When we write a story, I hear this often, the reader must be made to care about the main character and what happens next. We have to make them interesting enough so that the reader will want to continue to invest their time into reading further.
Time is a valuable commodity. We never seem to have enough of it. Our readers are no different than we are; they are busy people who budget their time based upon importance. As writers, we must make our stories so compelling that the reader cannot put the book down and simply reading the first few pages at the book store won't be enough; they will have to buy the book so they can find out what happens next.
I hope and work to achieve the goal of capturing a reader's attention to the point of being a flashlight book author. A flashlight book is a book that is so good a child will stay up with a flashlight under the covers to finish it. I don't remember who first used that analogy but it is a good one.
May you all become flashlight authors. :0)
