Dear Reader,
Part of the wisdom that’s available online these days about indie publishing concerns genre. People who are not authors may wonder what all the fuss is, but of course, genre is how readers find our books. Readers know what they want to read, and Amazon (and other sales platforms) serve up what their customers want. So writers must be certain to tell the sellers exactly what kind of book they’ve written.
Sound easy? I’ve been struggling with genre, key words, and search terms since I published my first novel in December of 2017. It seemed to me that YOU’RE SURE TO FALL IN LOVE was very romantic, and it is. But romance—whether it’s gay or straight—has very specific rules, I learned. For instance, romance must have a Happily Ever After ending. No problem there. I tend toward HEA (yep, that’s what it’s called). But another commandment for romance writers is that once the couple gets together, there must be no infidelity.
Ouch! That leaves me out. Things happen to my characters and their relationships that are sometimes a little risky. It’s who I am. So I’m not likely to join Romance Writers of America (Google it) any time soon. It’s not who I am. So what do I write? I’m not entirely stupid about these things. I know, for instance, that I don’t write dystopian thrillers. I don’t even know what they are. But their readers do, and they’re passionate about them. Here’s how I described myself recently for a social media post to an author group: “I write Gay Fiction. I think it’s romantic, funny, erotic, moving, and a little edgy. Like life.” Okay, so what are the search terms for that? Help!
I recently heard a search term I thought was brilliant, and very specific: “Victorian second chance romance with child.” How good is that? I just tried “tender funny erotic gay fiction” on Amazon, and it didn’t work. The search results were not even gay. Anyway, I’m asking readers to tell me what search term they would use to find my books. Do please email me at bruce@audacitybooks.com, and I will happily send you a book as a thank-you.
I’ll leave you with one other thought on genre. One of the most popular of all with readers is called Young Adult. And everyone who cares about these things calls it YA. Here is my recent reflection on these matters, stimulated by an author interview:
“It occurred to me recently that I’m YA at heart: I’m drawn to characters who are dealing with issues of identity, purpose, friendship, life-and-death, first love, growth, and learning. How can they prove their worth? How can they ever gain acceptance? How can they heal from the wounds of the past? As they move through the situations in the story, they’re given opportunities to gain insight and maturity, to figure out the universe a little bit and their place in it, plus, sometimes—dare I say it?—even a chance to find redemption. I just want lots of steamy sex with it. Is that too much to expect? I think it’s honest as well as entertaining.”
Bruce
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