As an author, you’re not only competing with other books and storytellers, you’re competing with other forms of entertainment, like movies and television. Why should a reader finish your book when there is endless entertainment available to them? Writing a book that readers finish isn’t as easy as people make it out to be.

Lightlark, a YA fantasy novel written by Alex Aster was a BookTok phenomenon and remained on the NYT bestseller list for over a year. Universal bought the movie rights to Lightlark before the book was even released. Aster is in her 20s and it’s still very early in her writing career to see skyrocketing success. This sounds like every author’s dream come true, so how did it happen?

An author’s job is to please and delight readers. This is the joyful, beautiful, wonderful gift of being a writer. Writing success is directly linked to how well we can engage readers. If you are not considering what a reader experiences when they read your story, then it will be incredibly challenging to figure out how to become a successful author.

Writing a novel is a monumental task! Gone are the days of leisurely writing and being paid a living wage for it. Most writers don’t get paid enough to write full-time. Most writers are balancing full-time jobs, children, school or other family responsibilities. Writing is our side-hustle. That’s why it’s incredibly important to learn how to write smarter, not harder.

Colleen Hoover (CoHo) is a romance author and BookTok sensation who has sold over 20 million books. Whether you enjoy her books or hate them, you can’t deny their popularity. So, what can authors learn from CoHo’s writing? I’m going to break down some things Colleen Hoover does really well in her most popular novel It Ends With Us.

Whatever your feelings about the Barbie movie, you can’t deny its popularity. But, why is the Barbie movie so popular? Let’s put on our storyteller hats and try to figure that out. My inkling is that it’s the themes of the Barbie movie that resonate so well with so many people (and perhaps infuriate others).

Improve your writing process with these tips

Everyone has their own writing process and novel writing strategies that work best for them. I’m not here to tell anyone how to write a novel. Okay, maybe I am, but it’s entirely up to you if you want to take my advice and finish writing a novel faster.