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I’ve had an unplanned opportunity to test this question and it seems that they may be less important than we realize. When I switched distributing my ebooks to Apple from Smashwords to Draft2Digital at the beginning of the year, all the books lost their ratings and reviews. Since then they’ve had essentially no ratings/reviews. So how did this affect my sales to date?

Not at all. Indeed, in the last 8 months I’ve already sold more ebooks on Apple than I did in 2023. It would seem that having no ratings has had no adverse effect on sales, and perhaps even a positive one. Now my experience may be an outlier in that all my books are free, and my customers might be less persnickety than buyers of books that actually cost money. Those readers might rely more on ratings/reviews in making their selections. Who knows? Another factor is that most of my books are now audiobooks on Apple which might make my books more visible plus there may be some double audio/ebook sales as well.

Nevertheless, my takeaway is that we probably need not lose sleep at night wishing for ratings and reviews, at least for sales’ sake. They’re certainly nice to receive – thank you, Audrey – but these days they may contribute less to sales than we might imagine.

Speaking of audiobooks on Apple, all but three of my books have now been converted and sales have grown each month. Audiobooks now account for more than 46% of my total book sales on Apple. And to follow up on my recent move to unpublish all my books on Smashwords and move them over to D2D’s distribution to the Smashwords store – the move has continued to pay off big time. I’m actually selling more books on Smashwords than Amazon, after selling only 4 books on Smashwords in June. Go figure.

EDIT: In response to Audrey’s comment, I first looked at my books on Smashwords today and discovered that I’d lost all my ratings and reviews for those books there as well, no doubt by switching my books on my own rather than waiting for D2D to get around to it. And the remarkable thing is that they are selling far better than they had been with their ratings. (And they weren’t bad ratings.) I still think that showing up as new books was the key, in that new readers may have pick up one or two, like them, and have gone back to pick up more titles over these last two months. Still, it is interesting to see that blank slate books are selling so well, and have been given a new lease on their shelf life.

While Mark was contemplating why he would “never be a good writer” I was thinking along the same lines, but from a different perspective. I was thinking of all the top-level reasons why my books would never make any of the various YouTube booktubers’ “My Ten Favorite Books” list. Or to put it more broadly, why my books will never be considered great.

From all the lists I’ve viewed, I think that it is safe to say that the overarching element in creating the type of books that end up on these lists, is ambition. The author needs to be ambitious, and then write ambitious books. This ambition has several attributes, though not all are necessary to make a book “great,” but at least some of the characteristics I’ve listed below must be present.

One aspect is scope. Favorite books are often praised for their ambitious world building and the sweeping scale of their story. Long, elaborate sagas – often multi-volume ones – set in massive, detailed worlds, with unique societies – impress readers, at least in the fantasy genre.. And even in literary fiction, creating a compelling immersive world is often heralded.

Much more important to writing a classic is tackling big, important, and universal themes. Books that discuss or illustrate important social or political issues like racism, sexism, colonialism, alienation, religion and the human experience are often held up as great books. They may also explore emotional themes like grief, loss, depression, as well as friendship and love. However, on the whole, it seems that the darker the theme, the more impactful and important the story is perceived to be. In short, they address universal themes that transcend the story itself. And in science fiction, an amazing original idea might be enough. One key to greatness is weaving something thoughtful and original to say on an important subject into the story. Indeed, themes and ideas are so important that some books are great despite being “challenging” to read and to understand. Some might even be unpleasant to read. Making the reader think is a hallmark of great books. You know, a “eat your vegetables” sort of thing. It’s good for you.

But perhaps the most important ingredient in a great book seems to be its emotional impact. Many readers read in order to feel. The more a book makes a reader feel like they are actually living inside the story, the more memorable the book. Though ,again, like with themes, it seems like the darker and starker the emotions the story generates, the more people appreciate it. Perhaps experiencing powerful events and their accompanying emotions, at a safe remove from reality, is the ultimate goal of entertainment.

Another ingredient can be characters. Deep, developed, memorable characters make for memorable books. Memorable characters are often mentioned as reasons for people loving certain books, and indeed, sometimes they are the main reason for some readers. Still, I have a feeling that they play only a supporting role in most great books, often for the emotional impact their fates generate. A novel with a cast of memorable characters may be enjoyed and remembered, but I’m not sure characters alone are enough to make anyone’s top ten books.

And finally, we can’t forget the craft of writing itself. There is no one standard of great writing, but readers know it when they read it, though this is probably the most subjective attribute of a great book. However, like characters, I doubt that writing style alone lifts a book to greatness.

Are there more characteristics that make books all time favorites and classics?

As I said, this is a list of some of the reasons why I’m not a great writer. I’m not ambitious. I write pleasant books without tragedies. I write them as cleverly as I can. I write them to take my readers somewhere else; a “You can’t get there from here” sort of place, and in the company of mostly pleasant people. I write books that you’re free to forget – and then maybe read again someday. In short, not a recipe for greatness. But like my books, not a tragedy either.

How about you? How ambitious are you as a writer? What do you aspire to achieve in your work?

— Mark Paxson

Audrey Driscoll just posted to her blog about the differences between “writer brain” and “editor brain.” It prompted me to write this post, which I’ve been pondering for a couple of weeks.

Awhile back, somebody tweeted something about writers who don’t think they’re good writers. I replied that has pretty much been my constant mental battle. I’ll never consider myself a good writer.

I’m just a writer. Because I just write.

Here are some things I see other writers talk about that I don’t do, or don’t think about while I’m writing. But first, a reminder. I’m a pantser of the truest sort. I come up with an idea, typically a scene, or a situation for a character, and then start writing. Which leads to a few things.

I don’t outline. I don’t do character sketches or character interviews. I don’t have a board on my wall where I keep track of things, or what some may do in terms of a mood board. I don’t come up with playlists to listen to while I write. I do nothing to create a physical environment to write a specific story. I just write.

While I write, I don’t consciously think about character development. Or plot development. I start with the idea and go from scene to scene. I don’t think about a three act structure or that a precipitating incident must occur by a certain point in the story. (Which is actually concerning me in my current effort because I spend thousands of words getting the main character to the setting at which all of the drama will occur.). I just write.

A co-worker asked me this week to review a draft brochure she had written. She wanted me to help her identify where she could convert passive sentences to active. I had to tell her that I really don’t know the difference between the two. That concept doesn’t even register while I’m writing. To help her, I had to Google ‘active v. passive’ and learn what the difference is. Same too with show, don’t tell. I think I know this a little bit better, but it still is something that I simply don’t think about while I’m writing. I just write.

Nor do I really think of either of those things while editing. Which is another thing I don’t really do. I don’t do any developmental editing on my writing. I don’t do line editing (I’m not even sure what that is, except what it sounds like … reading a story line by painful line.) What I do is edit as I go, but it’s mostly just finding typos, fixing some word choices, and that type of thing. And also, finding inconsistencies that have to be fixed. Beyond that, however, I don’t do much. And after I type ‘The End,’ I do a read through and tweak a few things here and there and that’s it.

The local writers group I belong to is putting on a workshop in a few months. The title is Crafting Compelling Characters. Based on my approach to writing, I can’t imagine how this works. I add details about characters as I go, without any real forethought or planning. Oh, Hannah and Alexander have finally arrived at the lighthouse, 17,000 words into the story. Let’s show a little more about how they are each reacting to arriving on the rock, and let’s reveal a little more about Solomon Thrice, who will be the bad guy. But none of it is really done consciously in my mind as “character development.” It’s just a part of the story and how to get from Point A to Point B to Point C. As I said, I just write.

(Edited to add: Also, I didn’t start writing as I left the womb. Nor did I start writing as a child, a teenager, or a young adult. In fact, I hated writing for much of that time. I only started writing fiction when I was almost 40 years old. I wonder if the lack of writing at an earlier age helped or hindered me now.)

I have absolutely no doubt there are many other things good writers do that I don’t do, or think about. I’m curious … what are the things you do to try to improve your writing to achieve th level of being a good writer? What are the things you don’t do that you think could help?