Reach out and grab a reader . . . by the throat if you have to

I was posting a response on Patricia W.'s ReadinNWritin.blogspot.com when it occurred to me that I could do a blog on the subject. (That's the direct address, which one of these days I'll get around to adding to my links.)

My two new releases, A Love For All Seasons and If These Walls Could Talk, are my 12th and 13th novels, respectively. But every time a new book hits the shelves, I find myself worrying about how it will be received. (I realized a long time ago that the books will sell, but whether or not the reader enjoyed their purchase is just as important.) What will the readers say? Is there anything about the book's marketing to indicate that it's something it isn't? (Some folks who read my first mainstream title, The People Next Door, stated that they were expecting cat fights when that type of ghetto behavior really isn't my style, although I still don't believe this was suggested in the cover art or the blurb.) This might come from being shelved in the wrong section of the bookstore, like Street Lit.

I've been lucky so far. Response has been positive on public forums (Amazon for ALFAS, Barnes & Noble for ITWCT), but of course only a tiny percentage of readership will take time to post reviews. Others will contact me directly or sign the guest book on my web site. These are the only gauges I have of public opinion.

I was thrilled when avid reviewer L.D. Brown gave ALFAS five stars and said she loved it. Ms. Brown (I'm presuming she's a female) has become a big name in the reviewing community, as recognizable to me as longtime reviewers Toni Bonita and aNN Brown, and she hasn't liked all of my books (but I'm not telling you which one got the failing grade, even if I could name it off the top of my head).

Reader response affects my WIP, for as I finalize a manuscript that's soon due, I'm also grappling with the issue of the best point at which to begin my newest work. A few readers have indicated that ITWCT really got interesting after the three families have been introduced, while others have said they were pulled in right away. Truthfully, I gave weighty consideration to beginning the book by having all three couples meet at a model house, but decided against it. Introducing the readers to six main characters, plus their respective children, struck me as information overload for the readers, and they'd hate me for their confusion. Besides, what about the characters' motivations for buying homes so far away? The reader deserves to have this shown to them (not merely told to them; that is the #1 rule of good writing). I'd have to resort to backstory to fill in the reader, which I'm not a big fan of.

I felt it would be much better to introduce each family one at a time, give readers a glimpse into both their dreams and their problems in one chapter each, then move into their efforts to make their dreams come true and to solve their problems. I also studied the structure of books I've enjoyed and found they were written in this manner.

Of course, different readers have different interpretations. The art of starting a novel with the right amount of balance . . . not overwhelming the readers with information and characters, not taking too long to establish the conflict, is a lot more difficult than I thought it would be.

Readers? Writers? Both? What's your take on this? How do you like the books you read to be structured?