WHAT DO READERS WANT?

by Jan Christensen

"No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance." - Confucius

Like the question, what do women want, "What do readers want?" is unanswerable when you lump every reader into one, well, lump. Especially fiction readers. Because Mysterical-e is a fiction e-zine, I will be discussing mostly fiction in this column with an occasional nod to non-fiction so those readers won't feel totally ignored.

Reader A wishes for awesome description, beautiful writing, and doesn't care so much how the plot works itself out or if it even makes much sense.

Reader B demands plot-driven stories with scant descriptions--actually scant wordage of any type, thank you.

Reader C insists on character-driven stories which probe the protagonist's and often the antagonist's psyche. Characters wake up in the morning thinking and never stop.

Reader D has to have plots with fantastic action scenes, and the only descriptions might include weapons and machinery, especially cars, the rugged handsomeness of the main (male) character and the gorgeousness of all the female characters, plus, well, action.

Reader E wants to laugh. The story should be over the top, combining lots of funny action, comical characters, and an outrageous plot. Descriptions should be short and weird, and delving too far into the character's psyche would slow down the funniness.

Reader F craves romance. A soon-to-be couple meet, get off on the wrong foot, have several other misunderstandings, but are drawn together relentlessly. Eventually all is cleared up, and they live happily ever after.

Reader G loves mysteries that give them shivers and puzzles, interesting characters and great plots.

Reader H is for horror. This reader wants even more chills than the mystery reader, and some monsters or catastrophe out to get the main characters or even the whole world/universe.

Reader I is fascinated by fantasy. He or she loves magic, both good and evil, and fantastical characters who do stuff us normal folks are unable to accomplish.

Reader J insists on science fiction. And the science must be possible, and the fiction believable. Often the writing itself is quite different for this genre, as it can be for horror and fantasy. The three--horror, fantasy and science fiction--are collectively called speculative fiction. Sometimes they are combined and often include a mystery.

Reader K only reads non-fiction, and some read only in one non-fiction category.

Which one do you favor? Or are you in your own category? If you love to read, maybe you like several categories, reading a mystery today, a funny novel the next day, and a biography next week. Perhaps you're the kind of reader who only reads in one genre, or even one sub-genre.

Probably what most fiction readers really want is a balance between all the above. A little mystery, some romance, a few laughs, some action, great characters, a fascinating plot, dead-on, interesting descriptions, and fantastic writing. And those who like speculative fiction want all the above plus the supernatural elements as well.

When a reader finds that kind of story, it's one they want to keep to re-read, to talk about, to cherish.

How can readers find great short stories? That can be harder than finding great books. One way is to buy or borrow the "best-of" anthologies that come out every year. Your library probably has several. Search on-line bookstores for others. Find your favorite author's website to see if he or she has listed published short stories and where to find them. Searching the web, you can locate many on-line zines (like this one) with stories in several different categories--mainly mystery, fantasy/science fiction/horror, literary, a few romances, plus the stray story in whatever category you enjoy. There are still some print magazines which feature short stories, and they are usually grouped together in your local bookstore with the how-to-write and "literary" magazines. Reading short story writer's blogs can also be helpful.

How can readers find great books? Find recommendations from professional reviewers and reviews at on-line bookstores. Look at the best-seller lists (recognizing not all of those will probably interest you). More recommendations can be obtained from relatives and friends, librarians, blogs, editorials and so on. So many, in fact, it can become hard to choose. Many readers have favorite authors and read each book as it comes out.  Most writers now have websites that list all the books available, usually in order of publication.  Regularly checking those websites is a great way to find books you haven't read yet and learn when a new one is out.  Also look to see if they've had any short stories published lately, and where.

Some avid readers make lists by hand, or in a database or table so the lists can be sorted by author, title or even category. I do my main list in a table which includes a column for whether it's available at my local library (go to the library's on-line catalog to find out) and another column for comments. Comments might include who recommended it, a snippet saying what it's about, or awards given. And there's a column to check if I've already read the book--sometimes it's hard to remember. Another list is for books I want to buy that are not available in the library, or for books that are available in the library, and after I've read them, wish to purchase.

After awhile, my to-read list became so long I knew I'd never be able to read them all in this lifetime. I decided to put in yet another column rating how well I might like the book because of reviews or subject matter, or because I've read the writer before and enjoyed them, or personal recommendations.

Then, because I'm not getting any younger, I decided to figure out how many books I usually read in a year and now choose that many from my list to read in the coming year.

When I can get books from the library or in exchanges or quite cheaply, I am often tempted to just pick them up willy-nilly and read whatever. I wondered if that was that the best use of my time. I decided it wasn't, but I will still allow for the impulse read when I find out about a book that highly interests me.

Some readers make an effort to read certain types of book on a regular and/or rotating schedule. For example, in the coming year they may decide to read six biographies, two memoirs, two classics, six books about a special interest such as history or an area of science, the arts, and so on, and fill in with fiction. Or if their focus is on fiction, they might have a goal to read a certain amount of fiction every year and fill in with other reading.

But I would never recommend becoming too rigid about all this. Some of the fun of reading is finding unexpected stories and facts. Like this warning on a beach ball: Use only under competent supervision.

Currently reading: "Thieves' Dozen," a short story collection about professional thief John Dortmunder by Donald Westlake. Highly recommended.