School’s back in session, so time to settle down to a regular routine at my writing desk.  September landed on the calendar so abruptly I feel as though I’ve been caught with my homework undone. I’m used to a few days grace before Labour Day and the back to work schedule. I guess the upside will be in December when Christmas falls on a Thursday. Mid-week holidays seem easier to me than those that fall on Monday.

Anyway, back to this week’s blog. I came upon this article about Indie Publishers.. I think we used to call these small presses, whereas “Indie” meant self publishing. Just a reminder that change in the world of publishing is faster than ever and taking a summer off means I’m out of the loop.  The line in the article that really caught my attention was this: not only are there fewer editors at the Big Five available to pitch, but that their imprints are becoming more generic. “We’re seeing imprints lose their brand identity,” she says. “It’s more common that imprints under the same groups share marketing and sales resources.” 

I was complaining to a writer friend recently that I can’t find romances that appeal to me in the way the old Harlequins of my youth did. I remember the excitement of picking up a new offering and keeping the light on until late, late at night as I followed these characters to their HEA. Along the way I explored Scottish Inns, Italian villas, Dutch tulip fields and Australian sheep stations. Each story was a revelation. Now, I know those books were formulaic but from my experience they were much more original than today’s offerings. 

The romance field has segmented into little boxes. We’ve got erotic, spicy, wholesome, medical, glitz and glamour, small town, paranormal, religious, Amish, . . . Amazon lists 42 categories of romance. In other words, the parameters of the genre are so tightly honed, there is no happy surprise awaiting the reader, no new discoveries on the next page. Editors send rejection letters saying “we don’t know where to market this story,” meaning that it doesn’t fit within one of those pre-determined segments. So a story that might thrill me, won’t get published because the author coloured outside the lines.

At least, that’s how it seems to me. 

So, that is my “back to school essay.” What did you do over the summer? Did you discover a new author or publisher that has made you lose sleep? Please share.  https://www.alicevaldal.com/small-but-beautiful/#respond 

 

 

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