How to make a reader cry

Believe it or not, crying over a character's death is one of the greatest honors you can give an author (or one of the greatest honors you can receive, if you happen to have published a book). A reader's tears indicate that they've become so attached to the character that they felt a sense of loss when the character died.
This only applies to the good guys of course; if you cried when the White Witch in Narnia died, there's something wrong with you.

So here's the question: how can we extract that kind of an emotion from our readers?
It's not easy, but here are a few simple rules to follow that can help you earn your bottle of tears.

                                 

1. Make the character relatable.
If the character is an older hero, make him or her act in a grandparently way, that way, younger readers feel almost as if their own grandparent has been slain when you (the heartless author) kill the character off. And older readers can relate to the character on a more personal level, as if a dear friend has just died. This works the same for younger heroes.

2. Draw it out a little.
Not too long; you don't want your readers sitting there thinking, "can't he just die already?" But long enough that they're not asking, "What just happened?" (unless that is your desired reaction.) You want them to know for sure, this character isn't coming back.

3.The longer they've lasted in the book, the bigger the bottle of tears. 
Have you ever read a book where a character dies in chapter one? You might feel a brief flash of something like sympathy, but you're not going to spend too much time on their death; the longer the character lasts, the bigger the reaction you'll get when they die.

4. Make the character lovable.
Nobody is going to cry over Dave the Dirtbag, even if he saved the other heroes a couple times; neither will they cry over a character who is bland. You have to kill off someone who makes the reader go "awww, he/she's so nice" on a regular basis.

Some good examples of well done deaths in books are (SPOILERS)  Dobby from Harry Potter, and Gandalf from The Lord Of The Rings.

Have I spent too much time thinking about this topic? YES! Yes I have... Good luck on your killings- Y