Decisions….Decisions!

Okay, so I’ve decided to self publish. Yes, I’m sending my work to agents and publishers. Yes, I’m constantly editing my manuscripts to make them tighter, better. Yes, I’m getting some fantastic feedback in the form of high quality rejection letters…any of you authors out there know that a high quality, personal rejection is much easier to swallow than a ‘form’ rejection. UGH!   But all in all, a good rejection doesn’t put money in your pocket.

So, as I said, I’ve decided to try the self publishing route. E-books and print on demand from both Amazon (Kindle) and Barnes and Noble (Nook).

The dilemma? Choosing a genre for my stories. They contain suspense and romance but I’ve been told they don’t exactly qualify as Romantic Suspense. WTH??? So, I kick into research mode and pull up all sorts of articles stating the differences between Fiction, Romance, Suspense, Mystery, etc.

What it comes down to is this…I write fiction. I write from both the women’s and men’s points of view. They have romance, some have mysteries, all have a little suspense, but not as the main storylines. The five (and a half) books I’ve written are a series, in that each book will have characters that are included in the following book.  I’ve even found a fantastic name for the series that works in the Lousiana story settings.  I call it “La Fleur de Love” series. My books are novels, because they all come in between 90,000 to 100,000 words. They have subplots with multiple characters and storylines.  The problem is, I can’t seem to follow the strict guidelines called for by the industry for one particular genre. So what does a rambling, rebel writer such as myself do in this situation?

She sells it as Mainstream Women’s Fiction. Why? Because it allows me to do what I do best in writing, which is to bend the rules…color outside the lines…have some fun with my stories.

All I can do now is get them out there, and hope I find a family of readers who have as much fun reading my work as I have writing it.

Later,
Lori