Patterns in writing

Waking in the middle of the night recently, I thought about the dilemma of marketing books. When I have looked at what romances appear to be selling well in Amazon, which ones receive raves from readers, many of them follow patterns. Actually this is probably also true in other genres like sci fi/mysteries/horror/apocalyptic/etc. When a book has a huge success, one that isn't set into the standard patterns, as Harry Potter/Twilight/Gray whatever, it likely sets a trend for new patterns.

So when promoting your book, you figure out its genre but then what pattern of story you happen to be writing. Since I know the most about romance, I'll give a few examples-- which all involve falling in love complicated by obstacles along the way.

A person from another planet/time/spiritual dimension meets someone and falls in love. This can be vampires, aliens, angels/time travelers, etc. So you have the fish out of water story, where eventually the lover must reveal him/herself, but the stranger has hidden powers/knowledge that likely will solve problems in the story.

Woman (could be sweet young thang or not) must get revenge for wrong done/save father/save town/etc. and hires tough guy to help her do the deed. On the way, love happens.

Protagonist has an enemy and to get revenge or have hostage he/she kidnaps the other protagonist (possibly by mistake) where they go off together to escape from bad guys while they fall in love-- then hopefully unite to overcome the enemy since romances have happy endings for the most part. On the run stories have many possible ways to get there.

Moving back home for whatever reason, is a popular pattern in sweet romances where there is the old love or new love and the rest of the book is about how they work that out in that community, maybe overcoming some past bad deed done by themselves or somebody else.

Recently there was a big hit with the cute/naive/sweet thing who falls in love with rich billionaire and they have to work out some problem before they can be together.  With erotica added, you have the gray something or other and all its offspring.

Promising to marry one brother and falling in love with another one leads to a lot of stories. Along with that could be the mail order bride.

Girl pretends to be boy to fight a war/right a wrong/escape a bad guy and hero doesn't find out right away the truth of her sex. He might find out early on or go a lot of the book before he realizes he's falling in love with what he thinks is a boy. I've never seen this plot reversed-- likely because romance heroes wouldn't fool anybody with eyesight.

Then there's woman captured by Indian tribe who falls in love with warrior.  Can't say I've read many where the story is reversed but it is probably out there also.

Of course, there's the bad boy (not often bad girl) where she (generally innocent) is drawn to him and his problems become hers.

part of our herd in snow, not this winter though as this year, no snow

There is nothing wrong with any of these story lines. They say every plot possibility was already grabbed by Shakespeare. the problem is though what happens if your books don't fit into any of the apparently popular patterns?

I think the fact that my books don't fit any of the popular patterns is what makes marketing them difficult. Well I do have Her Dark Angel about the basic beauty and the beast story. From Here to There is a run away bride story except she doesn't really run away-- she just wants an annulment-- changing her mind a little late but most of that book is about ranch life in Montana where I guess there is a fish out of water story also as the hero comes out to try and win her back-- or at least convince her she's an idiot for thinking he's not hero material.

You might think not fitting patterns is good-- makes for originality, but actually not so much. When I used to send my manuscripts into editors (10 years since the last such mailing), I would get nice compliments on my writing,  BUT the books didn't fit a niche, not enough angst in the heroine, and that was enough to send them back. Sometimes with a suggestion for how to fix that problem but one I simply couldn't use or the story would lose what I saw it as its being about. 

After ePublishing, I understand better this desire for recognizable patterns. Readers want what they can recognize and count on. They like those stories where they know what they will get even though it's in a different setting with somewhat different characters (although the character types don't vary a lot either).

Not fitting a pattern is a drawback in marketing, but I don't know what I can do about it. As I have said before-- we write what we write because those are our stories. I don't want to write what someone else wrote but even if I did, it'd likely come off stale.

Then I began to think about what I do write and what can I promote as my own pattern for stories. I do have a pattern. Most of my stories do offer some of the same aspects in each one. How can I use that for marketing? How do I convince readers to try my patterns and what are my qualifications for writing such stories? Next blog this will continue this topic as I think it's a problem for many writers.

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Spring isn't far off

but for now it's winter and the season of new life, preparing fields for the warmer weather to come and watching over the birthing to be sure all goes well. With 32 head of cattle, as well as 18 ewes (and now 42 lambs), it's a busy time.

Not all the stories end happily. We've lost a few newborn lambs and a calf. We have a bull, who I love as he's such a gentle soul, but he's older than we were thinking as we began to add it up when we realized that he has a physical problem (likely genetic flaw) that can only get worse. Soon he will have to be put down. Much as I hate that, it is what we owe him for his faithful service. He was born on this ranch and he will die here.

For all the sad stories, there are more that go well. It doesn't make it easier when things don't work right. The daytime is often filled with the cries of lambs and calls from mothers as the ewes lose track of their babies. We constantly have to evaluate whether the sound we are hearing is real trouble or just general whining. Counting sheep would not be a good way to fall asleep-- to say the least.

I grew up in the foothills of the Cascades and on a small ranch. From the time I turned 18 until 34, I lived in cities and tried to figure out how to get back to rural living. Since then it's been this little ranch, 25 miles from town, with 34 of our own acres and 50 leased, along with a year round creek for irrigation. I don't look forward to the day we have to leave this place. Land owns you far more than you will ever own it.

Where to sell books

Once again an interesting discussion evolved in Amazon's Meet Our Authors forum for western romance writers. Although I personally feel all my stories fit the western mythology for man/woman against some danger or evil, the fact that I write about high school principals and not exclusively about cowboys kind of leaves me out of being considered a full member of that group. Still I like to read there and enjoy seeing what others think as well as sometimes putting in my own opinion.

image photoshopped together from my photos--

coyote at Oregon Trail Museum in Baker City, 

moon one of our Arizona skies.

This topic was about setting up an historical western romance writer co-op which one of those writers is involved with helping start. She was discussing how she feels it will work as it will enable members to sell their books direct with PayPal and no need to go through any other publishers.

It's an interesting idea, and I will have to evaluate it more (rather my publisher/husband/FarmBoss will evaluate it more). I don't think I could be part of their group unless I brought out my historical westerns and maybe not even then, but this idea of selling direct is an idea that might become necessary if Amazon continues to do things to make it harder on the indie writer.

Sooner than later (right after lambing and our complex tax figures are at the accountant), I will have to change the icons alongside this site where the link goes. Instead of going only to Amazon, it will have a link to another page with more information on the book as well as all the possible places it can be purchased. This idea of their co-op makes me think maybe I should look into selling direct using PayPal. The way it would work is beyond the capacity of my brain but it's not beyond my publisher's-- fortunately. A co-op is better than just selling my own but that requires similar type books, I think, to make it work.

What we will do regardless of the idea of selling through PayPay is to turn Rainy Day Romances, Romances with an Edge or Rainy Day Reads (a site I kept private while unsure what I wanted to do with it) into a sell site while this one continues as it is with topics ranging from creativity in general to marketing as well as about my own books.

This, like so much of the Internet, is an evolving business. Some believe that soon Amazon will take a higher royalty and it's possible they will even delete slow selling books. As it stands, they do the most to promote books through the big publishing houses. There are smaller sell sites already out and I can see how writers benefit from being in such sites-- if their work fits the criteria. If not, it's like any genre limitation.

Anyway it's interesting and another thing for any writer thinking of going into ePub to learn about and consider. The big issue is how to get your books seen and a group of similar writers banding together makes sense to me as by yourself, your odds are reduced-- although if you can get readers to promote on their own sites, if you can get networking going, then it makes your odds more favorable. 

My goal for this site is to get its numbers up to where my other blog is. It's not easy to build readership which amazes me as it seemed my other one just built by itself but I know it wasn't that simple. It always took cross links and word of mouth.