Best selling science fiction books. Their secrets

Best selling science fiction books. Their secrets 

Less indifferent, more inventive, extremely innovative and terrific with creating a fictitious plot that rests within the pillars of scientific reasoning and a pioneering exuberance of ingenuity that baffles the #scifi reader. This is what a best selling science fiction book should be like, and this is what it should do to any scifi reader.

Now, let me first deal with the following attributes of a best selling scifi book:

• Less indifferent

• More inventive

• Extremely innovative

And

• Terrific with creating a fictitious plot that rests within the pillars of scientific reasoning and a pioneering exuberance of ingenuity

Less indifferent

Prior to understanding the less indifferent part let us understand how can a scifi book be indifferent. Because it is not a person with whom the #scifi reader can enter into a live conversation or exchange views.

Have you ever experienced a situation where you asked someone something; and instead of acknowledging your requests. He/she acts as if he/she did not hear anything and walks away. What you experienced at this moment is indifference from the person who completely neglected you. 

Now how can a book act indifferently or be indifferent? And not only that, also be less or more indifferent.

Trust me, a scifi book can be indifferent too, just like humans. And here is how.

When we read a scifi book, we first interact with words, then paragraphs, and gradually we develop an overview of the scientific thought that the scifi author is trying to communicate to his/her readers via his/her book. But, as we engage our mind with the pages of the scifi book; and we are past 5 pages. And still we are unable to gauge the contextual flow of the author’s thoughts, then the scifi book is being indifferent towards the scifi reader.

This interactive numbness on part of the scifi book emerges from the scifi author’s inability to form a collective pool of scifi readers’ likings and dislikings as far as their scifi related preferences are concerned. 

Did I complicate it? I think I have made it a bit complicated, let me explain it with more detail and simplicity.

Consider a hypothetical situation where a scifi author wants to write a scifi story around a rose- The flower rose I mean. Now, this scifi author cannot access the database of scifi readers who like roses and then exclusively promote his/her scifi book to them. ( Although nowadays such filtration of target audience is possible, and this in turn makes targeted marketing possible as well ) However, in this case it would be foolish because it would lead to lesser sales. As the scifi author will only be reaching out to 

those scifi readers who like roses.

Here we are caught in what I term as scifi writer’s enigma- A book where rose is the subject can only be liked by people who like roses. And is there a way to overcome this limitation? Indeed there is a way.

The scifi author has to be very alert throughout the book writing process. He/she should not mention names of flowers that many readers dislike. For whatever reason that might be. If the author is not able to achieve this consciously defined filtration then he/she is authoring a book that will be regarded as indifferent by many scifi readers. Because it failed to consider their likings and dislikings.

And this is exactly where the highbrow #scifi author applies what only few scifi authors possess as a quality, the writer’s discretion. The scifi author does not specify any flower like : rose, sunflower, dahlia etc. instead, throughout the scifi book, the author refers to the word “Flower.” And throughout the book every scifi reader happily assumes that the scifi author is referring to his/her favourite flower. But in the concluding part of the scifi book, when the scifi reader is very excited to know how the story ends, the scifi author defines this flower as “Rose'' or any other flower of his/her own choice.

If he/she is able to do this, he/she keeps all scifi readers appeased. Thus preventing the scifi book from being labelled as indifferent. And by specifying the flower in the concluding part of the book, the scifi author establishes his/her liking without appearing peevish to the scifi reader. And now, being impressed by the scifi story, the readers who used to like hyacinth, now may try looking at the rose differently and not indifferently! 

This is what a best selling scifi book should manage to achieve. Make the scifi reader believe in something new, without alienating him/her from his/her own likings; from what he/she prefers at personal level.

By specifying the flower in the end, the scifi author avoided being indifferent by applying well calculated forethought. Even if few scifi readers may find it slightly indifferent, they would always be able to convince themselves that the rose specified by the scifi author towards the end of the book, is actually a representation of their flower of preference. Because throughout the scifi book, the author deliberately used the word “Flower” and avoided using “Rose.” This realisation will always make every scifi reader establish a proper and active communication with the scifi book, and when in the end they realise that the scifi author was actually referring to rose, that does not hap;pen to be their flower of choice, would not feel let down at all. Because excluding the concluding part of the book, every other part of the book made them feel the scifi author was referring to their preferred flower.

And it is these authors who write best selling #scifibooks.

More inventive

We all keep imagining things, all of us. If few of us would say that they do not, then it is their imagination that makes then feel they are not indulging in imagining about things. Even the act of saying they do not indulge in any sort of imagination, is actually an imagination of their minds. Because the human mind is designed to imagine, to think what noone has ever thought; and then invent ways to fulfil these dreams in reality.

And when it comes to scifi authors, they have to be able to imagine more than the average imagination of the general scifi readers. And when the author feels he/she has imagined what nobody has ever imagined. Then the scifi author needs to invent the most conducive ways to realise these imaginations in reality by applying scientific reasoning to them.

This is where the main trick lies. The #scifi author has to first be sure he/she has imagined what nobody has even thought of. Once he/she establishes this fact, then he/she has to be extraordinarily inventive in order to make the scifi reader believe this is actually a part of his/her own imagination, and it can be achieved by applying the scientific realities proposed by the scifi author. When this harmonious exchange of imaginations takes place (  between the scifi author and scifi reader ) the scifi reader feels special, he/she feels valued because the author convinces him/her that his/her imagination is rich enough to be the part of scifi author’s grand scheme of imaginations. This is the magic best selling #scifibooks should be able to create. 

If via internet you access the list of best selling scifi books, you will come across many #scifibooks where scifi author's imagination about future technologies or scientific concepts is a reality today. Take for example smart phones, space walk, interactive screens, nanotechnology based body suits, flying cars, self aware robots, self driving cars etc. etc.

In early 90s all these technological realities of today would have been nothing more than scifi author’s works of imagination. But the conviction of scifi authors was so profound that the scifi readers believed in these concepts and even the community of scientists believed in them. That is why they are a reality today. And it proves nothing is as powerful as human imagination. 

And this is what I mean by being more or extraordinarily inventive. Being more inventive is impossible without being able to imagine more than average imagination.

Extremely innovative

Inventive and innovative are they different? That is a tough one to be honest.

But it has a simple explanation. 

You cannot be inventive if you are not innovative. Just like you can't love someone without being loving

And a #scifi author has to be extremely innovative when it comes to his/her imagination. The scifi author has to go around in the merry-go-round of infinite thoughts, to encounter imaginative bursts that eventually culminate into one super and superior imagination that has never entered the domain of any thinking being’s universe of imagination.

It is not at all easy, it takes a lot of mental steadfastness and grit of scientific character that is not willing to let go off the imagination that it believes in and wants to stretch it to the farthest limit on the thread of his/her logic. That finally gets woven into that grand imagination supported by the innovative thinking of the scifi author, whose mind is already breeding the thoughts that will lead to a highly innovative big bang- The birthplace of innovative inventions. Where this grand imagination will find its moment of tryst with reality. And it is then that fiction meets science like a perfect companion.

And now the scifi author with a resolute approach develops a grand imagination, while not eliminating from it micro imaginations of all his/her readers. Because if he/she does not consider this nuance of scifi book writing, the scifi author, as I mentioned earlier, will trap his/her scifi book, in the curse of indifference i.e. being indifferent towards the scifi readers’ likings and dislikings. By including moments of scifi reader’s micro imaginations in his/her grand imagination, the scifi author converts his/her book into the best selling scifi book.

   

Terrific with creating a fictitious plot that rests within the pillars of scientific reasoning and a pioneering exuberance of ingenuity

“A gripping plot that is supported by logic and pioneering ingenuity.” It is almost similar to being inventive and being innovative. But there is slight difference, similar to the difference in being inventive and being innovative.

I think now I have trapped myself. Because I better be right and define the difference well. Let me address it in parts.

• Gripping plot

And

• Pioneering ingenuity

Gripping plot depends on: Grand imagination, being inventive and being innovative.

Here grand imagination is the main propeller of the #scifi story. Without it nothing will move ahead, least of all the scifi reader. So, the scifi author has to weave a grand web of grand imagination, and then fill this web with knots of inventiveness and innovativeness. But these knots have to be carefully done. Make them too tight and the scifi reader will struggle to open them with his/her imagination. Make them too loose and the scifi reader’s imagination will slip through it, without feeling its influence. These knots have to be perfect, neither too loose nor too tight, so that the scifi reader’s imagination can flirt with them. And if the scifi book helps the scifi reader’s imagination flirt with the imagination of the sifi author’s grand imagination, the scifi book you are reading, is the best selling scifi book. No doubt about it.

There is no better way to explain “gripping plot.”

Now moving on to pioneering ingenuity. I believe all scifi authors are pioneers. But how many of them are ingenious pioneers is what matters the most. 

We all are influenced by someone, all of us. Children are influenced by their parents, by their teachers and of course by their friends. An adult at the office is influenced by someone in his/her office or someone he/she looks upto. This influence can be so strong in a few cases; that these individuals retain few of the characteristics of these influencers.

But a truly pioneering author knows how to not let these influences reflect in his/her scifi book. Because it can happen, that a highly renowned scifi author may not only have influenced not so famous scifi author who is writing a new scifi book, but his/her scifi readers as well. And if this not so popular scifi author cannot free his/her scifi writing from the influence of this renowned scifi author. Then for the scifi readers it will be more like reading the scifi book of this renowned author whom they idealise in the scifi genre; and not the author whose book they are reading currently. When this happens, the scifi book will fail to make it to the list of best selling scifi books.

However, the experienced scifi author knows what it is like living under the shadow of someone bigger than his/her own stature- A situation like the sun and the moon. Where we all know the moon borrows its light from the sun, but the authentic scifi author always attempts to be the sun and not the moon.

It is these scifi authors who achieve pioneering ingenuity. They imagine new scientific concepts which challenge and completely shatter every old and obsolete concept. Without failing to inject their grand scifi imagination as a replacement of these conventional and rusted concepts. 

And scifi authors who accomplish this milestone, develop a scifi reader base, that is like a fan-following of a superstar of scifi- Uncompromising and never budging in their loyalty towards their new, but now, their favourite scifi author. 

And it is done by scifi authors by displaying the courage to be ingenious in their thinking, while not being less practical too in supporting their theory with scientific arguments that cannot be ignored by the scientific community.

This is what I mean by Pioneering ingenuity. And a #scifi book that possesses Pioneering ingenuity is destined to be the best selling scifi book.

Now, there is a scifi book that is based on a similar, grand imagination and pioneering ingenuity. Because what appears to be an imagination in this scifi book, will be a reality in 2075. A reality for your children and grandchildren in 2075. This scifi book is titled, They Loved in 2075.

It imagines a world in 2075, where self aware machines have invaded human societies at an emotional level. And due to this invasion humans have lost their ability to feel and emote like humans. And when the world is witnessing an emotional crisis on a global scale, a boy falls in love with a girl who is unable to emote like humans.

To know how their romance progresses or meets a tragic end, read the scifi book titled: They Loved in 2075.

Although it is a romance scifi, set in the year 2075. When the world gets divided into three clans, and one of the clans wants to control the entire planet. They are super intelligent humans who use quantum thinking machines to develop new technologies and uncover new secrets of science. Yet the other two clans launch an attack. And they stand no chance, without the boy and the girl. 

What happens in the end? To know, you must read the #scifi book, They Loved in 2075.

PS. I personally endorse use of technology. Especially AI, ML and other technologies that will augment human intelligence and reveal to us secrets that we have chased for many centuries now. But, when it comes to AI and other technologies, being cautious and taking well measured steps is very important. Otherwise we may be seeking refuge in Noah’s ark that has a hole in the bottom. It may not mean anything while the ark is gradually sailing away from the last and disappearing shore left on the Earth. But once it reaches the centre of an abyss like water world, the ark is bound to sink. And that is what we should consider and think about!