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Thursday, April 20, 2006
The Secret to Success
Eureka, I think I've found it. The key to sales, success, people beating a path to your door... that sort of thing.
Hugh Jackman in a towel.
No, really. I mean it. It works. (Of course it works!) One minute I'm writing a fairly anonymous blog and the next I write about heroes and provide a couple of illustrations (one taken from my friend Kate Walker's overhead-projector-ready photo of Hugh in the towel from the film Swordfish) for inspiration, and then next thing you know, I'm getting comments. I'm getting email. Dots are popping up on my Clustrmap.
So, my thinking is this...we convince marketing to convince Hugh that his photo -- the towel one will do nicely -- should be included in all of our books. Not on the cover (though how bad would that be?) but inside, so they'd have to read the story to get to it. And, of course, once they read the story, they'd be so enthralled they'd run out and tell all their friends (not just about Hugh in the towel, but about what a great story it was). Sales would go through the roof.
In fact, the enormous popularity of Hugh in the towel was merely a by-product of a post about heroes, about how if you gave each of us Hugh in a towel (or the inspiration of your choice in a towel) we might each have the same starting point, but we would each write a very different book.
That's what I love about writing -- and reading -- romance novels. We often hear or read that "they're all the same." But the truth is, they are all different. They trace the path of a relationship, but it's a different relationship every time because the people are different people. It's that variety -- and how it is portrayed -- that makes me read so many romances. I love to find out what makes people tick, how they resolve their conflicts, how they get, in so many different ways, to the chance at a 'happily ever after.' I love it as much as a reader as a writer. And I think that same desire is what brings readers back to our books time after time.
But, honestly, I don't think having Hugh there in the towel would hurt, either.
posted by Anne McAllister at 6:52 AM
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2 Comments:
Eve said...
I was sent this link by a friend who knows that I 1)Have this picture of Hugh and 2)often use it for inspiration for my heroes. I loved this and I think it's a brilliant idea. *g* I have been reading Harlequins for 30 years and can say with all certainty that there are differences in love stories. Wonderful journeys with many differing road maps. Good post!
9:29 AM
Anne McAllister said...
Hi Eve
Obviously you're a kindred spirit! I don't suppose we can hope that marketing will concur (or, possibly even, that Hugh will), but it's worth dreaming about, isn't it?
The first 'hero' I plucked from paper to be tacked over my computer was a guy from the Penney's catalogue. He was gorgeous. And he was Colin, the hero of my first book. It worked very well seeing him with that sort of half-smile on his face, looking down at me while I wrote.
It was a shock to find him 'two-timing' me with a fellow author when I went to her house a year or two later! But it taught me that no matter how similar our tastes were in men -- we still wrote very different stories!
Thanks for dropping by. Come visit my blog when you want another visit with Hugh in the towel (other than your own copy!).
6:49 PM
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