By Chrissy Brown | C.A.A.B. Publishing
Do you always wonder if your book is a SUMMER READ?
Well, technically any book can be read at any time, but a good traditional summer read (in our opinion) has a few elements that are tried and tested. So, if you want to check your work for the following or start a new manuscript for the summer reading crowd, take a look at our summer reads recipe.
Firstly, you will need an easy-to-follow plot – this is useful as reading on the beach or while traveling can have many distractions and readers do not want to keep back tracking or re-reading chapters because they lost the thread.
Mix in a little humour – be it any sort, a summer read should engage and make the reader smile. A horror or a tragedy can still entertain and use black or dark humour to keep a reader’s interest and to stop them from putting it down to jump in the pool.
Throw in a few easy to identify characters – this is a helpful addition to a summer read, lots of characters with similar names or that behave the same way can start to muddy the waters and lose the reader, characters should be diverse and varied.
A sprinkle of light-heartedness – this is true no matter the genre, if it is an intense read it is probably a little much for the summer reader, they are looking for fun in the sun. Some tears, some scary bits, or some passion is fine, but it shouldn’t be a heavy read or terribly depressing, just engrossing and thrilling.
Be sure to snip away any unwanted chapters – a summer read should not be the length of War and Peace. Readers have luggage allowances to consider.
Wrap the whole thing in a cover of simple structure and easy-on-the-eye images – a black road, a bright sky, a flash of lightning. The cover should offer a glimpse of the genre but ideally needs to say a lot without being busy or overcrowded. Summer readers will look for covers that may reflect the writing. They want to relax, and they will choose to read something that will help them to do that.
And that is it, you are ready to be a summer hit.
Of course, there is a difference between a summer read and summer reading, as in the reading assigned to kids through the summer months. Whatever the school has offered as options to children usually has some meaning for the coming year of tuition. A summer reading programme for kids is very different to just reading a book whilst on holiday, if you want to get a book out there that could some day be included in school lists then you need to think about what subjects are being taught to the age of child you will be aiming the book at.
Such as, Romans, World Wars, Kings and Queens or other writers work (Shakespeare, etc). Writing a book about these subjects, or giving a different perspective on the work of great writers can get you noticed and added to a school’s reading list. Read the books already on the lists, see if you can find a new way, a more interesting way or a simpler way to get the information across to the children. Make it fresh, make it new and make it educational.
Happy Summer time from all at CAAB Publishing ltd.
A Less Than Serious Guide to San Francisco
by Eduardo Villious Bungle
This book is a humorous look around the great city of San Francisco California.
Whilst some may make the ludicrous claim that this made-up guide is in some way less useful than an “actual guide” it is definitely a lot more fun. So if you want to discover the real (made-up) San Francisco this is the book for you.
In this book you can find the truth behind San Francisco’s name, the untold details of how the city selects its mayor, and discover the “truth” about the origin of the Victorian Era. This guide contains everything – except the truth.
C.A.A.B Publishing
CAAB Publishing Ltd is a traditional, small, indie company helping unknown authors have a voice and inspiring new writers to take that first step into the world of publishing.
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Article originally Published in the Summer 2024 Issue: Indie Summer Reads.