Ch-ch-changes
Readers of the Southern Fraud series may notice some changes to the way I’m presenting the books. These changes are all superficial, and half of them won’t even be noticeable to the naked eye. But in the background, I’ll be experimenting with adjustments to genre as well as Amazon’s search categories, keywords, and metadata.
In fact, some changes have already taken place. Beginning with the Southern Fraud series, I began using two variations of my name based on the genre I was writing:
Jennifer Becton=Austenesque
J. W. Becton=mysteries
I jokingly called J. W. Becton my pseudo-pseudonym. Originally, I planned to use separate names mainly as a courtesy to readers. Books by Jennifer Becton would be the sweet Austen stories, and J. W. Becton books would be modern crime dramedies and murder mysteries.
However, my writing names remained connected on one single Amazon author page, resulting is some confusion for the algorithms when it came to suggesting books and other authors my readers might enjoy. On each Amazon author page, there is a list of authors “Customers Also Bought Items by.” The list on my author page was an odd blend of sweet romance and murder mysteries. Totally unhelpful.
The first step in improving my marketing metadata occurred when I crated two separate Amazon author pages: one for Jennifer Becton and one for J. W. Becton. That should prevent any bizarre genre crossover and potential reader confusion.
The next noticeable change will be genre related. My Southern Fraud series will now be classified as a mystery, not a thriller. There will be no change to the content, but the covers will now say “Southern Fraud Mysteries.”
Frankly, I’ve always been unsure where Southern Fraud fits in the book classification system. I knew exactly what I wanted to write: crime dramedies like those on TV. I wanted to write a book similar to Castle, Moonlighting, The Mentalist, etc. These shows deal with serious crimes and often walk on the darker side of theme. But overall, they are fun, uplifting, romantic, and humorous.
So where does a crime dramedy fit in book genres? Are they thrillers? Cozy mysteries? General mysteries?
When I first launched the series, I believed Southern Fraud had many characteristics of cozy mysteries: small town setting, unique heroine, humorous scenes, a lighter tone, and slow-burn romantic themes. But because of the darker themes of rape and murder and the occasional depiction of violence, I was hesitant to put Southern Fraud in the cozy category. I felt it might be misleading to put my books alongside stories about librarians who solve crimes with their cats or mysteries that feature recipes or craft projects. I didn’t want readers to buy my books expecting a cat detective and get a rapist story line instead. I may have misunderstood the genre. A look at the cozy mystery popularity list tells me the genre is much more inclusive than I gave it credit for years ago. You can even find dark cozy mysteries.
The Southern Fraud series seemed a natural fit for mystery->women sleuths. It’s always been there. So why was it called a thriller?
In the beginning, my covers were cartoons of action scenes from the books. I did not want to set any false expectations and tried to blend the lighthearted cover with the darker themes in the book by using the name thriller, which is a genre that sort of blends mystery and horror.
So to offset Southern Fraud’s lighthearted cover art and to take into account the heavier subject matter and the occasional scenes that depicted violence, I wanted to err on the side of caution and opted to call them thrillers. But while there are many heart-pounding action sequences and darker themes, they aren’t action-packed from beginning to end, like Taken. Nor are they full of terror.
At present, I’m in the process of adjusting my genre to better fit the content. Southern Fraud is going to be classified more accurately as a mystery, not a thriller.
In the upcoming weeks, I’ll be experimenting with different covers, including bringing back the original cartoon version. For an unknown amount of time, a cartoon cover edition of the paperback of Sunset Clause will be available. I’ll let you know when.
In the meantime, tell me your opinion:
