Embracing the Women’s Fiction Genre Label

By Orly Konig, @OrlyKonig

Part of the How They Do It Series

JH: Women's fiction covers a wide variety of stories, but there are common elements to every one. Orly Konig shares thoughts on the genre and tips on how to know if your book fits this popular category.

Orly Konig is an escapee from the corporate world. Now she spends her days chatting up imaginary friends, drinking too much coffee, and negotiating writing space around her cats. She is the founding president of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association and a member of the Tall Poppy Writers. She’s a book coach and author of The Distance Home and Carousel Beach.

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Take it away Orly…

Writing in a New Genre. Should You Do It?

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Common publishing advice says stick to one genre, but what happens when you want to write in other genres? Should you take the leap or stay where you are?

Growing up, I was a mostly science fiction and fantasy reader, and thus the same as a young writer. As I got older I broadened my reading interests some with YA contemporary, but it wasn’t until around six years ago that I really stepped outside my favorite genres.

My sister in law lent me one of her Jennifer Crusie romance novels when I was visiting one weekend. I’d never read romance, but I had a lot of friends who read and wrote it, so I figured I’d give it a try.

And I loved it.

Just Another Day: Writing the "Slice of Life" Novel

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Some stories are more challenging to write, and crafting a slice of life tale is one of them. Here's an updated look at what makes or breaks a day in the life of a character novel.

I have an uncanny ability to read a lot of the same types of books over a short period of time with no intention of doing that. Maybe I'm just in the mood for that type of story then and pick up books that are similar.

Because of that, I often get interesting perspectives on what makes stories of a certain type work and why they didn't.

This happened a few years ago with several slice of life stories. The ones where the focus is more on a character's journey through a period of time, and not so much about that one big bad problem that needs to be resolved.

Slice if life stories can be a lot harder to pull off than your typical plot-driven novel, because character growth isn't all that exciting in and of itself. It's the results of that growth, and the struggle to achieve that growth within a particular situation that's intriguing.

New Market – New Game: Defining Short Fiction

By Sarah Dahl, @sarahdahl13

Part of the Focus on Short Fiction Series

JH: A few months ago, I was chatting with Sarah Dahl about short fiction, discussing how little is “out there” about this side of the craft: writing shorter, and publishing it, and I asked her to do a series to focus on this growing market. In this (roughly) monthly series she'll discuss why writers might want to consider writing shorter – and how they can make the most of it. 

Sarah Dahl lives on the edge of the rural German Eifel and writes historical fiction (novels and short stories) primarily set in the Viking age. She was an editor in several German publishing houses and managed a translation agency. The magic of writing re-entered her life at UCD Dublin, where she sat in J.R.R. Tolkien’s office every day, while working on the ‘Dictionary of Hiberno-English’. Tolkien’s spirit must have done something to her creative muscles – it sure wasn’t the bland view from his office. She became a full-time writer soon after and still works as an editor, translates, and coaches new authors. She is interested in everyday life in bygone centuries and the human stories that may have occurred behind the hard, historical facts. Sarah just released her collection Tales of Freya, seven sensual short stories set in the Viking age.

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Take it away Sarah...

COMP LIT: Claiming Your Place on the Genre Shelf

By Damon Suede, @DamonSuede

Part of The How They Do It Series

One of the first thing any credible marketer will ask you is where your books fit. What are your comp titles and also-buys? As genre authors we write within a framework which we are constantly stretching and testing.

Even for authors working in the same genres and subgenres our books, our voices, and our fan bases often differ in wonderful (offtimes wacky) ways. Whatever their approach, all authors face the task of clarifying why their books are extraordinary. Attracting your unique readership starts with claiming your spot on the genre bookshelf: your niche.

Niche covers a wide spectrum of differentiators: subgenre, scale and setting, voice and vibe, heat/violence/suspense level, intensity, tropes, types, tone, and more. Some authors hunker down in a very narrow patch and never budge. Some folks wander the woods…peeing on trees all over the publishing forest, constantly marking out new turf for their fans. Essentially your niche is the stretch of the virtual bookshelf that your books fill perfectly and that your ideal audience and likely allies seek out instinctively.

What Makes an Indie Novel a Success?

By Dario Ciriello

Part of the Indie Authors Series

The roads to success in both indie and traditional publishing seem limited.

All things being equal, I see four principal ways in which an indie book can be a success:

1. You painstakingly build your fan base, always staying within one genre, possibly writing series works, and releasing books frequently and predictably. Somewhere after book three or four, maybe, things take off.

Choose Your Genre, Change Your World

By Jess Lourey and Shannon Baker, @jesslourey,

Part of the How They Do It Series

Jess Lourey (rhymes with "dowry") is best known for her critically-acclaimed Murder-by-Month mysteries, which have earned multiple starred reviews from Library Journal and Booklist, the latter calling her writing "a splendid mix of humor and suspense." She is a tenured professor of creative writing and sociology, a regular Psychology Today blogger, a sought-after workshop leader and keynote speaker who delivered the 2016 "Rewrite Your Life" TEDx Talk, and the author of Rewrite Your Life, the only book out there which shows you how to turn your facts into healing, page-turning fiction.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Goodreads

Shannon Baker is the author of the Kate Fox mystery series (Tor/Forge). Set in the isolated cattle country of the Nebraska Sandhills, Kirkus says, “Baker serves up a ballsy heroine, a colorful backdrop, and a surprising ending.” She also writes the Nora Abbott mystery series (Midnight Ink), featuring Hopi Indian mysticism and environmental issues. Shannon makes her home in Tucson where she enjoys cocktails by the pool, breathtaking sunsets, a crazy Weimeraner, and killing people (in the pages of her books). She was voted Rocky Mountain Fiction Writer’s 2014 Writer of the Year.

Website | Goodreads | Amazon

Take it away Jess and Shannon...

The Problem With Cross-Genre Fiction

By Bonnie Randall 

Part of the How They Do It Series (Monthly Contributor)

“Hello, I’m Bonnie and I am a cross-genre fiction addict.”

“Hello, Bonnie.”

“I’ve been trying to go linear for many a year. So far, I am 0 days clean.”

Such is my struggle. To me, writing cross-genre stories incorporates a robustness that linear genre fiction does not allow for. Dual storylines and shifting modalities force the reader to see the piece through multiple lenses: there’s the horror angle for some of it, the romance angle for others, and the mystery/suspense angle for yet more. I love it—and many readers do too.

Does Your Writing Need a Literary Palate Cleanser?

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Unless you’re a writer who writes in several different unrelated genres (and if so, here’s something from the archives for you to read today), you will likely reach a point where you need a break from your writing. You’re tired of saving the world from evil. You can’t stand the thought of getting one more couple to happily ever after. If you have to kill off one more witness who saw too much you’ll scream. You’ve reached genre overload and can’t take it anymore.

That’s okay, it happens to a lot of us.

A break usually fixes this problem, but some writers require a little more than time off to revitalize their love of their chosen genre (I was one of these a few years ago). They need a literary palate cleanser.

The Importance of Genre Specific, Part Two

By Susan Brooks, @oosuzieq 

Part of the How They Do It Series

JH: Editor Susan Brooks returns to the lecture hall today to continue discussing genre and market, and how they help you pitch your novel to editors, agents, and publishers.

Since 2009, Susan has served on the board of directors for Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, a non-profit educational organization supporting both published and aspiring writers of commercial fiction. She holds a master’s degree in publishing from George Washington University and is Editor in Chief at Literary Wanderlust, a new, small traditional press located in Denver, Colorado.

She tweets once in a while and you can follow her as @oosuzieq on Twitter. She also writes a weekly blog on writing craft and other writing topics which you can find at The Writer's Bag of Tricks.

Take it away Susan...

Indie Choices: Writing in Multiple Genres or Specializing

By Marcy Kennedy, @MarcyKennedy
 
Part of the Indie Author Series

One of the empowering, amazing parts of being an independent author is we get to choose. That ability to choose and experiment is one of the things that drew me to self-publishing rather than trying to work with a traditional publisher.

A lot of the choices we make won’t have a right and a wrong. Instead, they’ll have a right for me and a wrong for me. What’s important is that we understand our options and select the one that suits us.

The Importance of Genre Specific – Part One

By Susan Brooks, @oosuzieq 

Part of the How They Do It Series

JH: Knowing where your book fits into the market helps readers find those books. Although the terms often used interchangeably, genre and market are not the same. Editor Susan Brooks takes the podium today to help clarify how they differ, and how they affect a writer's chances at selling a novel. Please help me give her a big welcome.

Since 2009, Susan has served on the board of directors for Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, a non-profit educational organization supporting both published and aspiring writers of commercial fiction. She holds a master’s degree in publishing from George Washington University and is Editor in Chief at Literary Wanderlust, a new, small traditional press located in Denver, Colorado.

She tweets once in a while and you can follow her as @oosuzieq on Twitter. She also writes a weekly blog on writing craft and other writing topics which you can find at The Writer's Bag of Tricks.

Take it away Susan...

Who is My Audience? Age Categories for Children’s Books

By Laurisa White Reyes, @lwreyes

Part of the Indie Authors Series 

If you are as avid a reader as I am, you are probably familiar with the term “children’s books,” but if you write for children, you should also be familiar with the specific categories of children’s books, and there are quite a few. Recently, in my writers’ group, a new writer raised this question—Which category does my book fit into? Too many new writers start writing with the general idea that their audience will be children but have no idea which group of children they should target. This is problematic for several reasons, which I’ll explain a little later. First, let’s take a closer look at children’s books and how each category is defined.

Trying to Sell Novels Outside the Mainstream

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

A commenter asked...

"I would like to see you write about novels that are so original and different they fall outside the desired mainstream. I suspect there are a number of us who fear we just may have written this type. I would also like to see you address the issue of whether an agent will be interested in novels like this at all. Is this a non-starter?"

I'm going to preface this by saying I'm not an agent or editor, so everything I'm about to say is purely my opinion based on what I've read and conversations with those in the biz.

How Soon Do We Need to Show Genre in Our Novels?

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

A reader asked (in reference to a comment I made in a Real Life Diagnostic)...

This is something I'm not sure I understand. If you pick a book off the shelf, you'll know it's sci-fi or fantasy or what have you by the section in the bookstore, the blurb, and possibly the cover. So do we really need to throw obvious genre flags into the first three paragraphs? I get that we want to give a sense of setting right away, but to me it doesn't seem necessary that the setting meet our expectations for genre right off the bat. That in itself would make me want to keep reading.

Short answer: No, you don't need obvious genre flags in the first three paragraphs. Or even the first three pages. Except on those occasions when you do need it.

Long answer: This is one of those "it all depends on the situation" questions.

On Genre Angst

By Michael Kinn

JH: Please help me welcome Michael Kinn to the blog today to share with us some of the puzzles and frustrations of not fitting into a genre--and the even more frustrating "almost" fitting into several.

Michael makes up stuff as a scientist, a storyteller and a writer, any combination of which sets his creative juices flowing. He loves the ocean, writes under the influence of green tea and finds life a breeze compared to negotiating his teenagers’ freedom charters. Michael is addicted to great stories and in dire need of extra lives.

Take it away Michael...

What Sort of Writer Are You?

By Janet Edwards, @janetedwardssf

Part of the How They Do It Series   

JH: I'd like to welcome YA science fiction author Janet Edwards to the blog today to chat with us about something many new writers face: wanting to write, but not knowing what to write about. She offers us some wonderful questions to help determine where your passion lies. It's also an inspirational story, as she made the journey from picking up a pen to published author in a remarkably short time.

Janet lives in England. As a child, she read everything she could get her hands on, including a huge amount of science fiction and fantasy. She studied Maths at Oxford, and went on to suffer years of writing unbearably complicated technical documents before deciding to write something that was fun for a change. She has a husband, a son, a lot of books, and an aversion to housework. Her debut novel Earth Girl releases in the UK tomorrow.

Take it away Janet...

Making History Appealing to Teen Readers

By Katherine Longshore

Part of the How They Do It Series   

JH: I'd like to welcome Katherine Longshore to the blog today to chat about keeping teen readers hooked with history. Even if you don't write historicals for teens, the things she says really are applicable to all genres and all ages. Like you've heard me say a hundred times, it's all about the story. She shares tips on how to keep that in mind as you write.

Katherine earned a B.A. in Cross-Cultural Studies and Communications from Humboldt State University, planning to travel and write. Forever. Four years, six continents and countless pairs of shoes later, she went to England for two weeks, stayed five years and discovered history. She now writes novels for young adults in which the court of Henry VIII bears a strong resemblance to high school, only more dangerous. Her novel, Gilt, (out now), is the first in a series set in the court of Henry VIII, published by Viking/Penguin.

She's a member of the YA Muses, The Apocalypsies and the Class of 2k12. She tweets , babbles about history and writing on Facebook.

Take it away Katherine...

Rhythm and Pattern in a Picture Book

By Iza Trapani

JH: I'm always excited to bring on guest authors who do things I don't do. One of those things is picture books. They're such a specialized market and there's little room for error when you're dealing with under 500 words. So today. I'd like to welcome Iza Trapani to tell us a little about rhythm in picture books (and rhythm is something even novelists can benefit from). Her latest book is The Bear Went Over the Mountain, so check it out.

Iza has published over 20 books. She's always loved children’s literature- from the wacky brilliance of Dr. Seuss to the timeless, love-filled classics of Margaret Wise Brown and a slew of others in between. The combination of simple but elegant text and enchanting illustrations has always been an irresistible package and has fascinated her all my life. As a child she spent hours immersed in the magical world of books and tries to re-create some of that magic for others to enjoy. You can find Iza at her website, blog or twitter @IzaTrapani .

Take it away Iza...

Choosing a Historical Fiction Topic, or Any Other Topic for That Matter

By Heather Webb
 
JH: Double the guests this week! I'd like to welcome Heather Webb to the blog today. I've noticed a lot of similarities between historical fiction writers and fantasy writers the last few months, and it's made me curious about their process. Like fantasy authors, they have to create a world, yet they have to somehow manage all the true facts and sometimes actual people as well as plot. I was very interested in how they choose where and when to write, and Heather was gracious enough to answer that for me. (and honestly, they're great tips for crafting any story)

Heather is a historical fiction writer, freelance editor, and blogger. When she’s not writing by the glow of her coffee pot light, she is chasing her gremlins, ogling kitchen gadgets, and flexing her foodie skills. You can find Heather at her blog Between the Sheets for editing services, writing tips, and the occasional slew of recipes. Twitter @msheatherwebb, Facebook, or at Pinterest. She's currently polishing her debut historical novel set in Revolutionary France and the opulent Napoleonic era. She will be seeking representation this summer.

Take it away Heather...