Where are all the great YA mermaid romance books?

by | Publishing, Writing Tips

I’m working on a YA book about mermaids. And so, in due diligence, I’m also buying and reading a whole bunch of them. But they suck. Even the mainstream, bestselling ones by famous authors that have hundreds of reviews. The problems, mostly, are these:

  1. Recycling the same scenes and plot points.
  2. Flat, unbelievable characters.
  3. Stubborn protagonist who gets pissed off and wants to fight all the time.
  4. Absolutely no attempt to make mermaid-life biologically plausible.
  5. Not much really happens (no big stakes).
  6. Most of the big stuff is revealed in the first chapter or two: here are some mermaids, protagonist learns she’s a mermaid, then learns how to be a mermaid (while falling for the sexy main love interest).
  7. No love triangles: I know, they’re overdone – but in real life girls usually have several guys that they like and they have to make hard choices. You see them in lots of YA books. But in the mermaid romance books, it’s usually more of a “girl is kidnapped into a mermaid fairytale full of coolness and intrigue, surrounded by sexy mermaid people – who have lots of money – living in an awesome beach house.” It’s basically a lot of wish fulfillment and fantasy, with a gloss of romance and maybe a tiny bit of danger (but usually not serious, life threatening, world-ending danger).

In short, these mermaid books just feel light and friendly. Even silly. Lots of humor and gentle ribbing and witty comebacks. Which gives me some hope for my book, which feels more epic to me: the tension and drama builds slowly. There is intrigue. There are lots of complex bad guys and real character motivation. There is some credibility to the way I’ve organized mermaid biology.

YA mermaid fantasy novels

I started this post when I launched my first mermaid novel; there’s still no sequel yet but you can get it and the audiobook, which I’m making free on YouTube.

I know, however, that writing a book for a specific genre and type of reader, when you don’t like the other books in that genre, is presumptuous. If readers really love those other books, they may not like mine at all. Maybe readers who buy mermaid books at all are less demanding. Maybe they don’t want a deeper, darker, more tragic, more epic mermaid romance.

And, I didn’t mean that the other mermaid romance books “suck” – that’s too strong. They may be brilliantly written for their target audience. Mine actually has a lot of accidental similarities (which is inevitable when you’re creating a YA mermaid romance book) but after reading them I’ll change mine so there isn’t anything too similar.

And unlike other genres, there really isn’t an oversaturation of mermaid romance books. So I’m excited to put mine out there and see how people like it.

What do you think?

Read any great mermaid romance books lately? Maybe I’m just missing the good ones?

PS Here’s a big list of 32 magical mermaid novels we think are pretty good… For the full shelf, see the 32 magical mermaid novels we recommend. If you want the folklore behind the tails, start with the mermaid lore hub. I reviewed The Siren by Kiera Cass. If you want something darker, try a dark fantasy mermaid romance.

How to be a “good” writer (tips from a book editor)

by | Publishing, Writing Tips

What makes a writer good enough to sell? From my years as a book editor, a satisfying story matters more than good writing, and it is the skill to learn first.

Did I mention I was a professional book editor for many years?

Here’s the important thing I learned: you don’t have to be a good writer, to be a professional author. That’s what’s so interesting about the whole “#AskELJames” thing on Twitter. A lot of people are pissed because they think she can’t write.

A lot of people think it’s stupid that she’ll be offering a writing class or book about writing. What can she teach us about writing, people ask, if her prose and dialogue and plotting is terrible?

Here’s the thing though; she’s sold 70million books.

That means, even if people hate them, a lot of people secretly loved them. Even if they aren’t “good“, they are still satisfying.

What an editor can fix and what they can’t

The worst thing you can give an editor is a book full of amazing writing, where nothing interesting happens. I can’t fix anything that can be fixed. The writing is great, I’ll say. I can’t help you. But you’ll never sell more than 100 copies.

The second worst thing you can give to a book editor is a poorly written book full of grammar and spelling mistakes with stunted dialogue and terrible pacing and a twisted plot that doesn’t end well, and flat, unsympathetic characters who shriek and run around doing stupid things all the time for no reason.

But at least that one will keep me busy. I can do something. I can rewrite and fix everything and make it so much better. But you’ll still probably not sell more than 100 copies – if the story isn’t satisfying.

And actually, even if you have that same terribly written book, but it has a really good, satisfying story, it’s going to do better – even without an editor.

My point is that having a satisfying story matters more than “good writing”. Editors can improve writing. We can’t really fix story, and story is all that matters. (Yes, you can spend thousands of dollars on a developmental editor to help you fix story and teach you the basics of plotting… but why do that when you can buy a few books and actually learn to write?).

If you do go the books route, the best books on writing are listed on another page here.

And personally, I want to sell a ton of books. I want to sell at least a million. I don’t give a shit if I’m not technically a “good writer” or if people make fun of me. If I can sell a million books, it means my stories were good enough to keep people buying and talking about them.

Good writing or storytelling: which to learn first

Literary fiction? Who needs it. I’d be happy writing and selling a million time-travel sexbot erotica books (which I’m actually writing, under a pseudonym). You’ve got to make a choice: do you want to improve your writing, until you can actually make beautifully meaningful sentences, and publish one, amazing, literary novel that sells a thousand copies but gets great reviews?

Or do you want to publish 5 different trilogies in popular genres and make a good living from your writing – enough money so that you never have to do anything for anybody else, ever again.

They aren’t really the same skillset. You can do both, probably, but you have to decide what to focus on.

“Good writing” isn’t really a money maker; which means it isn’t really a valuable skillset.

“Story telling” however, done well, can make great money.

So if you have to choose which skill to invest your time and energy developing, always go for the second.

Also, story telling is pretty easy to learn, and it can be taught. Learn it FIRST. Good writing is mostly a matter of practice. You might figure it out on your own after writing for a decade. But writing for a decade may not teach you anything about telling a great story. You need to learn that. There are rules involved.

What the sales numbers say

People will continue to argue about what it means to be a “good writer” or what’s considered “good writing” – but I think the sales numbers are the greatest definitive proof we have for what kind of writing is valuable/valued.

Shades of Gray has had almost as much cultural impact as Harry Potter.

Name any literary fiction in the last 20 years that can say the same.

PS) We put a little guide together of self-editing tips for indie authors/common writing mistakes indie authors make over at www.BookButchers.com, it’ll save you some money if you check it out and go through the list, before you think about hiring an editor.

How to start your book with sex and gore without becoming melodramatic

by | Writing Tips

Short answer: show some blood and gore (and/or sex) up front, but hold back why it matters, who caused it and how it relates to the main character.

For many genres, it’s important to hook readers’ attentions in the beginning.

A lot of authors will do this with action, violence, sex and gore. Visceral, tactile experiences communicating horror and mayhem for shock value. This can be effective, in theory.

The problem is: where does it go from here?

Firstly, nobody gives a shit about your characters in the beginning. You have to make readers like them first, and that takes time. But you can’t take too much time; you have to hint that something exciting is coming, and that the stakes will be high.

So starting with a death in the preface/first chapter is generally a good idea.

Then slow down

But then you need to slow way the fuck down. Your beginning needs to contrast with the ending. You need a nice, stable ordinary world – the pot of water has to be cold. The characters relaxed.

Then you can turn on the heat. Add some salt and spice.

Bring it to a simmer.

Now your characters are freaking out a bit. They know what the stakes are. They know what’s expected of them.

But they probably resist. They shouldn’t want the violence that’s coming. They should try to avoid it. They also don’t want to become badass ninja fighters who slaughter hordes of faceless bad guys.

They should resist being special, being chosen.

Make the protagonist fail

A lot of indie authors screw this up, by starting off with a special, powerful, magic supersexy protagonist who can smote the shit out of everyone. But remember, even when the protagonist finally commits to her path, when she accidentally or is forced to make her first kill (or metaphorical kill – the first conscious and deliberate action that moves the plot forward, which she’s been resisting until now) she’s still going to fail.

She needs to fail, again and again. Especially right before the beginning of Act III.

Very probably, somebody she cares about dies, too. But it matters much more than the meaningless death(s) in the beginning; because it’s her fault somehow.

In the beginning, a few people died – or just one – probably a necessary evil and the beginning of the antagonist’s evil machinations. So she got involved; resisted at first, but then committed.

And now, because of her actions, more people are dead. So she questions herself. She feels responsible. And if feels terrible.

So she’s probably going to give up, until an ally talks her into getting back on her feet, even though hope seems lost.

Then, finally, you unleash all of her most amazing, super effective, incredible baddass ninja-warlock-fae powers.

The point is, don’t use up all your tricks

If you start in the beginning with rape, murder, dungeons and blood, bones breaking, pregnancies, vampires and werewolves and lost princess descendants (I just sampled an indie book that started just this way; prompting me to write this post) you won’t have hooked readers, you’ll have bored them. OK, now we’ve seen everything and know what to expect. Why keep reading?

You need to hint. You need to show some blood and gore (and/or sex), but not why it matters, who caused it, or how it relates to the main character. Not yet. Your hook has to leave the reader with questions, and make him care about the answers.