Eh, what exactly is that?
I'm gearing up for the release of The New Vampire's first episode,
The Awakening
. Those of you who've read through the entire Vampire's Pet Series or received my last newsletter have already had a taste of it. I'm trying to work my writing schedule around so that newsletter subscribers also get a first crack at new releases by at least a full day, but that's a story for another day.
One of the things every writer has to do is decide what genre(s) and subgenre(s) their work falls into. Since beginning the Vampire's Pet Series in early May, I've wrestled with this. Are the V.R. Cumming tales erotica? No, there's more of a story and less sex, though the sex is explicit, so it's not exactly romance, either. So, erotic romance it is. Paranormal, yes, but there's also a touch of horror. And, wait, there's not a Happy Ever After at the end of the first series, a trademark of the romance genre so...
You can probably see why I've struggled with how to categorize these stories. To readers, this kind of classification isn't all that important. A good story is a good story, right? And it doesn't matter if it's classified as paranormal or something else as long as it's a satisfying read.
Where knowing the genre really helps is with retailers, who rely on genre and subgenre classifications to group books appropriately for their customers. On Amazon, for example, it's really difficult for a book to be discovered by readers who would enjoy it if the keywords and categories (genres) aren't properly configured.
Unfortunately, none of my stories fall precisely into a specific subgenre. The Vampire's Pet, for example, is erotic, yes, but it's not erotic romance (there's no HEA or Happy for Now, a requirement of that genre). It's not exactly Urban Fantasy or Horror because it contains explicit sex. Sex is usually alluded to in UF, but not explicitly detailed, and modern Horror is evolving more and more toward a separation between tales that contain supernatural elements (Dark Fantasy) and those that do not ("pure" Horror).
I finally settled on defining my stories as something between Erotic Paranormal Romance and Dark Fantasy. Though I would prefer the more honest and simple Erotic Dark Fantasy, many people who see "dark" used in conjunction with "erotic" expect much darker sex (heavy on the BDSM). So, Erotic PNR and Dark Fantasy will just have to do.
A lot of indie authors have this same problem. One reason why we're indie is because traditional publishers expect closer compliance with rigid genre expectations and tend to reject authors whose work can't be neatly pigeonholed (or, worse, they edit it to death, losing much of the story's vibrancy in the process). That's also why indies are so successful, because we're able to blur the lines and draw in readers who would like something different in their fiction.
I hope that's what I'm achieving here with the World of the Vampyr stories. Keep an eye out in the near future for a continuation of this world, as well as a new series I hope to release early next year. It's set in the same fictional world as the Vampyr, but doesn't directly involve the characters already introduced. Don't worry, I won't leave Eric, Gianna, and Jason's story hanging. In fact, I have another surprise there that I'm working on. More details should be forthcoming near the end of this year on both the new series and that surprise.
One of the things every writer has to do is decide what genre(s) and subgenre(s) their work falls into. Since beginning the Vampire's Pet Series in early May, I've wrestled with this. Are the V.R. Cumming tales erotica? No, there's more of a story and less sex, though the sex is explicit, so it's not exactly romance, either. So, erotic romance it is. Paranormal, yes, but there's also a touch of horror. And, wait, there's not a Happy Ever After at the end of the first series, a trademark of the romance genre so...
You can probably see why I've struggled with how to categorize these stories. To readers, this kind of classification isn't all that important. A good story is a good story, right? And it doesn't matter if it's classified as paranormal or something else as long as it's a satisfying read.
Where knowing the genre really helps is with retailers, who rely on genre and subgenre classifications to group books appropriately for their customers. On Amazon, for example, it's really difficult for a book to be discovered by readers who would enjoy it if the keywords and categories (genres) aren't properly configured.
Unfortunately, none of my stories fall precisely into a specific subgenre. The Vampire's Pet, for example, is erotic, yes, but it's not erotic romance (there's no HEA or Happy for Now, a requirement of that genre). It's not exactly Urban Fantasy or Horror because it contains explicit sex. Sex is usually alluded to in UF, but not explicitly detailed, and modern Horror is evolving more and more toward a separation between tales that contain supernatural elements (Dark Fantasy) and those that do not ("pure" Horror).
I finally settled on defining my stories as something between Erotic Paranormal Romance and Dark Fantasy. Though I would prefer the more honest and simple Erotic Dark Fantasy, many people who see "dark" used in conjunction with "erotic" expect much darker sex (heavy on the BDSM). So, Erotic PNR and Dark Fantasy will just have to do.
A lot of indie authors have this same problem. One reason why we're indie is because traditional publishers expect closer compliance with rigid genre expectations and tend to reject authors whose work can't be neatly pigeonholed (or, worse, they edit it to death, losing much of the story's vibrancy in the process). That's also why indies are so successful, because we're able to blur the lines and draw in readers who would like something different in their fiction.
I hope that's what I'm achieving here with the World of the Vampyr stories. Keep an eye out in the near future for a continuation of this world, as well as a new series I hope to release early next year. It's set in the same fictional world as the Vampyr, but doesn't directly involve the characters already introduced. Don't worry, I won't leave Eric, Gianna, and Jason's story hanging. In fact, I have another surprise there that I'm working on. More details should be forthcoming near the end of this year on both the new series and that surprise.
No comments have been added yet.
