Lesson 3

Today’s lesson is WHAT. Lesson 3
 Welcome back for today’s lesson. I hope your week proved to be an eventful one. Today we will dive right into our lesson about What.
What should I write about? What sells in today’s market? What is my motivation? Let’s start with that one, motivation.

Writing Class 101 by Rick Kurtis
As I said before, eighty-one percent of you want to write because you have a thought, a story burning within you. You want to share with as many people as possible. Very few think about getting rich from their story, but certainly hope to, so they can quit their jobs.
You need to realize what is selling on the market and what has lasted through out time. Something that people cannot get enough of. If you can bust something out fast, you can follow what is hot in the news. If you have a talent other than writing that will benefit others, you can write a how-to-book. These often flood the market and pop-up first when asking Google for help. Many have gone to You Tube, but really, who can remember what he did in each step. A book is much better. Then again, how many people want to know how you did what you did, so they can give it a try?
Some people can see your end results usually posted on the cover of your book or on YouTube, and figure it out on their own. So again, don’t quit your day job. I made two such books just to help train my employees long before the Internet. I never thought about marketing to a select few who wanted to learn how to tie steel in a swimming pool, or how to plumb them. These books have long been tossed and lost through the cracks of time, and I didn’t even keep a copy for myself.
Either way, you want to complete your dream. So what sells in today’s market? If you are a fiction writer, romance comes in at forty percent, crime and mystery is twenty percent, then comes religion and spiritual at eighteen percent, with science fiction and fantasy at twelve percent. This doesn’t cover children’s books, nonfiction, self-help books, or true crime. They say self-help books and how to books, along with true crime are on the rise. Everyone wants to sell their own opinions. But how many people really want to learn how to or need that self-help.
Is anything written really true when it comes to writing? We see it all the time. Twelve people can’t decide as two lawyer’s battle back and forth. It’s an interpretation. You and I may see two totally different views of an accident we both saw. Cookbooks, diets, and self-help’s are a dime a dozen. But who knows, you might have the one, the next one.
When it comes to fiction, the shelves are riddled with them. Go to your local bookstore or library and see what section is the biggest. Even though children’s books have their own wing, their percentage is only 7 to 12 percent. I also hate to say this, but religious books fall as fiction in most cases, and even though they are eighteen percent in sales, most are inspirational.
So, depending on your genre, you can see where your book will fall. As I said before, my books can’t compare with today’s market and top sellers. I don’t curse, there is no sex, violence, or gore. My religious books are a three book series about a person’s life who doesn’t exist, or does he? My children’s books follow all the guidelines that publishers required, even though I have seen what they have placed on the market just to make a buck. “She runned to the store.” That’s a whole other blog for a different day.
Your book is special to one person, and that person is you, and you what? You want to at least see it in print. So if you’re like me, and want to share your story, your crafty idea, then what do you write? You write what you know about, even if someone thinks different than you. You write what you are passionate about, whether it is an animal, a love, a fantasy, a dream, or a nightmare. Just get it off your chest and let your feelings be known. I wrote a screenplay about an airport being held hostage and scared the pants off of co-workers, saying that they were scared to come back to work. Whatever it is, write, write, write.
Our next lesson will be about HOW. So for now I say,
 
Happy Writing from rickkurtisbooks.com