mystery or thriller catches my eye, or an epic fantasy, or yet another retelling of Hannibal’s struggle with the Roman Empire, you can bet your ass I’m digging deep in my pockets to get those books. I might even skip a few cups of coffee to get them.

What’s the Difference?

I’ll say it again. It’s not me, the writer, buying those books. It’s me, the reader spending that money. So all of your time spent in social media hawking that book, and touting your reviews, and listing links to your interviews is useless—unless—it’s targeting your readers.

Let’s look at it another way. Assume you manage to scrape together 2,000 Facebook likes and get 10,000 followers on Twitter. How many of them are fellow writers? And of those fellow writers, how many of them are in your specific genre? And of those in your genre, how many can afford to buy your book—even if they are driven to do so?

If you’ve got a blog, more than likely it’s geared toward writing. Once again, your followers are writers. Not readers of your genre.

What to do?

Find the readers. Your readers.

Below are some great places to start.

Goodreads—join groups in your genre; do giveaways to draw attention to your books; run an ad; link to your blog; upload and review books you’ve read. All of these things help draw readers.

Librarything—you can do a lot of  the same things on Librarything that you can on Goodreads, but Librarything offers the ability to do digital giveaways of books. Goodreads doesn’t. This is great if you’re trying to get reviews.

Booklikes—I recently joined Booklikes, so I don’t have a lot of information on them. But I know they also allow for digital giveaways, similar to LibraryThing.

Shelfari—add extras to your book and make it more interesting for the digital readers. Review books, join groups.

Kindle Boards—I haven’t done much with Kindle Boards but I know several writers who swear by it.

Nook Boards—Same thing. I hear it’s good for exposure to the Nook platform. Try it out.

Book Clubs—If you’re able to get into active book clubs, this could be huge. Make sure you have a list of discussion questions prepared beforehand. There are thousands of book clubs online, so a quick search should turn up a number of them to suit your needs.

Other options—If a reader writes you, take the time to chat with them. Ask how they found out about your books. Engage them in conversation. You might be surprised at what you’ll learn.

Self-Promotion

I’m not at the top of the sales charts. People aren’t flocking to buy my books, so take this advice at your own risk. As a reader, I don’t like seeing the continual stream of self-promotion. It sometimes seems as if social media sites are nothing but authors touting their books, listing every review, bombarding people with endless plugs. I have to say, it doesn’t make me want to buy your book; in fact, it makes me not want to buy your book. If you want advice from a guy who doesn’t sell a lot of books, but one who buys a lot of books, try this…

Don’t

• …tout every review you get.
• …ask people to check out your book as soon as you meet them.
• …tell people how great your book is.

I know you get excited about a good review. I do too. But the rest of the world doesn’t, and you telling them about it won’t excite them. It will wear thin before long. Of course if you happen to get an exceptional review, one that you can’t bear to keep to yourself any longer, and, if no one else is around to tell. No spouse, or sibling, or friend—then by all means, shout it out. Just make sure it’s not too often.

If you have a special sale or promotion going on, definitely tell people about it. Some of them might have been waiting for a sale to purchase it. As far as telling people how great your book is—let others do that. It’s far better for a reader to hear from someone else that your new mystery kept them up all night. They won’t believe it coming from you.

Think About This

Suppose you had a neighbor who sold Amway products, and every night they knocked on your door pushing something new, telling you how great it was. “It will clean your floors, take the stains out of your clothes, keep your dishes sparkling…”

You don’t have to answer that. I know how you feel. Before long you’ll be peeking out the curtains to see who rang the bell. And you won’t be answering the door if it’s them.

Now imagine that a different neighbor—someone you trust—tells you about this fantastic new product for cleaning tile. She goes on and on about how great it is, and then she tells you she got it from Bob, next door. Before you know it, you’re knocking on Bob’s door to see if you can get some of that cleaner.

Books Are The Same

Readers resist every attempt at hard sells but a recommendation from a friend, or even a well-written review, will have them reaching for their credit cards. As a writer, your goal is not to sell books yourself, but to convince others to sell them for you. And the best way I know of doing that, is to write good books. And when you’re done, write more of them.

Ciao, and thanks for stopping by,

Giacomo

Giacomo Giammatteo is the author of:
No Mistakes Resumes
Murder Takes Time
Murder Has Consequences
A Bullet For Carlos
Finding Family

He lives in Texas where he and his wife have an animal sanctuary with 45 loving “friends.”

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Filed under: books, Publishing, Reading, Writing by Giacomo
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Necessary Decisions, A Redemption Novel

I’m writing to announce the launch of Necessary Decisions, the first book in my new Redemption Series.

Necessary Decisions features Detective Gino Cataldi and his partner, Hector “Ribs” Delgado. It takes place in Houston, Texas.

A Thriller That Won’t Let Go

A cop who pushes the limits of the law…

A good man struggling to feed his family…

A biotech executive who has everything a man could want…

A ruthless band of kidnappers…
They all come together in a thriller you won’t be able to forget.

Everyone has decisions to make. This one could cost Gino his badge—and a young girl her life.

Just when you think you know everything—everything changes.

Necessary Decisions is available as an ebook, priced at 5.99. The print book will be available early next year. Links to Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords are included. It will be live on Apple, Kobo, and Google in the next day or so.

Short description:

Gino Cataldi is a man hanging on by a thread. Cancer took his wife, and drugs put his son in rehab. All he has left is his badge.

When a teenage girl is kidnapped it brings back nightmares from the worst case he ever worked—the one that tore his life to shreds and forced him out of Philadelphia.

Gino doesn’t want this case but he knows he has to take it. Not just to save the girl, but to earn redemption for what went wrong in Philly.

Thanks for your time, and don’t forget to tell a friend if you enjoyed the book. Word of mouth is the number one way to sell books, so please take a minute to tell someone. And if you really want to help, leave a review on Amazon, or Apple or B&N…anywhere.

Buy it here: Amazon Kindle | B&N Nook | Smashwords

And how about some shares? Please?

ciao,

Giacomo

Giacomo Giammatteo is the author of:
No Mistakes Resumes
Murder Takes Time
Murder Has Consequences
A Bullet For Carlos
Finding Family

He lives in Texas where he and his wife have an animal sanctuary with 45 loving “friends.”

Filed under: books, Publishing, Reading, Writing by Giacomo
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Giacomo & Slick

What is an Invisible Character?

There are two kinds of invisible characters: those you create intentionally, and those you create by mistake. If you use beta readers, you’ll spot the mistakes quickly. They’ll be the characters that your readers don’t remember the names of. Or what they looked like, or what role they played in the plot. I know you’ve had it happen to you. Think about it. Have you ever been reading a book and about halfway through, a character appears that seems familiar, and yet…you can’t quite place them. I call these invisible characters. They’re important enough for the author to give them a role in the book, sometimes to even name them, but not important enough to make them memorable.

What Constitutes an Invisible Character?

• lack of depth?
• too plain?
• not enough page time?
• no good dialogue?

Maybe it’s a combination of some, or all, of the above. As an author, that’s a problem. You don’t want readers forgetting your characters, even if it’s for a few minutes.

Special Circumstances

Is it ever all right for a character to be invisible? Yes—when you want them to be. Sometimes you might want to introduce a person without drawing attention to them. Perhaps you plan on bringing them back into the plot as a suspect in a crime. So maybe there’s a homeless guy outside the coffee shop where your protag stops each morning. The homeless guy appears to be in the story to show how nice the protag is because he puts money in the cup each day, but the homeless guy is really casing the jewelry store across the street. These scenarios work perfectly—as long as you give the readers enough of an impression to let them remember with an “aha,” once they discover the truth. When this is done right, it makes reading magical.

Pile of sticks

Velvet Ant, aka Cow Killer

Real Life Examples

Real life offers plenty of examples. Let’s take a look at a few I saw this week while tending to the animals. I was walking down the sidewalk, not paying much attention to anything. I walked past a bundle of sticks, past some leaves, and then—whoa! As I stepped off the walk, a “velvet ant” otherwise known as a “cow killer,” casually crossed in front of me. Cow killers don’t go out of their way to attack you. They keep to themselves and always seem to be in a hurry to get somewhere. The problem is, if you happen to step on one, barefoot, or hit one with your hand while gardening, you could be in trouble. They earned the nickname of “cow killer” because the bite is said to be so painful it could kill a cow. I’m sure that’s an exaggeration, but it must have some basis in truth. Either way, I don’t want to test it.

Back to the Story

The surprising thing is not that I noticed the cow killer—they’re pretty hard to miss—but that I walked right past the stick caterpillar—several times. Take a look at the picture above, then at the pictures below, taken a few minutes later.

stick caterpillar hiding

Stick Caterpillar Crawling

Walking Stick

Stick Caterpillar on bench

The stick caterpillar makes itself invisible for a reason, just like authors develop invisible characters. The surprise, once uncovered, is much more rewarding. I now look for stick caterpillars every time I walk down that sidewalk by the garden. The same thing happens in books. If you create an invisible character that works well and gives your readers that “aha,” factor, you will be rewarded greatly. Every time those readers pick up one of your books in the future they’ll be looking for those characters which means they’ll be paying more attention to your writing, be more involved.

Bottom Line

I talked about invisible characters, but it doesn’t have to be just that. The “invisible” things can be clues or pieces of evidence. And it doesn’t matter if the book is a mystery, fantasy, romance . . . it just doesn’t matter. Look at the movie, The Sixth Sense, where dozens of clues were planted but few people noticed until the end when they got that huge aha moment. Or The Usual Suspects, one of my favorite movies, which had some of the same clues infused in Verbal Kent’s storytelling. Learn to do these things right and you will thrill your readers, and that is exactly what you want to do.

Ciao, and thanks for stopping by,

Giacomo

Giacomo Giammatteo is the author of Murder Takes Time, and A Bullet For Carlos. He lives in Texas where he and his wife have an animal sanctuary with 41 loving “friends.”

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Filed under: character development, Editing, plot, Reading, Uncategorized, Writing by Giacomo
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How a Character Can Interrupt Your Story

Sometimes characters do things on their own. Things you don’t want them to do.

You shouldn’t be surprised. It happens in real life too. I learned that lesson the hard way, and once again, through one of my animals. This time the culprit was Briella, the giant Great Dane. It was back when I used to play online poker. After a night of writing, and before I had too much wine, I would sit in the chair with my laptop and play a little poker. Often Brie, or one of the other dogs, would hover over my shoulder. Occasionally they would offer advice. That night it was Brie.

During a game of no-limit hold-em, a player bet $75. The next three people folded, leaving me to act. I was up a few hundred bucks and feeling lucky, so I made a bluff at the pot, raising $250. The people after me folded. It was now just me and the original bettor. He called.

Brie the Bluffer

The next card came off, and I still had nothing. The other person bet $300. I stalled for a few seconds, as if I had a decision to make, but I fully intended to fold. Briella had a different idea. Before I could hit the fold button, her massive paw slammed on my laptop and raised—almost $900, which was all I had left. As I watched the clock tick down, waiting for the other person to make their decision, my heart pounded. Depending on this person’s decision I was either going to give Brie some extra treats, or, I was going to threaten to kick her ass. I say threaten because she is too big for me to actually do it.

Story Climax

Now, this would have been a wonderful story if the other person folded, but…they didn’t. They called and I, or should I say Brie, was caught bluffing. Of course we lost. After that, I never played poker with Brie sitting behind me; she’s far too unpredictable.

What Does This Have to Do With Writing?

Sometimes a character does what they want, regardless of what you had in mind for them. You thought you had your plot nailed down, and suddenly—wham—one character or another does something unexpected. How does this happen? It’s easy, and logical. When you write, you create a character based on a specific personality. As the story moves along, that character reacts to situations based on that personality. Sometimes it is not what you anticipated.

The title of this blog was Big Dogs Don’t Bluff. Unfortunately, I discovered they really do.

Ciao,

Giacomo

Tell me what you think

As a reader, or writer, how do you feel about unpredictable characters?

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Giacomo & Slick

Understanding Your Strengths

Since we’ve had our animal sanctuary, I’ve come to believe that there’s a lot we can learn from animals. Sometimes it’s a tidbit of wisdom from watching them do what comes naturally, like how the pigs keep cool by digging mud pits to lie in. Or how they use sticks and leaves to build a shelter when it’s cold. At other times it’s observing the hunting strategies of a pack of dogs as they go after their prey, whether it be an unsuspecting squirrel or a coyote that’s trespassed onto their property.

And then there are other lessons I’ve learned. These come from watching the animals make mistakes. Sometimes it’s just by realizing that the old quote about “experience being the best teacher,” is as true as it ever was.

Bear Learned This The Hard Way

Bear is one of the dogs on our sanctuary. He’s a medium-sized dog, maybe 60 pounds, but he isn’t afraid of anything. He often fights coyotes, and on several occasions he fought more than one at the same time. He has tackled venomous snakes, and has been bitten a few times. He fought pit bulls, great Danes, UPS and Fed-ex trucks and their drivers (his arch enemies). And once he even dared to tangle with a fierce ballerina. But one night he got the foolish notion to tackle a raccoon.

I wasn’t there to witness the fight, tending to be home in bed during the middle of the night, but the next morning the signs were waiting outside, like a crime scene. A large pool of blood was on the porch, and the trail led down the sidewalk disappearing under the car. We called him several times while following the blood, and then we heard a slight whimper before he crawled out, looking as if he’d been to hell and back. The photo you see is from after the vet cleaned him up. You should have seen him before.

Bottom Line

Raccoons aren’t that big. They don’t look mean. They even look kind of cuddly. They don’t sound scary either. I’m sure Bear sized it up and thought, I can take him. I think I’ll teach him a lesson.
There is a problem with teaching lessons. By definition it imparts the sense that the teacher knows more than the one being taught. In this case Bear made a grievous error and it cost him dearly.

So before you tackle your next project or assignment, make certain that you’re up to the challenge. And no matter how simple it looks, don’t underestimate it.

If you enjoyed this post, please share.

Ciao, and thanks for stopping by,

Giacomo

Giacomo Giammatteo is the author of:
No Mistakes Resumes
Murder Takes Time
Murder Has Consequences
A Bullet For Carlos
Finding Family

He lives in Texas where he and his wife have an animal sanctuary with 45 loving “friends.”

Filed under: Animal Sanctuary, Life Lessons by Giacomo
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Dennis, the Great & Wonderful

A Chance To Help Animals

As many of you know, my wife and I have an animal sanctuary where we take in abandoned, abused, and orphaned animals of all kinds. We’ve been doing this for 20 years, and for the past 10 years we’ve had between 35 and 50 animals. We currently have 45. We started with a few potbelly pigs, one who lost part of her ear as a baby, and from there it expanded to dogs, cats, a horse, wild pigs, and even a wild boar.

Taking care of this many animals requires a lot of work and time, but also a tremendous amount of money. We have always supported the sanctuary from our own pockets, but the cost of feed, veterinary services, repairs and shelter have become prohibitive. We spend about $50,000 per year and as many of our animals are reaching the end of their lives, vet bills and medical needs will only increase.

We are an IRS sanctioned charity, which means if anyone wants to make donations they are tax deductible. Dennis and the rest of the gang would sure appreciate it. I understand if people don’t have spare change to help, but…

There Is Another Way To Contribute

Amazon has started a new program called Amazon Smile. For every dollar you spend on the Amazon Smile website, they will donate .5%, (that’s a half a penny) to the charity of your choice. The best thing is it costs you nothing. A half a penny per dollar doesn’t seem like much, but if we can get a large enough group of people to sign up and select TuskanyFalls Org as the charity of their choice, it will help. I also can guarantee that unlike most charitable organizations, 100% of the money goes to the animals.

How Do You Do It?

It’s very simple. You follow this link, Amazon Smile and .5% of whatever you spend will go to TuskanyFalls. In order for it to work, though, you have to start out using that link every time you shop. So please save it, or bookmark it, and remember to use it when you do your shopping on Amazon. (When you follow that link, at the top left corner of the page it should say, “Supporting TuskanyFalls Org.”

And in case you’re wondering who you’ll be helping, let me introduce you to a few of them.

Dennis Day One

Cooling off

These pics can be categorized as “before and after” shots of a few of the animals. The ones on the left are first-day pictures and the right as they are now, or recently.

Dennis

Most of you probably know Dennis, the hero and only wild boar on the sanctuary. The picture on the left was taken the first day we saved Dennis, when the vets said he wouldn’t make it.

Joe

Joe Day One

The picture on the right is of him two years later, cooling off on a hot day.

You can read more about Dennis here and here. (and plenty of other posts)

Joe

This is Joe the day he arrived. Again, a vet suggested he was too far gone and should be put down. He was 28 when he got here, and was starving and malnourished. This is Joe today.

Hotshot, the cat

Hotshot

Hotshot

This is one of our greatest success stories—Hotshot. Mikki found this cat in the gutter off the side of the road with an arrow through his chest. The doctors had to cut his leg off because the bone had become infected, but he made it and has been with us six years now. You can read more about Hotshot’s story here.

Petey

Petey is also known as Sweet Pete. He was left on a small island in the swamps of East Texas, for alligator bait we assume, but a good-hearted fisherman got him into his boat and called animal rescue who called us. His jaw had been broken and he finds it difficult to eat, but he manages to never be late for a meal. He’s been here 11 years. You can read more about Petey here.

Gracie

Gracie suffers from diabetes and is completely blind. She’s been here 12 years. You can read about Gracie, the Coffee Dog, here.

Whiskers

Whiskers was one of my favorites. We lost her last year and I haven’t been able to write about her since, but you can read one of her stories here. It’s my favorite story.

Shinobi

And the last picture is of Shinobi, also known as Queen Shinobi. She’s the one who started it all. She turned 20 years old in July, and three different vets at various times have recommended she be put down, but she has resisted all attempts and refuses to go. She’s doing just fine. I did a story on Shinobi here.

There are 40 more “friends” at the sanctuary, and to us they’re all family. By the way, the sanctuary is called TuskanyFalls, so if you lose your link to this site, just go to Amazon Smile and choose TuskanyFalls Org as the charity of your choice. And please tell others how they can help save animals who need help. I have included a tweet below the pictures that you can send if you have time.

Queen Shinobi

Gracie with Napkin

Whiskers

Sweet Pete

When you shop @AmazonSmile, Amazon will make a donation to Tuskanyfalls Org Inc. http://smile.amazon.com/ch/20–2619053

Filed under: Animal Sanctuary, Pigs Who Write, Uncategorized by Giacomo
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Giacomo & Slick

What Do Your Characters Look Like?

Many writers don’t take advantage of the most powerful tool in their arsenal—imagination. Whenever you get the urge to tell us how beautiful your characters are, or how perfect their nose is, or their body, or how enchanting the eyes are, down to the perfect shade of blue…stop! Don’t do it. Instead, try describing them enough to give the readers a hint, a clue, and then let their imaginations take over.

You don’t give readers all the clues of the mystery do you? Of course not. You want them to figure it out for themselves. The best part of Star Wars was imagining what the force was. Or imagining what Darth Vader looked like behind that mask.

Have you ever seen a movie where the characters look nothing like what you thought they would from the book? It’s a little disappointing isn’t it? And it makes it more difficult for that character to win the audience over if they start out with a negative. The question is whose fault is it? Did they cast the wrong person? Or did the author describe the character too much?

I have always subscribed to the theory that the less you explain when writing the better off you are. And I think this is especially true for characters. There are exceptions. If you’re describing a new world in a science fiction or fantasy book, or a new race of creatures, obviously you want to let the readers see what your imagination has conceived. But if the characters are human, and if the setting is standard, let readers use their imagination.

Imagination Is A Powerful Tool

In this day and age, when movies on TV show what you could only see in X-rated theaters twenty years ago, and when even music videos allow nudity that would have banned all but adults in theaters, you’d think there would be more nudist camps. But there aren’t. Why? Because when people are naked there is nothing left to the imagination. I have a saying I try to live by when writing.

“Even perfection pales in comparison to what the mind can imagine.”

That is never so true as when someone is reading a book. One of the characters in my first book is a guy named Nicky Fusco. A lot of female readers seem to love him, but the funny thing is, of the dozen or so I’ve spoken to about this, many of them have a different image of what he looks like. I couldn’t have been happier to find this out.

I seldom describe my characters beyond a few minor details, and maybe a distinguishing feature. My main protagonist in the Friendship & Honor series, Frankie Donovan, has a birthmark on his neck. Connie Gianelli, the protag of my Blood Flows South series, has a crooked nose. Tip Denton, who is Connie’s partner, has a scar on his face.

I typically don’t mention how tall a character is, or how much they weigh, or if they have bulging muscles or anything like that. I try to let a character’s personality define them. And by doing it that way, the readers use their own imagination to build either a hero/heroine, or a villain based on their perception of what that person should look like—in their mind. There’s nothing that can compete with that.

So, tell me—what’s in your writer’s toolbox?

If you enjoyed this post, please share. 

Ciao, and thanks for stopping by,

Giacomo

Giacomo Giammatteo is the author of:
No Mistakes Resumes
Murder Takes Time
Murder Has Consequences
A Bullet For Carlos
Finding Family

He lives in Texas where he and his wife have an animal sanctuary with 45 loving “friends.”

Filed under: character development, Reading, Writing by Giacomo
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Giacomo & Slick

What Makes A Good Book?

To me, all good books are mysteries—in some fashion. I don’t mean there is a corpse or a detective in all good books, but there is usually a question that readers want the answer to, a puzzle that has to be solved, a character with a mysterious past—something. It is sometimes so compelling that you have to turn the pages until you find the answer. At other times it nags at you little by little, coming at you in slow doses.

My books are tagged as mysteries, but they’re not hard-core mysteries. Seldom is it that a reader can’t figure out who did it, and sometimes pretty quickly, but there is normally a driving need for something else. In Murder Takes Time, the “mystery” is more why did he do it as opposed to who did it.

At other times, books are filled with what I like to call “secondary mysteries.” These are things that a reader doesn’t know about a character or something in the character’s past. One of my favorite books is Dune, a scifi novel from the 1960s. It is so filled with secondary mysteries that I read that huge book in one sitting. It wasn’t a mystery by any stretch of the imagination; it was pure scifi, but there were secrets to characters and other mysteries that drove me to turn the pages. I have read Dune half a dozen times since then and enjoyed it more each time.

Unresolved Issues

Sometimes there isn’t a mystery, but an unresolved question or conflict that you must have the answer to. One of my favorite movies of all time was the 2004 version of Phantom of the Opera. There’s no real mystery to it. Everyone knows the Phantom is the antagonist, but there is a question of “how did he get that way?” And perhaps more important, “Is Christine going to go with him?”

Casablanca was similar. There wasn’t a mystery, but the intrigue of, “will Ilsa go with Rick,” was powerful.

A lot of other things have to come together to make a great book, but for me there needs to be a mystery or unanswered question to drive my interest. If neither one of them is strong enough, I usually end up putting the book down.

What about you? What makes you keep turning pages?

If you enjoyed this post, please share.

Ciao, and thanks for stopping by,

Giacomo

Giacomo Giammatteo is the author of:
No Mistakes Resumes
Murder Takes Time
Murder Has Consequences
A Bullet For Carlos
Finding Family

He lives in Texas where he and his wife have an animal sanctuary with 45 loving “friends.”

Filed under: book reviews, books, plot, Reading, Writing by Giacomo
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Giacomo & Slick

Why Do I Need A Copy Editor?

The online bookstores are overflowing. Bowker Identification Services estimates there will be more than 300,000 new books published in 2013. Along with all of that new reading material comes a significant increase in the number of complaints from reviewers citing mistakes in those books, and most of the criticism is aimed at self-published authors.

I don’t blame the reviewers. I have to admit, it bothers me to find errors in grammar, typos, and misspelled and misused words. Most Indie authors operate on shoestring budgets, and when they get to the end of the line they find there’s no money left for a copy editor. At that point many authors decide to skip that step in the process. I’m baffled by this. They wouldn’t put the book up without a cover. Why cut out the copy editor?

Some writers think they don’t need a copy editor, but here’s what a good one will do for you.

A Good Copy Editor Will…

• Teach you that phrases like “damn near” are to be used sparingly, and that you have already used your allocation.
• Drop a subtle hint that three of your characters already say “Ya’ll,” and adding a fourth would be pushing it.
• Remind you that “smiled” is not a dialogue tag, and neither is grinned, chuckled, sighed or proffered.
• Adamantly refuse to allow one more character whose name starts with the letter “B.”
• Question your decision to have the antagonist draw his .45 caliber Glock in chapter twenty-five, especially since he had a Colt in chapter six.
• Share a link to a thesaurus where you might find alternatives to “stare.”
• Send you a text reminding you that your female lead has giggled 13 times so far, and it’s only chapter 12.
• Correct your horrendous abuse of semicolons; even though you insist; you know how to use them.
• Chastise you for capitalizing words you shouldn’t and leaving poor old “mom” lowercase, even when addressing her.
• Threaten to quit working on the project; unless you take a class on semicolons.
• Fix your compound-adjective-mistakes without mentioning them.
• Quietly delete all of your exclamation points.
• Warn you she will quit; if you ever use a semicolon again!!!!

I got carried away with the sarcasm in this article, but it was all to make a point. A good copy editor makes a difference. They’re able to take a book that is good and turn it into a book that is great. I don’t know of anyone who can sit down and write a story that doesn’t need editing. So suck it up, put on your thick skin, and turn that manuscript over to someone who can help you. When you get your manuscript back—and once you get over the shock of seeing your baby all marked up and bleeding—then you can get to work and fix it.

Bottom Line

If you’re a self-published author, you are running a business. As a business person you have a lot of decisions to make, including budgeting and resource allocation. The decisions rest with you, but if it were me, I’d find some way—any way—to hire a good copy editor. They are far too valuable to ignore.

Ciao, and thanks for stopping by,

Giacomo

Giacomo Giammatteo is the author of:
No Mistakes Resumes
Murder Takes Time
Murder Has Consequences
A Bullet For Carlos
Finding Family

He lives in Texas where he and his wife have an animal sanctuary with 45 loving “friends.”

Filed under: books, Editing, Publishing, Uncategorized, Writing by Giacomo
2 Comments »