Monthly Archives: February 2021

Books That Really Make You Think Aren’t Always Bestsellers

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By African American Author Denise Turney

young happy woman listening to audio book using smartphone in park
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Books that really make you think aren’t always New York Times best sellers. In fact, if you’ve loved reading books for years, you’ve stumbled across lesser-known books that have had a deep impact on you. And it doesn’t take a long time to realize that you’re treating yourself to a powerful experience. You know how easily a masterful writer can pull you into a story, leaving you changed.

Powerful Books That Make You Think

Whether it’s an autobiography, memoir, book of poetry or great work of fiction, powerful books are easy to connect to. You come to love major and minor characters, refusing to put a book down because you have to know what’s going to happen to the protagonist.

Before you know it, your defenses are down. You don’t even think about becoming defensive after a character with a struggle similar to yours enters the story. It’s as if the challenge is no longer yours, as if it all belongs to the character and, in that, you’re set free.

Instead of becoming defensive as you examine a personal challenge through the eyes of a book character, you keep reading, enjoying the work that’s entertaining and enlightening. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Moby Dick, Go Tell It On The Mountain, To Kill A Mockingbird, Stamped From The Beginning, Awaken The Giant Within and The 5 Love Languages are books that have left a deep imprint on readers.

Deep Heart and Mind Work

Even more, these books have stood the test of time. Other books like Edgar Allen Poe’s, The Raven; Ann Petry’s, The Street and Sylvia Plath’s, The Bell Jar, leave a deep psychological imprint because of how the author exposes their own insecurities in their writing. You might feel sad for characters in the books, or you might feel a kinship with these characters.

Books that make you think offer the gift that strengthens your awareness that you belong. Even if you’ve only been reading books for a few months, you may be surprised at how much you have learned. Better yet, you may be surprised at how much you’ve grown since you started reading books.

diverse books that make you think

It’s part of the reason why books keep attracting new readers. Discover a new book and you can’t wait to share the story with friends. Good books offer:

  • Empathy or the ability to see a situation through someone else’s eyes
  • Deeper understanding of yourself
  • Better choices for ways out of struggle, failure or conflict
  • Appreciation for deep, life experiences
  • Early virtual abilities to travel to new places using your imagination
  • Stirring up of courage
  • Sharper inner vision
  • Hope in a time of trouble
  • Stories that help you heal
  • Pathway to understand different personalities
  • Insight into what could be driving you, a relative or a friend
  • Entertainment that excites, leaving lasting good memories

World of Books at Local Bookstores

If you’re looking for added impact while reading, consider listening to audio books. Why? Audio books engage more of your senses. With audiobooks, you can stimulate your visual and hearing as well as your emotional senses. You can also enjoy a good story while you’re driving, riding a train, in-flight or cleaning your home.

You might be surprised how many hidden gems are at bookstores near you. Local bookstores carry out-of-print and backlist books that you might not otherwise find. These local retailers invest in the communities their stores are located in, getting involved in youth events, literacy initiatives and social causes.

It’s easy to feel at home at these local retailers. Many local store owners are okay with you sitting on the floor, surrounding by a pile of manuscripts, reading a few pages from several of the titles. The Book Worm in Cranbury, New Jersey and Rare and Classics in Trenton, New Jersey are two local retailers that really make it easy to relax into a good story.

In fact, you might not be able to enjoy a similar experience at any other retailer. On the other hand, you could explore books to read online. But you might not find the best rare gems even at the largest online book retailers. And you certainly wouldn’t get that down-home feeling while you’re sourcing for new titles.

Also, whether you’re reading Love Pour Over Me, Long Walk Up or The Matter Is Life, open-up to receive what good books offer. You might find a long-awaited healing as you continue reading these and other good books.

How To Make The Most Of Writer Conferences

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By African American Book Writer Denise Turney

person holding book while browsing at writer conference
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Writer conferences, whether virtual or in-person, are among the best places to introduce new, classic and backlist books to book buyers. As an author, just make sure that writer conferences you go to have a spot on the agenda for authors to sell and autograph their books. In addition to introducing titles to new readers, here are practical ways to make the most out of writer conferences.

Writer Conference Strategy Tips

  • Bring samples of your writings – Edit and sharpen your best writings. Bring these writings with you to writer conferences you attend, especially if there’s an option to share your manuscripts with literary agents, editors and book publishers.
  • Attend three or more conference events – Many writer conferences have events that writers can attend. To get the most out of writer conferences, attend three or more events. For example, you could attend a panel discussion with authors who have written New York Times best sellers. Even more, you could attend a writer’s critique event and a book marketing discussion.
  • Meet book editors – Find out the names of book editors attending writer conferences. Introduce yourself to two or more editors that specialize in editing the genre of books that you write.
  • Share works with literary agents – Place your writings in a SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope) and share the works with literary agents. Also, ensure that the works are copyrighted.

More Ways to Make the Most of Literary Conferences

  • Giveaway free writing excerpts – Treat book buyers who attend writer conferences to free excerpts from your poems, short stories, novels and other books that you are working on. But don’t just give out free writing excerpts. Add your writer website URL to each page of the excerpt. That way conference attendees can keep in touch with you and maybe even buy your books.
  • Network – Introduce yourself to other writers attending the conferences. Consider exchanging website URLs and email addresses. Why? Writers you meet at the conferences could keep you aware of upcoming writer events, places where you could sell more books.
  • Blend with book festivals – Aim for writer conferences that have book festivals at the end of the conferences. If not, attend a mix of writer conferences and book festivals throughout the year.
  • Newsletter signups – Ask conference attendees to sign up to receive your free weekly or monthly literary newsletter.
  • Meet book buyers – Don’t just sell your works. Ask book buyers questions, getting to know these readers. It’s a good way to build relationships.

Beauty Of Writer Conferences

It’s possible to sell 10 to 50 or more copies of your books at a well marketed writers conference, especially if the conference has a strong brand. The National Black Writers Conference, New York City Writers Conference, International Dublin Writers Conference and Kauai Writers Conference are conferences that have been supporting writers, editors, publishers and readers for years.

Local and regional writers attend these conferences. Because of this, the conferences are great networking opportunities. Take advantage of these networking opportunities. Get up and say “hello” to other writers attending the conferences. Who knows? This is where you might develop relationships with other writers, the types of relationships that find you and these writers sharing book marketing, book promotion and book writing tips.

In addition, you might land a book deal with a book publisher. That, or you might strike a contract with a literary agent who has editor and publisher connections to secure you a book deal. But first you need to take the right actions to make the most out of writer conferences.

Emotional Stories Readers Love To Connect With

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By Books Writer Denise Turney

pensive woman resting at home with emotional stories in a book
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Good books touch emotional cores. It’s these emotional stories, written by emerging writers and established authors that resonate with readers. Even more, readers love stories that fuel them with emotion and transport them away from their everyday lives. But novelists can’t just transport readers, they have to create characters, dialogue and plots that dig up deep emotion. In fact, emotion may be the key difference that separates average books from top sellers.

Characters Drive Storytelling

Another benefit readers look for in storytelling is for characters to take surprising risks. They also seek tension, the type of suspense that creates an emotional connection between characters and readers. Now, here’s a key.

To achieve great storytelling, dialogue, character development and a tense, believable plot aren’t enough. Readers must be able to get inside the minds of your books characters. They need to feel like they know the characters personally. Even more, readers need to understand character motivations, fears and strengths.

Elements In Best Books To Read

One way to do this is to have a character make a vow she does not intend to keep. For example, a real estate manager could vow to her team that she loves her job and plans to continue managing at the real estate firm after she completes her psychology master’s degree when, in actuality, what she really wants is to retire and start a nonprofit counseling agency in order to avoid facing a financial scandal that’s on the verge of being exposed at the real estate firm.

But writers can’t just spring the contrast on readers. Instead, they have to build tension and reveal the struggle between what characters say and do. It’s this slow build of tension that’s found in the best books to read. And it can take years of fiction writing for authors to acquire this skill.

Also, whether it’s an autobiography or work of fiction, writers need to take readers to places that readers haven’t been before. It’s easy to do this with science fiction books, not as easy with contemporary fiction.

Classic Emotional Stories

This is where the mental workings of characters helps to strengthen stories. Ralph Ellison pulls this off in Invisible Man. Ellison masterfully takes readers inside the mind of the book’s main character, an African American man who leaves the South and relocates to New York. The move doesn’t bring the man what he’d expected it to. It’s from here that Ellison takes the man into a basement where the tautness, the powerful emotion of the storytelling takes over.

Invisible Man left an imprint on me when I read the book. Ralph Ellison’s writing skill blessed my soul. His writing took me into that basement with the book’s main character. Before I knew it, I was pulling, literally rooting, for that man to do what it took to win, to get back on his feet and rise.

Knowing this, it’s highly recommended that writers who want their stories to become among the best books to read, invest the time to actually read powerful books. Surprisingly an autobiography could help writers spot ways to sharpen their characters.

After all, when you think about it, don’t the best books of all time have such deeply developed characters that the characters feel like real people? But don’t just read books until you unconsciously spot the elements of great characterization, keep writing to develop your own voice, your own powerful writing style.