By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
I had a deadline Sunday that I met just
in the nick of time. :) It was a
deadline for a teaser chapter—the first chapter in my current WIP that will go
into the back of the December Penguin release.
I realized that I treat teaser chapters
differently, depending on the situation.
I actually sweated a bit over this one, which was probably why I ran so
close to deadline. That’s because my
editor asked for this chapter (with a September 1 deadline) before I actually started writing the book or
even the outline. That means that I
wrote the chapter with an eye for marketing.
I was particularly conscious of the
opening hook and the chapter ending. Ordinarily…I really don’t think too much
about them. I always open with dialogue,
even though I keep reading that this is a “bad thing.” It’s worked out all
right for me.
It's certainly easier on me when I get the request for a teaser chapter and I can lift the chapter out of an
already-completed first draft.
My publisher tells me that they want the
first chapter “fairly firm”—in other words, they don’t want any major
changes. Minor word changes would be all
right. Changing the characters’
names—not so great.
My editor will always say that if I don’t
have a solid first chapter for the teaser that they’ll use the first chapter
for the first book in the series. My gut
tells me that’s a less-successful marketing technique so I always make sure
that I’ve got the first chapter for the new book ready (even if I’ve not
written the rest of it).
On the other hand—it occurred to me that
cliffhangers in trad-published teasers aren’t necessarily a great thing. Yes, it can pique
reader interest in the next book. But,
if the next book isn’t being released for nearly a year (as in this case), then
it might prompt some reader frustration, too.
But if you’re self-publishing, this might be exactly the effect you’re looking
for. Maybe you’ve even got the next
release in your series ready to go. Perhaps these are even backlist books. In
that case, a cliffhanger of a teaser chapter would be smart marketing.
And then…part of me wonders if teaser
chapters make a huge difference to readers at all. For me, I’m already committed to
reading the next book in a series, if I’ve enjoyed the series so far. What I have
done, as a reader, is buy someone else’s
book when a book has been cross-promoted by a publisher with a teaser
chapter. This makes me think the
self-publishing practice of trading teasers with other authors is a
smart move.
As a writer, do you use teaser
chapters? As a reader, do they have an
impact on your buying habits?