A Thrill a Minute

A Thrill a Minute:
Crafting, Pitching, Writing, Selling
and Promoting Thrillers
George Galdorisi
La Jolla Writer’s Conference
October 27-29, 2017

A Thrill a Minute:
Crafting, Pitching, Selling, and Promoting Thrillers
“This lecture will focus on how to produce a novel and have it
accepted by a mainstream publishing house. Attendees will learn
how to decide what to write about, how to pitch a story to
publishers and agents, how to seal the deal once the pitch gets a
nibble, and how to team with your publisher to promote your
book. While the primary focus of this workshop will on getting
thrillers published by a mainstream publisher, the same process
is adaptable to most fiction. We will also examine how some of
these same lessons apply to the world of e-books and print-on-
demand. Attendees will be provided with online access to all
workshop material.”

A Few Preliminaries….
• Three promises:
– This will be a fast-paced fifty minutes
– We’ll learn something…and we’ll have fun
– You’ll have access to these slides…take notes…or not….
• Three assumptions:
– You all are interested in the thriller (fiction) market
– You’re an avid thriller reader and envision your thriller
– You didn’t wake up last Tuesday morning with this notion
• And a word about Power Point….

Let’s Talk About Writing….

….and isn’t this
the oldest profession?

“If you decide to become a professional writer, you
must, broadly speaking, decide whether you wish to
write for fame, for pleasure, or for money.”
Ian Fleming
How to Write a Thriller

A Thrill a Minute: Crafting, Pitching,
Writing, Selling and Promoting Thrillers
• The high concept and the pitch
• Writing your novel and making it shine
• Selling your novel to an agent or a publisher
• Promoting what someone publishes

Crafting and Pitching Your Thriller:
The High Concept and the Pitch

Mr. Clancy said none of his success came easily, and he
would remind aspiring writers of that when he spoke to
them. “I tell them you learn to write the same way you
learn to play golf,” he once said. “You do it, and keep doing
it until you get it right. A lot of people think something
mystical happens to you, that maybe the muse kisses you
on the ear. But writing isn’t divinely inspired — it’s hard
work.”
Tom Clancy
Quoted in the New York Times
October 2, 2013

The High Concept and the Pitch
• What you need to know getting started
• Mainstream or genre? Which way should you go?
– Thrillers used to be stuck in the “genre ghetto”
– Today they are more mainstream
• Getting story ideas
• What a reader wants from a thriller

The High Concept and Pitch:
Of What?
• The king died and then the queen died.
– A story
• The king died and then the queen died of grief.
– A plot
• The queen died, and no one knew why, until it was
discovered that it was through grief at the death of
the king.
– A mystery

Some Preliminaries: Dean Koontz’s
Recommendations to New Writers
• Thought
• Care
• Storytelling
• Craftsmanship

Great or Not-So-Great?
What You Need to Know Getting Started
• Lots of decisions to make:
– Mainstream or genre
– Publisher or self-publish
– Single work or a series
– Time-bounding to complete
• The competition is intense
– Increasing number of novels published
– This means that far-fewer are commercially successful
– In many ways, the market is over-saturated
– Compared to non-fiction, there are fewer barriers to entry

Mainstream or Genre?
Which Way Should You Go?
• Mainstream fiction: The plots acts as a skeleton
upon which the writer adds layers of action,
characterization theme, symbolism, background and
mood, until a living thing has been constructed.
• In genre fiction: The plot is usually the skeleton and
the tendons and the vital organs and the muscle.
Other elements of the writer’s art – characterization,
theme, background – are seldom given such full
expression as in mainstream work..

Dean Koontz
On Generating New Story Ideas
• Read!
• Write!
• Tickle the imagination and generate story ideas by
playing around with exotic titles
• Type out a bunch of narrative hooks and find one
that is intriguing
• Prime the idea pump by building up a couple of
characters in enormous detail
• Whatever you write, you must begin your novel by
plunging the hero or heroine into terrible trouble

What the Average Reader
Demands of a Novel
• A strong plot
• A great deal of action
• A hero, or heroine, or both
• Colorful, imaginative, & convincing characterization
• Clear, believable, character motivations
• Well-drawn backgrounds
• At least some familiarity with the English language
• A style with lyrical language and striking images

Defining Your Audience and Picking a
“Voice” and Point of View
• Who are you writing for?
• What voice should you pick?
– What voice do you most enjoy in the fiction you read?
– What voice seems most natural to you?
• Go for a test drive
– Write three chapters in third-person
– Write the same three chapters in first-person

Writing Your Novel
and Making It Shine

“There is only one recipe for a bestseller and it is a very
simple one. If you look back on all the bestsellers you
have read, you will find they all have one quality you
simply have to turn the page.”
Ian Fleming

Writing Your Novel and Making It Shine
• Success stems from this quality as a story-teller
• That said, the three most important things
• Other essential things
• The quality control process

Success Stems From This
Quality as a Story-Teller
“It’s not what you know that counts, it’s whether the
reader believes that you know something. This effect is
called the suspension of disbelief.
Oscar Collier and Frances Leighton
How to Write and Sell Your First Novel

Let’s talk about three of the most
important ingredients in writing a
successful thriller…

CharacterizationPlotting
Action
You must do
all three well!

“There are only two plots: The hero takes a journey and
a stranger comes to town.”
Timothy Spurgin
“The Art of Reading”
The Great Courses

The Classic Plot
• The writer introduces a hero or heroine who has just been –
or is about to be – plunged into terrible trouble
• The hero or heroine attempts to solve his or her problem but
only slips deeper into trouble
• As they try to climb out of the hole they’re in, complications
arise, each more terrible than the one before, until the
situation could not become more hopeless, then one final
unthinkable complication arises and makes matters worse.
• At last, deeply affected and changed by his awful experiences
and intolerable circumstances, the hero learns something
about himself and the human condition. He then understands
what he must do to get out of the dangerous situation in
which he has wound up. He takes the necessary actions and
either succeeds or fails, succeeding more often than not.

“You can distill anydrama – a Greek tragedy, a
Shakespearian play, a modern novel, a TV drama or
comedy, whatever – into a simple equation: ‘What do
these guys want, why do they want it, and what’s
keeping them from getting it?’”
Bill Bleich
Writing advice

Plots
• Create a compelling plot
• Write a grabber opening
• Write a successful ending
• Create a middle that keeps the reader involved

James Hall – Hit Lit
• Gone with the Wind
• Peyton Place
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Valley of the Dolls
• The Godfather
• The Exorcist
• Jaws
• The Dead Zone
• The Hunt for Red October
• The Firm
• The Bridges of Madison County
• The Da Vinci Code

Let’s take a deep-dive into one well-known
way to design or deconstruct a plot….

Let’s Deconstruct This Using a
Book We All Are Familiar With
• Pride and Prejudice
• Ulysses
• War and Peace
• Anna Karenina
• Don Quixote
• Little Women
• The Wizard of Oz

Important Qualities for
Heroes, Heroines and Strangers
• Virtue
• Competence
• Courage
• Likeability
• Imperfections
• Change:
– Layers
– Arcs

Character Motivations
• Love
• Curiosity
• Self-preservation
• Greed
• Self-discovery
• Duty
• Revenge

Character Traits
• Physical appearance
• Movement and gestures
• Past life
• Religion
• Sexuality
• Vocation
• Skills and talents
• Fears
• Dreams
• Pleasures
• Plans for the future
• Sense of humor
• Politics
• Voice and speech

Presenting Character Traits Thoughtfully
• How many major and minor characters to have
• All major characters must have a biography
• Develop a “job description” for each character
• You will know what your characters will do
• You are writing a novel – not a movie script
– You have to get your characters from Point A to Point B
– Your characters are not dead when they’re off the page
• What is each character doing?
– On stage
– Off stage

Take a female character who is on her way to her high school
reunion. She’s 50, attractive, divorced, and has had no contact
with her graduating class since she left Iowa for Berkley in
1985. There was a guy she jilted when she went off to
school. Develop her.
• Physical: height, weight, hair color, best feature, worst
feature, etc.
• Occupation: attorney, doctor, college professor, executive,
runs a dot.com startup, etc.
• Personal: strengths, weaknesses, phobias, attitude toward
men, attitude toward all others, etc.
• Family: siblings, relationship with mom/dad, rivalries
• Relationships: good/bad/difficult, marriage(s), children?

Let’s look at three examples

New York Times, Publisher’s
Weekly & USA Today Best-
Seller!
Let’s color in one character,
Anne Sullivan, Op-Center’s
Deputy Director

“Anne Sullivan was a retired General Services
Administration super grade who had made a career in
Washington. She knew all about the government,
including government contracting, hiring, firing, and
funding, and how to sidestep the issues. These were
things Williams never had to deal with, even during
his multiple tours in Washington.”

“Unlike Williams, Sullivan came from money. Her
father had fashioned a successful and lucrative career
in finance with Bain Capital Ventures. Between that
family money and her GSA retirement, she was
looking forward to a comfortable life. She enjoyed the
D.C. social and cultural scene and traveled often,
primarily to Europe and especially to Ireland. That
plan was interrupted when Williams recruited her—
charmed her, really, she readily admitted—to be his
deputy.”

New York Times, Publisher’s
Weekly & USA Today Best-
Seller!
Kate Bigelow, Commanding
Officer, USS Milwaukee
(LCS-5) Freedom-Class Littoral
Combat Ship

“Kate Bigelow was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. She’d
gone to the Academy for two reasons: to play lacrosse and to
sing. Coming out of Montgomery Blair Prep in Silver Spring,
Maryland, her two passions had been playing lacrosse and
singing in her school glee club and church choir. She was an all-
state midfielder and also had a strong voice. Her grades were
good if not outstanding, but the Academy women’s lacrosse
coach saw her play and liked what she saw. Lacrosse was a
rough sport, even the woman’s game, and Kate Bigelow, while
owning a technically sound game, was not above flattening an
opposing player with a legal hit. She started for three years on
the lacrosse team, beating Army two of those three years, and
had sung in the Catholic Choir and the Naval Academy Glee
Club.”

“Kate had graduated in the upper half of the bottom third of
the Class of 2002. She’d never really considered a full career in
the Navy as a seagoing officer, two things intervened that kept
her from leaving the service. She found she liked U.S. Navy
sailors and she had a knack for leading them. Secondly, she
found command intoxicating. There was nothing like it on the
outside, so she stayed in the Navy. She had previously
commanded an MCM ship like Defender that now followed
them out of Sasebo.”

New this year from
Braveship Books
Lieutenant Laura Peters,
Intelligence Officer, U.S. Southern
Command

For Laura Peters, it was an opportunity for professional growth
that might not come her way again. It was not surprising she
loved what she was doing. The daughter and only child of a
Navy chief petty officer, she had been the apple of her father's
eye. Master Chief Donald Peters had risen through the ranks as
far as he could, but he always wanted to be an officer. That
goal, unfortunately, had eluded him. When it was clear his
marriage would produce no sons, he regaled Laura with the
opportunities that beckoned in the Navy. The master chief
knew enough about how the Navy worked and what it looked
for in its officers—and particularly its need to recruit more
women officers—that he groomed his daughter throughout
high school to make her a shoe-in for winning a Navy ROTC
scholarship.

She had thrived at the University of Virginia, earning top
grades, and lettering in cross-country, squash, and tennis.
Sensing that the Navy was still not enlightened enough to fully
accept women as equal partners commanding ships and
aircraft squadrons, she opted for the intelligence field upon
graduation, correctly surmising that it would provide a more
level professional playing field and afford her the opportunity
to prove herself and advance through the ranks. In her seven
years since graduation she had sought out only the toughest
assignments, usually registering firsts, breaking ground where
female officers had not gone before.

When he finished packing, he walked out onto the
third-floor porch of the barracks brushing the dust from
his hands, a very neat and deceptively slim young man
in the summer khakis that were still early morning
fresh.
James Jones
(From Here to Eternity, opening sentence)

"Jones packs a hell of a lot into that first line. He tells
you it's summer, he tells you it's morning, he tells you
you're on an Army post with a soldier who's obviously
leaving for someplace, and he gives you a thumbnail
description of his hero. That's a good opening line."
Ed McBain in Killer's Payoff

…plot?...characterization?...which is more
important?

Plot or Characterization
• You have to have plot to make the reader turn pages
• People are the story and the whole story
????????????????????????????????????????????????
• Plot has the entertainment value to pull the reader
along
• The characters are the vehicle, the tools through
which you tell your story
• Readers want you to tell them a story
• Dialogue brings your characters to life!

“I do not over-intellectualize the production process. I
try to keep it simple: Tell the damned story.”
Tom Clancy

What About Action?
• Action evolves naturally from the plot
• There is no “formula” for having action in your novel
• As Clancy said, don’t overthink the action
• That said, here are some things to consider:
– Different kinds of novels lend themselves to more or less
– Write all the action you can – then consider Goldilocks
– If riveting, hold-your-breath action is anywhere – up front
– Balance scene and summary to bound action scenes

But That’s Not All!
(Mainstream and Genre)
• High Concept (Think in movie terms)
– The Coronado Conspiracy
– For Duty and Honor
• Theme
– The Coronado Conspiracy
– For Duty and Honor

Selling Your Novel to an
Agent or a Publisher

“All good writing is swimming under water and holding
your breath.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald

Selling Your Novel to an
Agent or a Publisher
• In many ways, it’s all about the sale to an agent
• Getting an agent to read your proposal and ms
• Packaging yourself professionally
• The query letter and the pitch
• The Treatment
• The Narrative Outline

It is All About Getting the Sale
• Query agents – get the statistics on your side:
– Forty years ago – 30% of books were agented
– In the last decade – Over 85% of books were agented
• Small publishers – you will likely bear some risk
– Probably no advance
– Limited print run
• Be your own agent – to find an agent: Richard Curtis
How to Be Your Own Literary Agent

Getting an Agent to Read Your Manuscript
• It starts with being familiar with books in your “field”
• Then you find out which agents agented those books
• Stay in the library: Get contact info for agents
• Go back to what you’ve learned about query letters:
– High Concept (back to the movies)
– Treatment
– Narrative Outline
– Full Manuscript
• Tom Clancy’s Op-Center: One example

Let’s “Deconstruct” a Treatment
and a Narrative Outline

Let’s Deconstruct
a Novel Treatment
• Cover
• Organization
• Organizing Impulse and High Concept
• The “Old” OpCenter Dies
• The “New” OpCenter is Born
• New Character Details
– Preamble
– Those who spend a great deal of time
physically at OpCenter
– Those who deal with crises overseas
in each scenario
– Those who deal with crises
domestically in each scenario
• OpCenter Plot and Scenario Plan
– Preamble
– Short Plot Synopsis
• For us, this was 17,000+ words

Let’s Deconstruct
a Narrative Outline
• Cover
• Front matter
• Chapter summaries
– Separate sections
– One or two paragraphs per
section
• Epilogue
• For us, this was 19,000+
words

Promoting What
Someone Publishes

“You are the CEO of your own career.”
David Sona
Navy Transition Course
Spring 2000

Promoting What Someone Publishes
• What you should think twice before doing
– Pestering friends and family to buy your book
– Taking your books from event to event to sell
• What you should think of doing instead
– Create anticipation for your book
– Establishing a world-class online presence
– Use social media to the extent writing is still first
– Write about your book’s subject matter - everywhere

A Summing Up – What We’ve Covered:
Whew, This Isn’t Easy – Why Do It?
A Thrill a Minute:
Crafting, Pitching, Writing, Selling
and Promoting Thrillers
• The high concept and the pitch
• Writing your novel and making it shine
• Selling your novel to an agent or a publisher
• Promoting what someone publishes

“Being a comparatively successful writer is a good life.
You don’t have to work at it all the time and you carry
your office around in your head. And you are far more
aware of the world around you. Writing makes you
more alive to your surroundings and, since the main
ingredient of living, though you might not think so to
look at most human beings, is to be alive, this is quite a
worthwhile by-product, even if you only write thrillers.”
Ian Fleming

Resources
• E.E. Forster Aspects of the Novel
• Francine Prose Reading Like a Writer
• Richard Curtis How To Be Your Own Literary Agent
• James Hall Hit Lit
• Dr. Linda Seger
– The Art of Adaptation
– Advanced Screenwriting
• Robert Masello
– Robert’s Rules of Writing
– Writer Tells All
• The Great Courses, especially, Jane Friedman How to Publish
Your Book

A Word About Surveys:
Comments Typically Come in Three Types
• You rocked my world and my life is now changed forever
for the better – I’m a completely new person
• I’d rather have a root canal than have to sit through this
again – and I think you should pay for it
• I got something (a lot, a little) out of this talk, but if the
instructor does this next year, he should:
– Do more of….
– Do less of….
– Go faster….
– Go slower….
– ????

Slides and Resources Posted:
http://www.georgegaldorisi.com/
For 2017 La Jolla Writer’s Conference Attendees.
Contact me via this website for:
Treatment and Narrative Outline for Out of the Ashes
Treatment and Narrative Outline for Into the Fire
And if you’d like to receive my “Writing Tips” bi-weekly

BACKUPS
Promoting What You Write:
Establishing an Online Presence
Leveraging Social Media

Establishing a world-class online presence

What Makes Your Online Presence Unique?
• Are you providing something people can’t get
anywhere else or get as easily?
• Are you aiming at the right attention span of online
tourists?
• Determining the right level of effort in refreshing
your online content
• Balancing what you give away online and what you
want to sell to visitors

Beating the Competition for Online Eyes
• Above all else, when someone “Googles” your name
your website must pop up at the top
• It’s not just about getting that initial visitor – it’s
about getting him or her to keep coming back
• Most online visitors are taking a break from what
they have to do at work or home
• Think of your website the same way as what you
write – tell people a story

Balancing Content and Entertainment
• People will tire of the monotonous “professor”
telling them “like this damn you” (from Ian Fleming)
• People will tire of dancing bears, dwarfs throwing
rose petals and fireworks
• Achieving the right blend and balance is your online
presence style
• Take the same approach Urban Meyer has during his
coaching career

Doing It Yourself Or Having It Done
• Your website is “you” to people you will likely never
meet – but who you want to entertain
• There are cottage industries of books, seminars, tools
and coaches to help you build your own website
• There are legions of people and businesses who will
do it for you
• If you have the time and energy and want to use
your left and right brain – try doing it yourself

Let’s look at some examples of
websites of people who write….

Some Writers Who
Have Done It Themselves
• Jeff Edwards
– http://navythriller.com/
• Janice Steinberg
– thetinhorse.com
• Larry Verria
– Site lapsed!

Some Writers Who Have Had Someone
Else Build Their Website
• Dick Couch
– www.dickcouch.com
• Larry Bond
– http://www.larry-bond.com/
• Your guide for this course
– www.georgegaldorisi.com

Some Ways to Find More Examples
• “Google” writers you enjoy
• Go online for advice on going online
• Check with local businesses in your community
• Use your library for additional resources

Use social media to the extent writing is still first

Vote Early and Often
• There are no limits to how much you can use social
media
• This goes to the number of sites you use as well as to
how often you are on those sites
• However, as with your online presence (website) it
comes down to how you invest your time
• Most “practitioners” advise a Zen approach; “If you
don’t do it excellently, don’t do it at all”

Building a Following
• There are many ways to build a following – find the
one that’s right for you
• You can even “buy” a following on media like Twitter
– if this is really what you want to do
• Most people find that letting a following build
naturally conveys the best long-term benefits
• Remember that social media following is a very
ephemeral thing (Un-friending, Tweepie, etc.)

Sustaining Momentum
• Building a following on social media carries an
implicit obligation – to stay with it!
• As one indication, Twitter tells you when a person’s
last Tweet was – and Tweepie keeps score too
• You want to make social media your servant not your
master
• Recognize that there are dangers that come with this
http://www.georgegaldorisi.com/who-likes-you

Do You Really Want To Do This?
• It can be time consuming – or all-consuming
• It can be boring
• It can be distracting – to the detriment of your work
• It can be expensive in terms of missed opportunities
• Doesn’t have a definable return on investment
• At the end of the day it is ephemeral

Benefits of Social Media
• You can reach a global audience
• Social media is accessible to everyone
• Most social media tools are easily learned
• You control your content and periodicity
• If you have no Web presence, agents, reviewers and
readers are a lot less likely to take you seriously
• Publishers will ask: “What platforms are you on and
how many followers do you have?”

A Slice of Social Media
• E-mail
• Blogging
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Text Messaging
• LinkedIn
• Pinterest
• Instagram

Like Many Things in Life Using Social Media
to Enhance Your Writing Reach Involves
• Organization and planning
• Knowing your target market
• Getting creative
• Staying consistent
• Picking some – but not likely all – types of SM
• Setting realistic goals–especially the time you invest

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