Writing Genres

As an author, what genre do you choose? It sounds like a pretty simple question, but one that is loaded with possibility. For the most part, I think that if anyone assumes anything about authors they assume that an author will write most of their work in one genre and stick with the one. Why write in more than one if you can help it? Well, because it's fun! And because the next story you want to tell doesn't fit in the genre of the last story you told.

Sometimes an author sits down for their next project and has decided already, or asks themselves, what genre will I write in next? Fantasy lends itself to great amounts of creative output and imaginative creation. Action books challenge the author to keep the book moving forward at a heart-throbbing pace without much call for deep character development. If you want to talk relationships, Romance may be the genre for you, setting up relationships, breaking them apart and finding a way to lead them back together again.

Whatever happens in the book, one of the things you have to understand about me is that I’m a punster, I write by the seat of my pants. That means I have to have a good idea of what my story is before I sit down to write, even a basic concept – a young woman’s car breaks down and she gets stuck in the middle of nowhere. Perfect! Now where do we go from here? The key is to let the story lead you forward, no matter the genre. 

One of the differences about writing in a genre that young or inexperienced writers may have is whether to write in a different style for the genre that they’re in. Should an author change their style to suit the genre they’re writing in? My answer is not straightforward. Don’t change your personal style of writing. However, if you’re writing a piece set in Victorian England, this will naturally reflect something different than a piece set in post-apocalyptic Boston, MA. People have different vocabularies, dress differently, use different dishes and carpets and furniture – the essence of the piece which you describe will lend a different air to it which will set is apart from the next piece.

So if you’re deciding you want to write, and you don’t know what genre to pick, that’s fine. Find the story that you want to write and go from there. Once you know what kind of story you want to write, the genre will be clear. The story will lead you in the right direction.

How Publishing Works

     My mind has been on the topic of publishing recently, so I thought that it would be a good time to blog about it. I've been doing some research about the publishing world and what it involves. What I've found on the internet is a lot of article and videos giving your "10 Tips on getting published" which is not exactly what I was looking for at the time, but some of these article were interesting.

     Part of the problem was that many of the articles and videos I found were actually about self-publishing, which is an entirely different ball game than traditional publishing. For one thing, instead of the publisher footing the bill, you, the writer, have to pay the expense up front. That might be thousands of dollars out of your pocket to see your book on store shelves in the hopes that some people might pick it up and purchase it.

     In self-publishing, the process is involved for the author. After the book is written one of the key differences is that, as a writer, you will not have the benefit of an in-house editor, one of several people hired, full-time, by a publishing house to look over your book for ways to improve it. If you want to improve it in self-publishing you either have to do it yourself, find friends and family, or hire an editor. This will be the first expense.

      After that, you'll have to design a book cover. You could do this yourself or find someone to do it for you. Again, this could get pricey. Then it's a matter of formatting your book. This part means that you'll have to make sure the spacing is right on the pages, and the fonts are the ones that will read easily. Being sure you have your cover pages, page numbers title pages, and other details like this are all part of formatting. Once you have it formatted, you approach a company who works with you to get your book self-published, if you want to work with a company. They’ll get your book put together and printed in the quantity you order.

     The reason that so many of these online articles and videos put forward the idea of self-publishing is that it is a faster method to publish than the traditional method. In the traditional method, you have to submit a book proposal or send your manuscript to a publishing house. Then it's a wait of up to eight weeks until you hear back from them about whether or not they are interested about taking on your book or not. 

     From recently reading an article by Chip MacGregor on his website, I learned that the process isn't as simple as the Big Kahuna taking a look at your book's title, flipping through the first chapter and saying "I don't like it. Wait two weeks and send them the form letter." There's an acquisitions editor who looks at it, an editorial committee who takes a gander, then a publishing committee who looks at it if it gets past those guys. If it gets through all of those groups, then the editor runs a profit and loss sheet to get some ideas about how well the book might do if they publish the book.

      People often get the idea that publishers get the manuscript then sit around on it, burning time before deciding arbitrarily to send out a rejection letter. But this article made it more clear to me that there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes even before a writer gets an offer to publish their book. Though it might be weeks before they hear back from the publisher, the people working for the publisher might be deliberating and running numbers for weeks on their book to see how well it might do before they tell the writer anything about what they intend to do.

      In any case, whether one intends to self-publish or go by the traditional method, it’s been an interesting process to learn more about both methods and what they entail. The self-publishing method will have you pay up-front, but you keep all the rights to the book. However, if you go by the traditional method of publishing, you will be paid to publish your book, and will have a team of people working to be sure that it gets put together and to see that it gets a good chance to sell in stores.

MacGregor, Chip, “Ask the Agent: How Does a Book Get Selected by a Publisher?” MacGregor and Luedeke, MacGregor Literary, 4 – January – 2017, http://www.macgregorandluedeke.com/blog/ask-agent-book-get-selected-publisher/