Now writing: How To Invent and Use Your EXCLUSIVE Self-Publishing Genre

Lesson 7 (and a peek at the HTTS Kindle Cover Art)
Lesson 7 (and a peek at the HTTS Kindle Cover Art)

I’m now writing the first of the special Self-Publishing lessons for HTTS.  It’ll be Lesson 7 in the public course (Kindle-Nook-iTunes if possible-print).  And Lesson 6B in the Legacy course, because I’m a complete wuss and I don’t want to have to totally rebuild the entire course across 12 variations every time I add one of these four new lessons.

This lesson is about how to keep yourself out of the genre box of only writing one character, one series, and one kind of story for your entire career (unless, hey, that’s what you want to do, in which case, have fun with that).  How, instead, to write every book you’re passionate about, love madly, dream and breathe and hunger for, no matter what each of those books is about, where it fits in any marketer’s Big List Of Crappy, Confining Genres—and how to still bring most of your readers along with you.

You can’t bring them all.  But even if you write one character, one series, and one kind of story, you aren’t going to keep every reader you get.

So if you’re hungry to write everything you can imagine, I’m writing the walkthrough now on how you can keep your core readers as you leap from genre to genre, story to story, and universe to universe.

And you don’t have to change your name every time you change your genre.

I’m excited about this lesson.  I paid big-time to learn it, but the price was worth it.  I hope to have it done and available in Legacy HTTS by the end of this week.

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By Holly

Novelist, writing teacher, on a mission to reprint my out-of-print books and indie-publish my new ones.

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mitzim
mitzim
11 years ago

Hi Holly,
I was hoping you or perhaps others could shed some light on this: Research. As I work on my novels and their different “genres” There’s always research that needs to be done so that your story isn’t tossed aside as unbelievable. I know that when reading fiction, most people can suspend some belief for the sake of the story. However, I see on some reviews of books, that some people pick at the fact that something that happened in the novel was not true to life–or an element of it, anyway. In adult novels, “No” doesn’t really mean “No,” or a certain scene that wouldn’t be condoned in real life occurs–but as the reader, I can understand the nature of the novel and go with it. What’s your take on how far you push that believable/non-believable issue? I’m finding that being “correct” in my novels can sometimes bind me down and the story sounds too clinical or too mechanical. Thanks so much for you feedback.

mitzim
mitzim
11 years ago

Holly, I have a question, especially since we have self-publishing at our disposal. There is a “sequel” written to an old classic novel, and it was not reviewed highly on Amazon–2 out of 5 stars. Out of 88 reviews, 48 did not care for the work, characters, or how it ended. Could another author create another sequel and put it out there? Is that in good taste, do you think? Could it work? Any thoughts would be welcome. Thanks so much for your input.

mitzim
mitzim
Reply to  Holly
11 years ago

Excellent! Thanks so much for the input. Yes, it seems that the author who wrote the sequel got a reception by her audience that was like what you felt about the author who did the Twain sequels. It makes sense. The audience wants the old author back and can never have them. That’s really what it is. Great point! It does seem, on the surface, that writing a sequel can be a fun challenge on one level, but it really does rarely ever work. I would not want to be a “failure” that way myself, either. So your points are great. Thanks so much for taking time to answer.

Lisa
Lisa
11 years ago

I love knowing that I’m not alone in thinking the entire ‘genre’ thing is a load. I’ve NEVER put myself in a box drawn by others, and I refuse to do it in my writing. This stance has often brought sidelong looks and murmurs of “naive” or “have to conform sometime”. HA.

Thanks, Holly 🙂

Helenee
11 years ago

Very nice-looking cover.
The title doesn’t speak of itself, though – I don’t understand what the chapter stands for, until I read the whole post.
It piqued me on the curiosity factor, but this might be due to the fact that I know Holly and I expect quality from her.
I don’t know. Can’t be impartial, I think…

Barb
Barb
11 years ago

Fabulous cover!

Rachael (mythicflux or kisswithafist)
11 years ago

It looks awesome! I’m pretty excited 😀

And I love the blackboard/chalkboard look on the cover, it totally works (y)

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