W H Y?I follow

Gill Andrews, Copywriter and Web Consultant, for her brilliant ideas about ads and websites, which she generously shares. And signed up for her newsletter, which brings me each one hot from her press.

A recent newsletter had a tip – to IDENTIFY:

“What/who is my business NOT a good place for?”

and then make sure your ad copy does NOT attract the people who will not be happy when they read it.

Gill says:

When you know who your prospects are NOT, your copy (and thus, your offers) becomes more relevant and appealing to your ideal clients.

She suggests:

Step #1: Write down at least 3 such deal-breaker characteristics of your anti-prospects.

Step #2: Think what it means for your marketing message. Are there any changes you can do to your copy today that will automatically weed out your not-so-ideal clients?

Step #1 for Pride’s Children:

Some deal-breaking characteristics of those who probably will not enjoy Pride’s Children (the first three taken from kind reviewers):

“I cannot recommend this book, this trilogy, highly enough – but not to everyone. This is a book for readers who appreciate literary fiction and a very deeply developed romance with a thoughtful debate on ethics. I believe the pace and the delayed gratification will frustrate many modern romance readers who look for fast-burning romance, titillation, and simple love stories. …” ( D. B. Rose, 5*, Great literary fiction, part one ) “To call Purgatory, the first story of a planned trilogy, different is a start. Different isn’t intended as a negative description here. But if you like your current book to feel just like the one you read before and the one you read before that, this book won’t fit that pattern. But nailing down exactly what the difference is might be difficult. It has been for me. The best explanation I’ve come up with is that the characters are more real than you’ll normally see.…” ( Big Al, 4*, Purgatory )“I love romance novels but this isn’t really one.” (Bogen/Kaminsky, 3*, Well written but so so slow and long)too longtoo slowtoo epictoo much interior monologuetoo many charactersa triangle relationshiptoo many main characterstoo much world buildingtoo big a vocabularytoo many subplotsand even, too much description of a character’s illness/disabilityStep #2 for Pride’s Children:

This is the tough part.

NOWHERE in the copy I have, in the book descriptions, or in any of the interviews I have given, have I EVER called Pride’s Children a ROMANCE.

Romances have many tropes, memes, requirements, and READERS who know exactly what they want. Their covers are stylized and emblematic. I won’t list them – their readers know what they are – and I provide NONE of them. Deliberately.

But other books – mysteries, literary fiction, mainstream and commercial and upmarket fiction, SFF, and even genres such as horror or adventure – have love stories in them which may or may not be the main point of their stories. Without the majority of them being – or being marketed as – Romance.

Because life in general is full of love and love stories.

SO: I have thought hard about this part since even before publishing Pride’s Children: PURGATORY.

Because I knew it was going to be a huge problem somewhere along the line.

Here’s the kicker, though:

NEITHER Goodreads nor Amazon stop READERS from labeling a book they’re reviewing as – ANYTHING THEY WANT.

Bloggers do what they choose.

And there are no Book Category Police (BCP) riding the internet on fact-finding missions to make sure labeling is accurate.

Why is this important?

Because I can’t figure out how to say, “This is NOT a Romance,” without saying, “This is NOT a Romance.”

And if I SAY it, I need to do it WITHOUT ever dissing it in ANY way, because Romance is a huge and thriving genre of prolific writers and satisfied customers, and I have NO quarrel with it except their domination of our overlapping domain.

And I’m already saying it as subtly as I can manage by actually pointing out the ways in which it is not – and it isn’t working:

Romance readers read it, and provide their accurate interpretation that it fails as a Romance.Other potential readers interpret my copy to decide it’s a Romance, and don’t want to read one.My only other option?

To REMOVE the love story, and I think it’s a little late for that.

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Suggestions welcome.

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