Generic
At a book site I visit, someone posed a question to the site members at large. How does one prepare oneself to write in an unfamiliar genre? Lots of answers had already been given by the time I got there, and yet they were all exactly the same answer: research! Read a hundred books in that genre! Learn the genre inside and out!
Because I am contrarian by nature, my first thought was Why on earth would anyone research a genre?
My knee-jerk incredulity aside, of course there are reasons to...
date
newest »
newest »
I think you're right, Tatiana. Certainly right that I tend to approach things from odd angles. Marketing and its related considerations do not come naturally to me at all. In fact, after I wrote this (and the very long comment later) it occurred to me that I wasn't talking about genre at all: I was talking about marketing. I'm at this point where I need to "brand" myself, establish a web presence, put a professional face forward. Put myself in a genre, as it were. And I am really worried that I don't know how, and that bull-headedly plowing forward isn't going to serve me well in this case.That's a really long-winded way of saying thanks for liking the post. :)
A good writer establishes (or reinvigorates or re-imagines) a genre IMO. You probably can start by thinking what kind of reader you think your book will appeal to. Like, I have a circle of friends here on GR and I know many member's preferences and approximately their tastes, so I have an idea what to recommend them.
You may be onto something, there. My first inclination is to think of all the strangers that will be seeing my work for the first time - and how does one address a group of complete strangers? Awkwardly, is my usual method (I have a special talent for making anything awkward). But if I think about the people who WILL like the book, and think of myself as addressing them, then maybe I can relax more easily. Those people won't be complete strangers, in some sense.
I personally have more respect for authors who write what is close to them, what they know, what they want to write, what they need to write. Such works offer much more originality and heart IMO.