Do you want to grow a profitable content business? If so, join 25,000 readers. I share daily insights about personal brand building, writing online and growing a profitable business. It's for creators, coaches and business owners.
What Gone Girl taught me about picking genres
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Hi Reader I obsessed over picking the right genre for a few years. Should I write science-fiction, thrillers, mysteries, non-fiction, dystopian horror…? Do I even need to pick a genre? The answer was a resounding YES. Genre is a helpful constraint for writers and their audiences. Try and self-publish a book on Amazon KDP and they’ll force you to pick two or three genres before it goes live. You must pick something that defines your work. Selecting a genre doesn’t mean producing something bland, boring, and generic. Understanding the conventions of a genre gives you confines to work within. If you’re writing a thriller, someone must die. If you’re writing science fiction, something fantastical must happen. It’s easier to write if you know what readers expect from a genre too. Picking a genre signals to readers what they’re in for. If you leave a convention out, you risk confusing readers and even attracting bad reviews. I enjoy reading science fiction, literary fiction, and autobiographies. (I don’t write in these genres, though.) Through writing, I discovered that I like writing books in these genres: business, personal development, memoir, and entrepreneurship. I got to work figuring out the conventions of each of these genres. Now, if I bought a book labelled as science-fiction and the author recounted the life of William Churchill, I’d feel short-changed. Gone Girl is one of my favorite books and movies. Here she is on the conventions of a thriller book: “A great thriller, to me, is more about creating a sense of unease: a queasiness that comes with knowing something is not quite right.” Flynn crosses a few genres, including mystery, noir, and suspense. She mastered one genre and moved neatly to the next without shortchanging her readers. Once you know what you’re doing, you can combine the conventions of different genres like Flynn. That’s often where the magic happens. I published an article detailing the most popular types of genre. Check it out. Write on, |
Letters From the Desk of Bryan Collins
Do you want to grow a profitable content business? If so, join 25,000 readers. I share daily insights about personal brand building, writing online and growing a profitable business. It's for creators, coaches and business owners.
Hi Reader, I just got this email from Matt McWilliams… It’s about the worst meeting ever. Bryan, Here’s the message I want to get through to your readers Your audience must know that this masterclass could change their business. FLASHBACK: August 21, 2005 The worst meeting of my life. We were almost out of money. Our business was failing, and we needed a solution. We needed a miracle. And apparently I was the one in charge of engineering the miraculous turnaround. (YIKES!) FAST FORWARD: New...
Hi Reader, We’re less than 30 hours away from my live masterclass with Matt McWilliams: How to 10X Your Sales WITHOUT Wasting Your Time on Social Media or Expensive Paid Advertising...All in About ONE HOUR a Day It’s a free online workshop. Matt is revealing his classified playbook for finding affiliates and starting and scaling an affiliate program. I went through his playbook, and one insight stood out: “Most of your sales will come from only a few affiliates.” This LIE is pervasive. Matt...
Hi Reader, I worked with Matt McWilliams a few years ago. I even interviewed him for my podcast. He’s the guy successful entrepreneurs like Michael Hyatt, Ray Edwards, Jeff Goins, Lewis Howes, and Brian Tracy call to manage their affiliate programs. He’s created a confidential playbook for running massive product and book launches. He uses this confidential playbook to 10X the sales for affiliate programs in every conceivable niche for companies small and large (like Shutterfly and Adidas)....