Are you ready to position your book for optimal communications with editors, proofreaders, marketers, and finally . . . readers?

Take the Genre Alignment Challenge—my free PDF workbook.

 

 

Why is it important to align your book to a genre (or combination of genres)? Sometimes it isn't. Sometimes it's more a question of why your book isn't categorized that way—that is, why it's different. But how and why is it different?

Genre is frequently the starting point to conversations that lead to deciding on which editors to work with and, eventually, conversations about how to market your book.

If you’re preparing to publish, sooner or later the writing process will shift to the editing, re-writing, and revisions process. 

 

At this point, authors often know that their book needs the guidance of editors, but they may be a little uneasy about what sorts of ideas an editor might have for their book. 

 

That’s when communications become essential. The clearer you can be with an editor about your vision for your book—fiction or nonfiction—the better prepared they’ll be to provide the type of feedback that is aligned to your vision.

But how can you be clear with your editor when you aren’t clear yourself?

Authors unsure of how to handle genre questions are typically facing one of two challenges:

Image show a blue graphic of a bird in flight.

Challenge #1

The author took an idea and ran with it. There’s nothing wrong with this, and creativity may have been flowing! But now they only have a vague idea of what genre the book fits and who is actually going to read it. They know their book needs editing but they may be a little uneasy that an editor will have ideas that don’t feel compatible. They probably know they need to identify at least a generalized audience, but it seems confusing during conversations with others—or they may think they’ve already done it (or that their book is for anybody) and are surprised when beta readers or book professionals don’t seem to think that’s as clear as they do.

Image shows a blue graphic of a bird in flight.

Challenge #2

The genre author who is having some trouble with their genre. They know what they are trying to do but getting there is more difficult than they anticipated. They might know instinctively that something with their writing isn’t in alignment with the genre, but they aren’t sure how to “fix” it, or they may be realizing this based on feedback they are getting from first readers or editors.

Do either of these descriptions fit you? If so, you’re not alone and this challenge is going to help you situate your book in genre conversations to hopefully ease your communications with editors, proofreaders, and marketers with a goal of seamlessly reaching your audience.

 

Even if you aren’t especially struggling with audience identification or editorial communications—this workbook could help you get to a next level of understanding to maximize your publishing process.

With this workbook....

  • Identify your genre challenge
  • Track the influences that helped shape your book—and will eventually help you to situate and communicate your genre (or your book’s divergence from genre)
  • Craft a clear and articulate message for potential editors and marketers
  • Position your book for a seamless transition from editing to marketing

Try the Genre Alignment Challenge

It's free! Just subscribe to my email list and I'll send you the link.