Blog Flog - You Tell Us What Your Story Is, We Don't Tell You

It's Blog Flog time! We haven't done this for a while but this seemed like a great time. This one comes after three weekends of conferences and what I have heard now far too many times than I need to hear.

I often start my pitch sessions with asking the author three things What is the title, genre and word count. I do this so i can maintain the information in my data base, but it also cuts to the chase when someone is pitching a project that simply isn't what I represent. But here comes the blog flog.

I have heard far too many authors stumble with the genre question and will often say, "Let me just tell you my story and you can tell me what genre this is."

Ummmm, NOT!!!

It is really up to the reader to know what the actual genre is that you are writing. Why? The answer is very simple. Each genre has unique twists and turns to it. This would be the voice and style elements that are unique. If you are just writing a story, all you have is a plot and nothing more. Sure, you might throw in dialogue, but you are potentially missing the mark with your story.

Now, I should say thaty there will be times when an agent (and yes an editor) will tweak your story a bit to make it more of one genre than another. But that shift is not going to be that drastic of a shift. Telling me your story is a romance, when in reality it is a mystery is far off the mark.

If you honestly don't know what your genre truly is, make sure to take a look at the basic definitions you can find on the Book Country Genre Map! This will give you a bit of a direction to head.

But please people. Don't go pitching a story or sending projects to editors or agents when you don't know what you are writing.

Scott