Stopping by a tiny used bookstore the other day, I wandered into the romance section, wherein this handy-dandy key was posted:
Personally, I hadn't read enough romance to know that there was a demand for romance that featured time travel, much less Time Travel with Angels (gold circle with a STAR!)...moreover, a demand large enough to warrant its own place on a homemade Dewey Decimal system! So awesome.
So naturally, this made me start thinking about my own writing: sure, I can maybe say a certain manuscript is YA fantasy, but it has some steampunk elements to it (cogs, cogs, cogs!) as well as a bit of historical romanticalness (it is steamy, just not THAT type of steamy). What do I get with that? A blue dot with a green square with a star? A brass colored lipstick imprint on the spine?
How important is it to find your particular "sticker-on-the-spine" niche when writing? Do you read extensively in the genre you write? It's important to know what's been done before, but do you ever fear getting too inundated with the tropes and subconsciously copying entire books? Urp. Maybe that's just me.
NEXT UP: Once your book is on the correct genre's shelf...is it hurting other people's feelings?
Play nice with the other books, No Country For Old Men.
(Remember to stay tuned next week for the WEEK OF AWESOME GIVEAWAYS! Your mind will asplode.)
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Finding Your (Time Traveling Hot Angelic) Peeps
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BA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA. That poor, poor staff member who read NCFOM. Who knew it could be so cruel?
I think this is primarily why I write in so many genres, honestly-- because I read A LOT, and I read a LOT of a LOT of different genres. All of my books fall into categories of favorites for me. And some of them cross some genre lines, that's for sure. It's hard to find a neat home for those! Which is why I'm glad that the Shiny New Idea is firmly in Barnes and Noble's brand-new Teen Paranormal Romance genre/section. Oh yeah.
Ha! Oh, I remember seeing that picture of the B&N new section header! Amazing, I say. And I agree, it's nice to sometimes say "This goes HERE, no question." And cross-genre-reading is the best way to sustain cross-genre-writing. Unless, of course, NCFOM hurts your feelings, then you can cross ALL Cormac McCarthy off your reading list. :)
I'm pretty sure my book will play nice with other YA books. That's one thing I like about YA - it's easier to cross genres because everything's on the same shelf! (Ditto MG)
You know, Susan, I'd never really made that connection...of course all the YAs and MGs have to play together nicely, right? The bookstore's like a little microcosm of the world; adults get to find their own little corners, but all the kids have to play together in the same place (bookstore equivalent of junior/high school?)!
No doubt your book jives nicely with all the others. I'll bet it even snuggles...(I admit I snuggled a little with LL&P.)
Mm. I do love me some "furturistic" romance. Now I can find it with ease!
(Word ver: "hotio". I swear Google does it on purpose sometimes.)
Aw, I'm squeeing a bit that you snuggled with my book! :)
Furturistic romance! Kitties and puppies, in space and in love! So glad someone else is a fan, Adam.
And Susan, did I ever tell you my husband is a Navy boy AND he proposed to me on a cruise ship? I read LL&P in a constant state of squeeing delight. :)
@K. Marie You just totally made my day! :)
p.s. my boys are very fur-focused right now. There's been a lot of talk about writing cat books lately. I shall have to tell them of this new genre!
I fear accidentally copying directly from my favorite authors for sure, but I try to combat that by reading extensively in a HUGE variety of genres. That way, when my steampunk-romance-fantasy-western-mystery-erotic-thriller comes out, no one will have any idea what trope is coming next. :P
(I am extremely curious how a book can be mean. Malicious paper-cuts?)
~Lia
Lia, that's a fab method, for sure! It'll be a comfort for some genrephiles and new and exciting for others...and mashed up all together like that, your steampunk/fantasy/western/mystery/erotic/thriller will be an all around trip to read. :)
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