: Re: Can Originality Sell a Book? I am currently occupied with the all-too-familiar pursuit of banging my head against a brick wall. In this case, I am attempting to make my novel original. Here's

@BetL639

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Harry Potter wasn't particularly original -- see Anthony Horowitz Groosham Grange for a school to teach witchcraft in an otherwise ordinary world. The Hunger Games had precedents like Battle Royale. Romance and vampires have often been put together. Originality was not the secret to the success of these books. Appealing to the market with characters that people had sympathy for seems to me to be much more important in the cases you cite. People loved Bella and whatever his name was. Harry, Hermione and Ron are still adored. I was speaking to a colleague the other day who admires Katniss Everdeen.

As well, the books spoke to the things readers were absorbed by: heartbreak and divided loyalties in the Twilight series, for example. In Harry Potter, what mother didn't grieve with Mrs Wesley when her son died?

I have often had teenagers tell me that they loved, for example, the Twilight series, but when they read it a few years later they didn't think it was that good. The books weren't any worse; the readers had just grown up.

Of course, aim to be original, but focus on plots that excite and entertain, characters that you care about, and issues that interest your reader.

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