I’m in the process of going through the copyedited pages of THE ARCHANGEL PROJECT. Normally I get back my own manuscript pages with the copyeditor’s changes marked in blue. No longer. This time the publisher required me to send in a disk with my final version. The copyeditor inserted her changes on the document, using the function in Word that lets you track changes. Supposedly.
There’s the rub. She obviously went through the entire manuscript with the search and replace function, and wiped out all capitalizations of things like the Colonel, the President, the Administration. None of these changes are flagged. Do you KNOW how long it’s going to take me to go through and find all of those? I, of course, do not have the electronic version. At this point I’m only allowed the printout sheets, since all sorts of printer instructions have also been inserted.
But it gets worse. Perhaps it’s something about the process of sitting at a computer rather than blue-penciling a manuscript, but she also seems to have been inspired to rewrite chunks of my manuscript, changing my style to something far more anal and, well, English majorish (my apologies to all English majors out there), as well as just plain different. The brothers whom I described as being “around eight or ten” become “nine or ten.” A young woman talking about a “guy” now talks about a “man.” My favorite is when the villain, rather than squeezing the trigger of his gun, squeezes his gun. At one point, the heroine is groping to find the words to describe the remote viewing experience. She says it’s like a daydream, or a memory she holds in her mind. My helpful copyeditor changed it to “it’s like a memory.” Period. Well, gee; I could have thought of that myself, if that’s what I wanted to say! I’m surprised she hasn’t taken it upon herself to rename my characters.
I could go on and on and on, but I won’t. And don’t get me started about all the times she changed the sense of what I was saying, so that the text now says the opposite of what it did before. I have now published thirteen books and I have never, ever, had anything even remotely like this done to my manuscript.
I’m not a prima donna. I really appreciate copyeditors who catch my mistakes. But she’s not catching mistakes, she’s inserting them, and completely changing the tone and style of the work. that’s not her job. Someone take away this lady’s computer and make her use a blue pencil!
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Author Branding, Part Four
Now that we’ve decided on our brand image, the next question is, How do we convey this brand to the world?
For authors, this can be tricky, since the two most important and visible ways of conveying an authors’ brand—book covers and book titles—are the two things over which an author has little or no control. But I suspect that the writer who talks to her editor and her house’s publicist, and comes up with a coherent and promising brand image, will dramatically improve her chances of keeping her titles and getting covers that convey her brand’s image.
Keeping in mind my newly formulated Sebastian St. Cyr brand image, I took a look at the titles of the first four book in my series. I realize that I intuitively selected titles that conveyed my brand image of mystery and danger. The “question’ words immediately evoke mystery, while “Fear”, “Die”, and “Serpents” are all “danger” words. Even “Why Mermaids Sing” works, since it calls to mind the image of Sirens luring sailors to their deaths. No sex here (except, I suppose, in the Mermaids image), but in brainstorming titles for the fifth book in this series I’ve come to realize that it’s very, very hard to come up with titles that convey both sex and danger and yet don’t sound like the title of a porno flick.
In analyzing my covers, I now understand why the cover of my second book, WHEN GODS DIE, didn’t work. I’ve talked to many readers who liked that cover, but I never did. Now I can articulate why: it’s totally static, with no movement or danger or threat. It’s just a guy standing there looking at a building, and does nothing to convey the series’ image. When it comes time to cover conference my next book and my editor asks for my ideas, I’ll be in a better position to articulate the kind of covers I think we need to come up with—dangerous, action-oriented, sexy.
But if covers and titles are out of an author’s control, the one obvious way an author can influence his brand’s image is with his website. In looking at my website I realize that, again, I intuitively chose images that were dark and dangerous, and the site plays up my background as a professional historian. No emphasis on the sexy hero, though. Hmmm…
Another important way to convey your brand is through interviews. Once you know what that brand is, you can repeatedly make it a point to emphasize it. Fantasy writer Charles Gramlich always mentions Burroughs when he talks about his Taleran books, and he says it works. Journalists are busy people; give them a good hook and they’ll use it.
The important thing to remember is that, once you’ve decided on your brand, you need to stay consistent. This is why so many writers rebel against branding, and yes, it can be a straightjacket. But it doesn’t have to be. And being consistent doesn’t mean staying the same.
If you think of a brand as a personality, then you’ll realize that if it’s always the same, it starts to get old and boring. When I was young, I used to like a band called The James Gang. I bought a couple of their albums, but then I quit. Why? Every song sounded the same as the last, which is probably why the band disappeared. Now think of the Rolling Stones. They’ve been around forever. Why? Because they evolved with time. Every time they come out with a new album, it’s a little bit different. Only 5-10% different—you don’t want to change too radically all at once, or you’ll lose people—but it’s still enough to keep them interesting. We all know authors we once read but dropped because each book was just like the one before. (Judging by those authors sales, obviously many readers are not troubled by this!)
But what if your brand does start to feel like a straightjacket? What if you write fast-paced, dangerous historical mysteries about a sexy Regency Viscount and you get the urge to write a contemporary thriller about a twenty-something female remote viewer? Does this mean you can’t do it?
No. But it does mean that it’s a good idea to write your contemporary thriller under a pseudonym, and create and market a new brand. Because the truth is, not all of your old readers will want to follow you. Some people read both historical mysteries and contemporary international thrillers; some people only read one or the other. But if you come up with the right image and convey it well, new readers who’ve no interest in historical mysteries but love contemporary thrillers will find you.
For authors, this can be tricky, since the two most important and visible ways of conveying an authors’ brand—book covers and book titles—are the two things over which an author has little or no control. But I suspect that the writer who talks to her editor and her house’s publicist, and comes up with a coherent and promising brand image, will dramatically improve her chances of keeping her titles and getting covers that convey her brand’s image.
Keeping in mind my newly formulated Sebastian St. Cyr brand image, I took a look at the titles of the first four book in my series. I realize that I intuitively selected titles that conveyed my brand image of mystery and danger. The “question’ words immediately evoke mystery, while “Fear”, “Die”, and “Serpents” are all “danger” words. Even “Why Mermaids Sing” works, since it calls to mind the image of Sirens luring sailors to their deaths. No sex here (except, I suppose, in the Mermaids image), but in brainstorming titles for the fifth book in this series I’ve come to realize that it’s very, very hard to come up with titles that convey both sex and danger and yet don’t sound like the title of a porno flick.
In analyzing my covers, I now understand why the cover of my second book, WHEN GODS DIE, didn’t work. I’ve talked to many readers who liked that cover, but I never did. Now I can articulate why: it’s totally static, with no movement or danger or threat. It’s just a guy standing there looking at a building, and does nothing to convey the series’ image. When it comes time to cover conference my next book and my editor asks for my ideas, I’ll be in a better position to articulate the kind of covers I think we need to come up with—dangerous, action-oriented, sexy.
But if covers and titles are out of an author’s control, the one obvious way an author can influence his brand’s image is with his website. In looking at my website I realize that, again, I intuitively chose images that were dark and dangerous, and the site plays up my background as a professional historian. No emphasis on the sexy hero, though. Hmmm…
Another important way to convey your brand is through interviews. Once you know what that brand is, you can repeatedly make it a point to emphasize it. Fantasy writer Charles Gramlich always mentions Burroughs when he talks about his Taleran books, and he says it works. Journalists are busy people; give them a good hook and they’ll use it.
The important thing to remember is that, once you’ve decided on your brand, you need to stay consistent. This is why so many writers rebel against branding, and yes, it can be a straightjacket. But it doesn’t have to be. And being consistent doesn’t mean staying the same.
If you think of a brand as a personality, then you’ll realize that if it’s always the same, it starts to get old and boring. When I was young, I used to like a band called The James Gang. I bought a couple of their albums, but then I quit. Why? Every song sounded the same as the last, which is probably why the band disappeared. Now think of the Rolling Stones. They’ve been around forever. Why? Because they evolved with time. Every time they come out with a new album, it’s a little bit different. Only 5-10% different—you don’t want to change too radically all at once, or you’ll lose people—but it’s still enough to keep them interesting. We all know authors we once read but dropped because each book was just like the one before. (Judging by those authors sales, obviously many readers are not troubled by this!)
But what if your brand does start to feel like a straightjacket? What if you write fast-paced, dangerous historical mysteries about a sexy Regency Viscount and you get the urge to write a contemporary thriller about a twenty-something female remote viewer? Does this mean you can’t do it?
No. But it does mean that it’s a good idea to write your contemporary thriller under a pseudonym, and create and market a new brand. Because the truth is, not all of your old readers will want to follow you. Some people read both historical mysteries and contemporary international thrillers; some people only read one or the other. But if you come up with the right image and convey it well, new readers who’ve no interest in historical mysteries but love contemporary thrillers will find you.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Defining Your Brand
So, we’ve done some research into what our readers like about our books, and we’ve looked at what readers like—and don’t like—about the competition (yes, I know we’re all supposed to be one big supportive writing community, but we’re talking marketing here). Now what?
Now we look at our readers’ comments, and think about our books, and come up with a list of what makes our books interesting, attractive and different. We add to this list anything that makes us, as writers, interesting, attractive and different. Why? Because while it may not be fair, the truth is that if you’re young and pretty and graduated from Harvard or Oxford, it will help sell your book.
This is the tricky part. To quote marketing guru Malcolm Schwarzenbach, “The real genius is in the editing.” Getting this part right requires an intuitive, up-to-the-minute grasp of our current culture—everything from the emergence of a “sustainability” movement (which, since it’s about saving us instead of saving the world, seems to have caught on in a way the Green movement never did) to “casual collapse” (the loosening up of society, less attractively known as cultural decadence) to political trends. Ask yourself, What’s going on out there that’s interesting and that connects with me and my books? Who out there would buy what I’m writing?
This is where knowing and understanding the competition helps. What else is out there that people are buying? Why are they successful? What is the market crying out for?
This is also where I have a hard time. Having lived so much of my life abroad, I am woefully out of step with modern America (I still remember the time when I was visiting my mother from the Middle East and noticed a magazine near the checkout in Borders; I asked my companion, “Who is Oprah?” and twenty people turned around and STARED at me.). I don’t watch TV. I get my news from international sources online, although I have started checking abcnews every day just so I have some insight into the “news” most people are seeing (so yes, I do know the latest in Britney’s life). If you’re culturally challenged like me, you may need some help here. The trick, as I understand it, is figuring out what is unique and different about your books, and yet not too unique and different. Even I know that now is not the time to try to sell a thriller with a hero named Mustafa Haddad.
To look at our earlier examples, What was so interesting about Anne Rice’s vampires? My guess is New Orleans and sex. Tom Clancy? Uh…I know guys like gadgets and…somebody help me out here.
Anyway, in pondering all these questions, I’ve concluded that the selling points of my Sebastian St. Cyr series are:
*fast pacing and action-packed suspense
*a sexy, Regency-era hero (hey; sex sells)
*my own background as a professional historian
I’d like to try to work in some of the other things people said they liked about my books, but I can’t see how to encapsulate those important aspects of my work into an easily conveyed image or tagline.
Now, having decided on our brand, the next step is to figure out how we convey that image to the world. I’ll talk about that next week.
Now we look at our readers’ comments, and think about our books, and come up with a list of what makes our books interesting, attractive and different. We add to this list anything that makes us, as writers, interesting, attractive and different. Why? Because while it may not be fair, the truth is that if you’re young and pretty and graduated from Harvard or Oxford, it will help sell your book.
This is the tricky part. To quote marketing guru Malcolm Schwarzenbach, “The real genius is in the editing.” Getting this part right requires an intuitive, up-to-the-minute grasp of our current culture—everything from the emergence of a “sustainability” movement (which, since it’s about saving us instead of saving the world, seems to have caught on in a way the Green movement never did) to “casual collapse” (the loosening up of society, less attractively known as cultural decadence) to political trends. Ask yourself, What’s going on out there that’s interesting and that connects with me and my books? Who out there would buy what I’m writing?
This is where knowing and understanding the competition helps. What else is out there that people are buying? Why are they successful? What is the market crying out for?
This is also where I have a hard time. Having lived so much of my life abroad, I am woefully out of step with modern America (I still remember the time when I was visiting my mother from the Middle East and noticed a magazine near the checkout in Borders; I asked my companion, “Who is Oprah?” and twenty people turned around and STARED at me.). I don’t watch TV. I get my news from international sources online, although I have started checking abcnews every day just so I have some insight into the “news” most people are seeing (so yes, I do know the latest in Britney’s life). If you’re culturally challenged like me, you may need some help here. The trick, as I understand it, is figuring out what is unique and different about your books, and yet not too unique and different. Even I know that now is not the time to try to sell a thriller with a hero named Mustafa Haddad.
To look at our earlier examples, What was so interesting about Anne Rice’s vampires? My guess is New Orleans and sex. Tom Clancy? Uh…I know guys like gadgets and…somebody help me out here.
Anyway, in pondering all these questions, I’ve concluded that the selling points of my Sebastian St. Cyr series are:
*fast pacing and action-packed suspense
*a sexy, Regency-era hero (hey; sex sells)
*my own background as a professional historian
I’d like to try to work in some of the other things people said they liked about my books, but I can’t see how to encapsulate those important aspects of my work into an easily conveyed image or tagline.
Now, having decided on our brand, the next step is to figure out how we convey that image to the world. I’ll talk about that next week.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Author Branding, Part Two: Market Research
In my last post, I talked about the concept of author branding. Today I’m going to look at the first step in creating an author brand: research. This involves asking some questions. The most obvious question to address is, What do my readers like about my books? This tells us what to stress. After all, we don’t simply want to attract readers to our books; we want to attract the readers who will LIKE our books. You see, branding isn’t about telling lies; it’s about recognizing what’s unique and interesting about each of us, and then using it to sell our books.
While it isn’t always possible to get either an honest or an informed answer, for published authors, an obvious place to start our research is with reviews of our books. (Unfortunately, while this will work for my Sebastian series, I don’t have that option with my up-coming thriller series; more about that later.) Unpublished authors can canvas all the writing colleagues, friends, and relatives who’ve read their manuscripts over the years.
So, what do my readers say they like about my Sebastian St. Cyr series? The most frequent responses are, in no necessary order: fast-pacing; complex, richly layered plots; action and suspense; historical accuracy that takes readers into all strata of Regency society; an ensemble of strong characters including a sexy hero; the overarcing mystery in the hero’s personal life (interestingly, the last is inevitably mentioned in person but rarely in written reviews).
For comparative purposes, I then looked at two very different bestselling historical mysteries from 2007: Mistress of the Art of Death and Silent in the Grave (neither of which I have read, so I have no personal prejudices here). Both have female protagonists. “Mistress” is a gritty story about the murder and sexual mutilation of children, set in the time of Henry II (“CSI meets Canterbury Tales”). “Silent” is a cozy set in Victorian England. So, what did the readers of these books like? Fans of “Mistress” repeatedly mention the strong female protagonist, the fascinating historical tidbits and CSI-like forensic details, the secondary romance, and the literary snob appeal of the Chaucer link. Fans of “Silent” liked the strong female protagonist, the Victorian setting, the clothing details, the secondary romance with a dark and mysterious stranger, and the humorous, breezy voice.
I also glanced at what readers of these books said they did NOT like. The secondary romance in “Mistress” annoyed many readers; no one complained about it in “Silent.” This tells me that readers attracted to cozy period mysteries are happy with a romance, whereas at least some readers of “gritty” mysteries will find it an annoyance. Various readers complained of historical inaccuracies. In certain cases these complaints were valid (activities in Victorian England that, while possible, would have raised eyebrows rather than merely earning indulgent smiles; a medieval cholera plague when cholera didn’t actually hit Europe until the 19th century; Sephardic Jews speaking Yiddish, etc); in other cases readers complaining about historical inaccuracies were actually wrong themselves. Some readers of “Mistress” found the prose awkward. Some readers of “Silent” found the breezy voice annoying, and the “strong” female protagonist an idiot. One of my readers said reading my book caused her to suffer what she called “chase-anxiety;” she prefers less suspenseful, less action-packed mysteries with no sex. Several other readers found Sebastian too liberal-minded for their tastes (scary thought). I also know from a link I belong to (CrimeThruTime) that many historical mystery fans didn’t even pick up “Mistress” because they don’t like reading about serial killers of children. Inevitably, the very aspect of a book than attracts some readers will turn off others.
Armed with this kind of information, the author-in-search-of-a-branded-identity then needs to ask some more questions. What is it about my books and about me as a writer that’s different or unique? Who out there would buy what I’m writing? What else is out there that people are buying? What is the market crying for? How do I connect with my readers?
More on that next time.
While it isn’t always possible to get either an honest or an informed answer, for published authors, an obvious place to start our research is with reviews of our books. (Unfortunately, while this will work for my Sebastian series, I don’t have that option with my up-coming thriller series; more about that later.) Unpublished authors can canvas all the writing colleagues, friends, and relatives who’ve read their manuscripts over the years.
So, what do my readers say they like about my Sebastian St. Cyr series? The most frequent responses are, in no necessary order: fast-pacing; complex, richly layered plots; action and suspense; historical accuracy that takes readers into all strata of Regency society; an ensemble of strong characters including a sexy hero; the overarcing mystery in the hero’s personal life (interestingly, the last is inevitably mentioned in person but rarely in written reviews).
For comparative purposes, I then looked at two very different bestselling historical mysteries from 2007: Mistress of the Art of Death and Silent in the Grave (neither of which I have read, so I have no personal prejudices here). Both have female protagonists. “Mistress” is a gritty story about the murder and sexual mutilation of children, set in the time of Henry II (“CSI meets Canterbury Tales”). “Silent” is a cozy set in Victorian England. So, what did the readers of these books like? Fans of “Mistress” repeatedly mention the strong female protagonist, the fascinating historical tidbits and CSI-like forensic details, the secondary romance, and the literary snob appeal of the Chaucer link. Fans of “Silent” liked the strong female protagonist, the Victorian setting, the clothing details, the secondary romance with a dark and mysterious stranger, and the humorous, breezy voice.
I also glanced at what readers of these books said they did NOT like. The secondary romance in “Mistress” annoyed many readers; no one complained about it in “Silent.” This tells me that readers attracted to cozy period mysteries are happy with a romance, whereas at least some readers of “gritty” mysteries will find it an annoyance. Various readers complained of historical inaccuracies. In certain cases these complaints were valid (activities in Victorian England that, while possible, would have raised eyebrows rather than merely earning indulgent smiles; a medieval cholera plague when cholera didn’t actually hit Europe until the 19th century; Sephardic Jews speaking Yiddish, etc); in other cases readers complaining about historical inaccuracies were actually wrong themselves. Some readers of “Mistress” found the prose awkward. Some readers of “Silent” found the breezy voice annoying, and the “strong” female protagonist an idiot. One of my readers said reading my book caused her to suffer what she called “chase-anxiety;” she prefers less suspenseful, less action-packed mysteries with no sex. Several other readers found Sebastian too liberal-minded for their tastes (scary thought). I also know from a link I belong to (CrimeThruTime) that many historical mystery fans didn’t even pick up “Mistress” because they don’t like reading about serial killers of children. Inevitably, the very aspect of a book than attracts some readers will turn off others.
Armed with this kind of information, the author-in-search-of-a-branded-identity then needs to ask some more questions. What is it about my books and about me as a writer that’s different or unique? Who out there would buy what I’m writing? What else is out there that people are buying? What is the market crying for? How do I connect with my readers?
More on that next time.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Author Branding
“Author branding” has become an increasingly “hot” concept in the publishing industry. So, what is author branding, and how does an author successfully “brand” him/herself? With special thanks to brand study and research expert Malcolm Schwarzenbach, I’m going to spend the next two or three posts exploring this topic.
As modern America consumers, we all understand the concept of a brand. It’s the set of expectations that come into our minds when we hear a product’s name. Think about cars. Mercedes=expensive, luxurious, high-maintenance; Honda=reliable, practical, affordable. To use Malcolm’s example, if Mercedes and Honda decided to make watches, you’d already know what they’d be like, wouldn’t you? Now, think about the expectations and associations evoked by bestselling authors’ names. We hear Tom Clancy and we think: military, suspense, bestseller, technothriller. We hear Anne Rice and we think: vampires, witches, New Orleans, sexy-scary.
In essence, a brand is a simplifier. In our society, simple is good. We have so many choices today that no one has the time to do all the research necessary to really make an informed choice. Branding makes life easier.
Some writers might revolt at this concept. Why do I have to be pigeonholed? Why can’t I just be known as a “good writer”? The problem is, of course, that “good” is a value judgment and unless you’re Oprah, no one’s going to take your word for it. As for being pigeonholed…see simplifier, above.
Okay, you might be thinking; I can see how this could be good for sales. Only, how do I decide what my “brand” is?
The first question a writer needs to ask is, What do my readers like about my books?
The problem with asking this question is that readers frequently aren’t very good at articulating the reasons they love a book. They also lie.
Consider a certain wildly popular writer of romantic sagas who shall remain nameless. Several years ago, when I tried a couple of her books, I was bemused to discover that they involved a significant amount of mild S&M, i.e., the hero and heroine both get raped and whipped. In both books. (I don’t know if the series continues this tendency because I quit halfway through the second book.) Now, I’m not saying everyone who reads her books reads for those elements, but given their frequency of occurrence, I suspect they’re a solid part of the books’ appeal with a significant percentage of this author’s readership. And here’s the weird part: except for one writer friend who also found those elements peculiar, I’ve never heard any of this writers’ millions of fans mention them. When Suzie Soccer Mom goes on Amazon.com to rave about her favorite writer, is she going to say, “And I really love the part where the villain rapes the hero!”? No. She’s going to gush, “I love the characters. And the books are soooo historically correct.”
So, getting accurate answers to this question can be tough. Nevertheless, in the interest of market research, I decided to do something I usually avoid doing: look at my Amazon.com reviews. I always read my professional reviews—PW and Kirkus and the like—because they have a huge impact on my career. But I avoid my Amazon reviews because I tend to go ballistic when some idiot gets on there and rants about how my portrayals of my 19th century characters’ thoughts are anachronistic (as a historian, the history of thoughts and ideas was my SPECIALTY). To make my market research more effective, I decided to also read the Amazon reviews of two other recent historical mysteries. One of these books falls into the “cozy” historical mystery subgenre; the other can be described as more “gritty.” I was interested to see how their readers’ comments differed from each others’ and how they differed from mine.
I’ll talk about the results of that interesting venture next time.
As modern America consumers, we all understand the concept of a brand. It’s the set of expectations that come into our minds when we hear a product’s name. Think about cars. Mercedes=expensive, luxurious, high-maintenance; Honda=reliable, practical, affordable. To use Malcolm’s example, if Mercedes and Honda decided to make watches, you’d already know what they’d be like, wouldn’t you? Now, think about the expectations and associations evoked by bestselling authors’ names. We hear Tom Clancy and we think: military, suspense, bestseller, technothriller. We hear Anne Rice and we think: vampires, witches, New Orleans, sexy-scary.
In essence, a brand is a simplifier. In our society, simple is good. We have so many choices today that no one has the time to do all the research necessary to really make an informed choice. Branding makes life easier.
Some writers might revolt at this concept. Why do I have to be pigeonholed? Why can’t I just be known as a “good writer”? The problem is, of course, that “good” is a value judgment and unless you’re Oprah, no one’s going to take your word for it. As for being pigeonholed…see simplifier, above.
Okay, you might be thinking; I can see how this could be good for sales. Only, how do I decide what my “brand” is?
The first question a writer needs to ask is, What do my readers like about my books?
The problem with asking this question is that readers frequently aren’t very good at articulating the reasons they love a book. They also lie.
Consider a certain wildly popular writer of romantic sagas who shall remain nameless. Several years ago, when I tried a couple of her books, I was bemused to discover that they involved a significant amount of mild S&M, i.e., the hero and heroine both get raped and whipped. In both books. (I don’t know if the series continues this tendency because I quit halfway through the second book.) Now, I’m not saying everyone who reads her books reads for those elements, but given their frequency of occurrence, I suspect they’re a solid part of the books’ appeal with a significant percentage of this author’s readership. And here’s the weird part: except for one writer friend who also found those elements peculiar, I’ve never heard any of this writers’ millions of fans mention them. When Suzie Soccer Mom goes on Amazon.com to rave about her favorite writer, is she going to say, “And I really love the part where the villain rapes the hero!”? No. She’s going to gush, “I love the characters. And the books are soooo historically correct.”
So, getting accurate answers to this question can be tough. Nevertheless, in the interest of market research, I decided to do something I usually avoid doing: look at my Amazon.com reviews. I always read my professional reviews—PW and Kirkus and the like—because they have a huge impact on my career. But I avoid my Amazon reviews because I tend to go ballistic when some idiot gets on there and rants about how my portrayals of my 19th century characters’ thoughts are anachronistic (as a historian, the history of thoughts and ideas was my SPECIALTY). To make my market research more effective, I decided to also read the Amazon reviews of two other recent historical mysteries. One of these books falls into the “cozy” historical mystery subgenre; the other can be described as more “gritty.” I was interested to see how their readers’ comments differed from each others’ and how they differed from mine.
I’ll talk about the results of that interesting venture next time.
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