Comments on: The Cause?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 22:26:01 +0000

By: Alison Kent

Alison Kent — Fri, 25 Mar 2005 02:13:27 +0000

LOL, Beverly! Yes, we agree!

By: Beverly Danae

Beverly Danae — Fri, 25 Mar 2005 00:29:14 +0000

Ah, but Alison, I think somewhere you must have missed what I was saying, because you just said exactly the point I was making. That authors should keep up with the market so they write something new and different.

By: the way there

the way there — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 18:46:00 +0000

Expectations
The novel is not turning out quite the way I wanted. I DO want to make money writing and please lots of people with my work, believe it or not. The easy way, as far as romance, to do that…

By: Alison Kent

Alison Kent — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 15:37:00 +0000

Ah, but Beverly, finding out what’s out there is a separate issue for me than writing a book readers enjoy. If I went by what’s out there, I’d be writing the same ol’ same ol’. I simply keep up with the market out of interest. When I listed the ways I keep up with what’s going, that in no way means that’s where I get my ideas on what to write. That just means I know what’s out there. *g* And usually what I don’t want to write since it’s already been done!

By: Beverly Danae

Beverly Danae — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 14:17:58 +0000

Alison — Just as a quick disclaimer, I am not taking issue with you or your work personally, just the idea of not reading in genre in general (and not for the same reason as many others do). I work in a library, and I keep up with what’s new and what’s coming also. I read romance and SF industry trades and websites. None of that means that I can write a book that READERS will enjoy. Yeah, maybe I can peg what PUBLISHERS want. And message boards and word of mouth are important, but most people don’t overanalyze their likes and dislikes. They just say “I didn’t like the last book by (some romance author).” Now, if you haven’t read that book, you’ve just read reviews, etc., how are you going to know WHAT it was about the book that turned readers off? You may say to yourself, I have the same premise, but my book isn’t like that one. But how do you know? And why would you want to do the same thing as that other author anyway? I don’t mean you personally (I’ve never read any of your books, but I will after this discussion because I like different), but authors in general. Why do authors (especially romance) rehash the same stories over and over, never really doing it different or better than the four who did the virginal sex therapist or the “feisty” society miss before?

Allison (okay, two Al(l)isons is weird:???:) — Your comments here have made me, at least, more interested in you work. I am always intrigued by those who consciously try to be different (and two Alison’s have me interested in their work today), so I will definitely pick up one of your books.

By: Allison Brennan

Allison Brennan — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 05:05:50 +0000

Beverly, I totally agree with you. I don’t want to be “the next” anyone. I want to be ME. I want to be an original. I don’t know if I’ve done that yet, but I am trying. In my books, my heroines are (I think) the most different from what’s out there. There are independent heroines, but mine tend to be a little older (mid-late 30s); self-sufficient; determined and steadfast. I also try to dig deeper into the psyche of my villains without doing the same-old “he was abused as a kid” thing. I want my villains to be hated but understood. My heroes tend to be alphas, but they would have to be in order to challenge the heroine (at least in my little world).

Time will tell. To be honest, I’m scared to death.

By: Alison Kent

Alison Kent — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 04:11:04 +0000

But how is anyone going to know what’s in the market if they’re not reading it?

Now this one is easy to answer. I’m all over what’s being released. I keep up with sales news via publishers marketplace, publisher’s websites, message boards, blogs, review sites and publications, word of mouth, etc. Many of my writer buddies are amazed at how much I know, LOL. For example, yesterday a friend I know online told me about her 3-book sale to a new publisher and being assigned the same editor who works with a NYT author in the same subgenre. It’s not on her website yet, and I don’t know who else she’s told. But hearing the gossip, then I always dig deeper and find out what I can. It’s not hard at all to know what’s going on if you keep your eyes and ears open and are a glutton for the news as I am!

If writers want to raise their profile, sell more books, contentious, provocative and controversial may be the wrong way to go.

I may come across provocative and controversial, but I’d take issue with contentious. *g*. Still, the books I write are also provocative, perhaps even controversial in some cases. I’ve related many times on my own blog how I’ve heard readers say my heroines are *TOO* independent and not romantic at all. Cute kittens won’t convey what I’m writing. *g* I don’t want readers to close my books and never think about them again.

By: Beverly Danae

Beverly Danae — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 03:27:34 +0000

Laurie — I do think that wide reading of the genre MAY result, in some authors, in “jumping on the bandwagon”. And yes, that is what many of us complain about. However, in all honesty, the authors who do that would do that no matter what they read. Some authors just want to sell books, and appeal to as many people as possible, and others want to sell books, yes, but they also strive for something new and original and fresh. And those are the authors I care about and that I want to read.

Sharon — I think that to a vast extent what you are talking about is what is happening now. Authors look at the bestseller lists and they see Nora Roberts and Suzanne Brockmann, and Julia Quinn, and a bunch of other “big names” and they say, I want to sell as many books as them. And so they try to copy the formula that they believe will work. But that’s exactly the problem. All of those authors, and most who become well-known, are offering something that readers haven’t seen before, and writing it well. Copying never made anybody famous. At least, not for long.

Allison — Yeah, there’s nothing new if you subscribe to the “there are only three (or five, or seven, etc. depending on who you talk to) plots” theory. But I guess what I mean is a new way of looking at things. A new type of character. A setting that hasn’t been beaten to death and/or twisted into something it’s not. The good authors will see what’s out there, and say, I’m going to do something different. Something that isn’t just a rehash of what the last five authors from my own house did last month.

I guess my major point (and there is one:oops:) is that I don’t really care what authors choose to read when they have their “reader hat” on. But I do hope that most still choose to read critically and in their genre when they have their “author hat” on. I, for one, appreciate the fact that Alison is trying to write something that she doesn’t see in the market herself. I wish more authors would do that? But how is anyone going to know what’s in the market if they’re not reading it?

By: Kate R

Kate R — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 01:00:57 +0000

My view as a selfish romance reader: as long as Alison Kent keeps on writing books I want to read, then she can read anything she wants. Heck if all she reads is Bazooka Joe bubblegum comix, that’s fine with me. [does bubblegum still come with comix, she asks, suddenly panicked]

my view as a romance writer: um . . .what was the question again?