![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Genre
Genre as a marketing category!
Publishers and editors do not think about genre the same way authors do. Here's an explanation.
... Now I write an ode to spinach:
Publishers and editors do not think about genre the same way authors do. Here's an explanation.
... Now I write an ode to spinach:
spinach,
you
are green
and
i wish i had more
of you than
what I ate
(yum yum yum)
at five in the morning,
dawn
creeping
up
you are
(my sunshine and)
the perfect delivery method
for salt and
garlic.
Re: confusing
A little of both. I have cross-over fans from Romance, although some would have preferred to see the relationships more in the foreground. But, that wasn't the story I was writing, so there we have an example of expectations running up against the reality.
Some SF readers have complained about the distraction of the relationships, but not too many.
I have heard that Romance readers are more willing to cross over into other genres than other genre readers are to cross into Romance, so if you have a book that's primarily SF, it may be a good idea to sell it as that, because the Romance readers will find it anyway and not necessarily the other way around.
All that being said, I felt funny pitching my books to Romance readers, even though I was advised to do so since they did receive some buzz from that quarter. And if I had it to do all over again, I would still pitch my books as adventure/espionage with hard medical detail, because I don't think the relationships stand out enough to qualify as even borderline Romance.
And if I sound confused about all this, it's because I am.
I should introduce myself, I think. Sent over this way by
Re: confusing
Romance readers will, in fact, leave the romance section of the bookstore. Other readers will too, but romance readers do it the most.
It is a confusing thing -- it's all confusing. Genre is mostly fluid -- readers will read what they like, usually, regardless of where the bookstore puts it. On the other hand, if the bookstore doesn't put the book the book's audience is looking, not too many people are going to go out of their way searching.