Quote:
Originally Posted by DiapDealer
Maybe it's simple to you, but I have absolutely no idea what you just said right there.  |
Lessee, I think it's Happily Ever AFter/Happily for Now. The h's are various forms of hero/heroine (hero/hero and heroine/heroine).
And let's get real. Publishers "stuff" the romance category at times too. They were all stuffing romance into urban fantasy when that was hot. They respect sales more than readers. They also change their covers to attract a different type of reader or to 'rebrand' a novel. It's been done for years and it almost always backfires no matter who does it.
Right now the hot category to be in is mystery (even more so than romance). Urban Fantasy is nearly dead (you can tell this by talking to trad authors who talk to agents and publishers. You can tell by submission guidelines. No one wants them because that category has been so cross populated with romance, romantic suspense and erotica, it's almost impossible to find just urban fantasy).
Carina Press regularly puts out a tweet asking for subs in certain categories. The last one I saw a couple of weeks ago was definitely mysteries and in addition, for some odd reason, "thief" stories--that included the thief as either the good guy or the bad guy (guy including gals here--using the generic term). If you know where to look, you can watch the trends.
That is one reason that as a reader, categories don't matter much to me. I have to sample or go with a known author. Covers don't always help either (as someone else pointed out). As a writer, I try to honestly categorize my books, but it really isn't as easy as you might think. New categories are added all the time. Amazon has added categories. So has kobo and smashwords. You can drill down further in Smashwords now and get to some very nice categories that weren't there a few years ago. But as a writer, I have to periodically check to see if "cozy mystery" has suddenly appeared at one retailer or another. Urban fantasy wasn't a category a few years ago. It shifts and some authors/publishers do "chase" whatever category is perceived as "hot selling."