What Readers Want - Getting Past the First Hurdle Toward Getting Published

As a story analyst for a small literary agency, I took my job very seriously. Writers, with hopes and dreams on the line, submitted their works looking for representation and a shot at the Holy Grail of getting published. I approached every manuscript with this thought in mind, this responsibility to treat every author of every manuscript with an open mind. While my job was to screen works for the agents, always looking for a work they could sell, secretly I always sided with the authors. I wanted to approve each and every one. But in good conscience, I couldn't. Despite the responsibility I owed to authors, they owed me, too -- and what they owed me, as a reader, is the subject of this article.

As a reader, what I wanted, more than anything else, were characters I could identify with. I didn't have to like them, but I wanted desperately to empathize with them. Most scripts (my area of expertise was screenwriting) failed miserably on this count. Many characters were interesting, but few were intriguing. Many stories featured fantastic plots in exotic locations, lots of action, and yet, if your readers don't care about the characters, they don't care about the story. It's as simple as that. As a writer you owe it to your readers to create characters that we care about. Audience-main character identification is one of the key elements toward creating a successful story.

As a reader, I wanted stories that moved me. I wanted my emotions stirred. I wanted to feel something as a result of all your magnificent words. Some contend that every genre has different levels of emotional involvement, and I agree. However, the scripts that stood out across all genres touched some sort of emotion. For an audience or reader to feel emotion from your story requires a confident command of craft coupled with identifiable characters.