Imogen Rose's Blog, page 4
June 25, 2011
Who are you?
I recently read John Locke's (no, not the guy from LOST, but the million-dollar, best-selling author sensation) book about marketing. In his book he stresses how important it is to define your market audience. It got me thinking about my books in terms of my readers. Who am I writing these books for?
You'd think this would be straightforward. It's a YA book, so teens, right?
To explore this more fully, let's go back to my childhood....
Just joking ☺
Seriously, let's go back a little, to two years ago when I started writing Portal. At the time, I had no idea that what I was writing would turn into a book, never mind a series of books. Genre? Never heard of the concept. I read what I liked and was, of course, aware that there were different types of books, but I had never consciously thought of books in terms of genre.
Portal was not written with an audience, never mind a "target" group, in mind. I wrote it for my daughter, who was eight at the time. Is it suitable reading for eight-year-olds? No. Clearly not. It was suitable for my daughter because of the way I told her the story, but the finished product is not something I think an average eight-year-old would enjoy.
When I published Portal, I was required to put it into a genre. So, I looked at similar books and decided that YA would probably be the most appropriate grouping as the main character is a teenage girl. However, Portal also has a strong older cast who drive the story. Without Rupert and Olivia, there would be no Portal.
Once I published the first book and reviews started coming in, I quickly realized that the book appealed to a wider audience than anticipated. I had somehow managed to cross a variety of genres. Terry Goodman (senior editor at Amazon Publishing) wrote, "I think it has a very clever hook and plays so well against a variety of genres—YA, fantasy, romance, sci-fi. It's a very tough balancing act to walk the tightrope of so many genres without slipping up on one of them, but I'll be damned if you didn't pull it off with aplomb."
My audience includes young and old, males and females. So should I be forced into a genre? Thinking ahead, if I were to shop the Portal Chronicles to the publishing houses (who do seem to like books that are categorized appropriately), should I edit it to make it more YA-appropriate? My gut says no. The Portal Chronicles has done amazingly well. Why mess with something that seems to work? What do you think?
June 11, 2011
Momentum Giveaway: Bear
Okay, back to writing for me now. Good luck! Im xoxo
June 8, 2011
Faustine– The Cover Story
I very often get asked what inspired me to write Faustine. It was a photograph of my youngest daughter who was only eight at the time. She was sitting and doing her homework, wearing one of my hats, while I was playing around with my camera. She looked up from her homework to ask me something and I snapped a picture. Something about her expression in the photograph has always stayed with me and I knew I wanted to used the picture for a book cover. So, Faustine was born. The earlier versions of me messing around with the picture were not perfect, so I asked Claudia from Phatpuppyart to help me achieve the effect I wanted and here is the final result.
June 6, 2011
Poster for INITIATION
This is the first book in the prequel series (Bonfire Academy) to the Bonfire Chronicles. The girl on the cover is the main character, Cordelia. We join her as she watches the new students, including Faustine arrive at the school. I am really excited about this book and will start writing it as soon as I am done with Momentum. I hope to have INITIATION out this Fall... don't ask me exactly when!
September 2, 2010
TOTE Giveaway!
To enter: Leave an Amazon Review and click "like" here:
http://fb.me/GBRaU5s7
Winner announced: 09/17
