tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1110107012766586348.post8922928231278071924..comments2023-08-10T03:12:36.037-07:00Comments on LKWatts Confessions: Does Genre Matter?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1110107012766586348.post-20046576870664010172011-12-17T08:21:01.829-08:002011-12-17T08:21:01.829-08:00Thanks for your comments everyone. It seems like w...Thanks for your comments everyone. It seems like we have similar thought patterns.LK Wattshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09366991733427612418noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1110107012766586348.post-63532102942808677472011-12-14T10:53:09.186-08:002011-12-14T10:53:09.186-08:00I agree with Jim completely. I found relief in ind...I agree with Jim completely. I found relief in independent publishing because I could not seem to find a place for my eclectic work in any other form.<br /><br />I still find myself struggling with genre. I like to write mystery, but I always end up throwing in some suspense, or even erotica just mix things up. I would say my first novel was a paranormal erotic suspense crime fantasy - try selling that idea to a publisher. I actually had to add erotic elements in because of the nature of the main character. After writing the whole thing, I simply didn't think it would sell in any other genre but erotica, so I cut some scenes, pared down unneeded minor characters, and bolstered up the sex.<br /><br />I've had some regrets about that since, because I feel that trying to bring the work into a specific genre took away from the overall story. I'm working on a sequel without quite as much erotic elements but am still worried about what genre it might fit in.<br /><br />As you stated, that's the great thing about independent publishing. I can simply determine a the major genre, and add in descriptions as they apply.Ellison Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17245256068883384084noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1110107012766586348.post-71472783909544913352011-12-14T10:31:17.217-08:002011-12-14T10:31:17.217-08:00When I first started typing what would become my f...When I first started typing what would become my first novel I never gave a second thought to genre. I wrote, stopped writing, toted up the words and I had enough to call what I had written a novel so it was a novel. Later once I knew I was capable of writing that many words in a row I realised early on that I was working on novels but never once did I consider what genre my novels were. It was only when I came to market the stuff—having, at that point, completed four novels and having started a fifth—that I needed to be able to boil these thousands upon thousands of words into blurbs and then reduce them further into a handful of tags. And that was hard. It was the writer Kay Sexton who summarised that first book better than anyone else:<br /><br /><i>In all, this is one of those novels that bookshops must hate: not 'hard' enough to be spec fic, not 'weird' enough to be fantasy, too realistic for the humour section and yet too humorous to shelve easily with the lit fic. And that, I suspect is going to prove to be its charm; for those who do read it, it's a singular take on the world, and it will either resonate with you or leave you cold.</i><br /><br />Seriously, how do you market a book like that? Essentially I’m a literary novelist and by that I mean I care about the language I use. It’s not enough for me to tell a story; stories don’t particularly interest me. I am a great believer that content dictates form. This is why I have never written a sonnet or a sestina. This also means I’m never likely going to achieve commercial success and it’s not simply a matter of hanging onto my artistic integrity, I’m incapable of working any other way. <br /><br />I think the world has gone made with a labelling gun, that’s what I think. In the past people sat down and wrote books that mattered to them and hoped they would interest other people. Nowadays people say what they want to read and writers write what they think people will read hence the proliferation of books about werewolves, vampires and now the fey. I despair when I see what people are writing. Genre is here to stay though. The marketers will ensure that’s the case. I wish it were not so. I wish I’d been born fifty years ago but if wishes were horses our dreams would trample us underfoot.<br /><br>Jim Murdochhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786388638146471193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1110107012766586348.post-19343443426819040372011-12-14T05:37:35.717-08:002011-12-14T05:37:35.717-08:00Hi Laura,
When my agent signed me for Diary of a S...Hi Laura,<br />When my agent signed me for Diary of a Small Fish, she told me flat out, "I'm not sure I can sell this," because it is not a straight up mystery or crime novel. There's a lot of introspection, emotion, a love story that's more up front than the "love interest" sideshow in the genre. And though she sold 12 deals for her other writers during the ensuing year, she couldn't get interest in mine, for that very reason.<br /><br />So I made sure that #2 had a dead body on page one and adheres to the "rules" of the mystery/crime genre.<br /><br />Yeah, it bothers me that something good enough to get a hot agent's interest couldn't get past acquisitions. And I do think the idea that a publisher's rep wouldn't know how to pitch it, or a bookseller won't know what shelf to put it, on is rather pathetic. It sounds like a phony excuse.<br /><br />On the other hand, I've run into a few mystery nazis who are ready to take your head off if you get too mushy.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com