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algGenre 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.
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-17 07:07 pm (UTC)Checkmark! Gold Star! Yay, Anna!
p.s. in case you missed it, CKR 'caps in my journals.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-17 07:14 pm (UTC)And you are all reading an absolutely kick-ass book. (With a kick-ass sequel that should not be read first, because it will spoil the first one!)
I keep trying to review it and flailing because I feel like I can't do it justice. Nevertheless: kick-ass novel that is *truly* Austen-meets-noir, with all the implications thereof there on the page.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-17 07:17 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-17 07:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-17 07:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-17 07:31 pm (UTC)Hee.
No, really -- thanks! I know I say it over and over again, but it makes me really happy to know that I am helping people understand this stuff a little better.
Hunter's Moon
Date: 2006-03-17 07:32 pm (UTC)When I read it, I loved it too. It's the story of a man named Tony who is a Mafia assassin. He's been turned into a werewolf. He's lost track of the days. It's the full moon. There's a woman, there's a lot of money, and there's a lot of gunfire.
I have to disagree with you on this. I read "Hunter's Moon" and would only give it a C or average score. The main reason is that it was way too schizo for me. It's all over the place. First, it's about a woman who wants to be assasinated. Then, there's a romance. Then, the Mob gets involved. And oh yeah, the hero's a werewolf too. It's a mish-mash of everything.
I love books that mix genres (Jim Butcher's "Harry Dresden" series is a great example). But I thought "Hunter's Moon" was trying to be everything to everybody. One of the subplots needed to be taken out.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-17 07:33 pm (UTC)Thanks again!
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-17 07:35 pm (UTC)And also you are welcome!
Re: Hunter's Moon
Date: 2006-03-17 07:36 pm (UTC)This is a perfect example of that.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-17 07:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-17 07:37 pm (UTC)I feel strange admitting this, since it's such a subtle, nebulous thing, but the friend who told me I should read Point of Honour just said, "It's a Regency mystery." So I wasn't expecting the alternate history element, and it threw me out of the story, because I'd been looking forward to a mystery set either in the author's best approximation of the actual historical period, or else the consensus frothy alterna-Regency many romances are set in. I need to go back and try it again, because I could tell it was well-written--it just wasn't what I was expecting to read.
Which I guess just goes to show genre is all about expectations--if I'd known going in that I was reading a genre-bender instead of a straightforward historical mystery, I'd have responded differently to the book. And that's probably a cautionary tale for an aspiring genre-bender like me (I'm somewhere on the border between historical romance, historical fiction, and the military historical).
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-17 07:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-17 07:39 pm (UTC)you stick
in my teeth
on March 17
all I need
is a drink
Nice post again.
Happy St. Patrick's Day. :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-17 07:39 pm (UTC)This is partially what I am talking about -- people like categories, and they like their expectations, and it is very difficult to snap out of expectations once they are there.
That makes it hard on writers, too -- harder, I think, than anyone usually thinks about. Take Nora Roberts: her fans want the same thing over and over again, and buy her books because they know what they are going to get... and yet then they complain to each other that she's become predictable. How unfair to her!
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-17 07:41 pm (UTC)"publishing traditionalists"
to
al
co
hol
ics
...hee. Happy SPD yourself!
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-17 07:41 pm (UTC)So when is The Robot Cheerleader Wars by Samantha Carter coming out?
*runs away to hide*
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-17 07:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-17 07:43 pm (UTC)*steadfastly ignores your question about Samantha Carter*
Thank you again!
Date: 2006-03-17 07:45 pm (UTC)This was pretty enlightening, and I already feel like I have a better grasp.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-17 07:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-17 07:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-17 07:46 pm (UTC)One group of people feel that we (the members of the writing group) can offer valid critiques on any genre. A second group seems to feel that we can offer valid critiques on any genre to a point, but there are conventions within certain genres that someone that doesn't actively read the genre might not understand. And, a third group feels that one should not critique outside their genre.
My own feeling is that a good story is a good story, and I can comment on that (hopefully!). But, if I'm preparing a manuscript for submission, it's extra helpful to get insight from someone "in the know". However...often my "in the know" folks are just people that like to read and not always fellow writers (target audience types).
Any opinions you might offer (if you're comfortable with that, of course) would be great as this issue has really divided an otherwise happy and healthy writing group.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-17 07:46 pm (UTC)Genre is always an interesting study. I enjoyed the fact that China Mieville referred to his writing as "new weird". I'd love to see a section called that in a bookstore!
Re: Thank you again!
Date: 2006-03-17 07:48 pm (UTC)Half the time, editors go into meetings and say, "This is a mystery," and someone in sales will say, "Let's put 'novel' on the spine and sell it as a mystery to B&N but as fiction to WalMart" and someone in marketing will say "Oh, and let's sell it as 'women's fiction' to Target! Good idea!" and the editors just sip their coffee and are happy that people are buying the books at all.