I think this is incredibly interesting and thoughtful advice, but I do think it’s something that perhaps debut authors or emerging authors should think carefully about.
Genre functions as sort of a shorthand for readers helping them navigate towards books they will like and which conform to their expectations. And for certain demos - they will badly punish authors who lead them astray.
I do long form literary style criticism of romance novels on my substack and my breakout piece that went viral is a rumination on what happens when even the most popular author in romance isn’t powerful enough to break out of genre constraints and how her readers have summarily punished her for trying.
Romance, I think, is a particularly interesting place to examine genre conventions because its readers are so prescriptive about their expectations and so powerful a force when pleased by a writer’s adherence.
Sarah MacLean is a great example of someone who is attempting to (successfully so far) outrun her genre past with this summer’s These Summer Storms in which she asks her devoted historical romance readers to follow her into stranger waters of a contemporary romance / lit fic mashup.
I think this is incredibly interesting and thoughtful advice, but I do think it’s something that perhaps debut authors or emerging authors should think carefully about.
Genre functions as sort of a shorthand for readers helping them navigate towards books they will like and which conform to their expectations. And for certain demos - they will badly punish authors who lead them astray.
I do long form literary style criticism of romance novels on my substack and my breakout piece that went viral is a rumination on what happens when even the most popular author in romance isn’t powerful enough to break out of genre constraints and how her readers have summarily punished her for trying.
Romance, I think, is a particularly interesting place to examine genre conventions because its readers are so prescriptive about their expectations and so powerful a force when pleased by a writer’s adherence.
Sarah MacLean is a great example of someone who is attempting to (successfully so far) outrun her genre past with this summer’s These Summer Storms in which she asks her devoted historical romance readers to follow her into stranger waters of a contemporary romance / lit fic mashup.