Lesson 6: Comparing Apples to Oranges
Comparing the books in your line to other books in that line, or the books put out by your single title publisher to other books by that publisher, is comparing apples to apples.
Comparing category romances to the books in another category romance line is apples to oranges.
Same with comparing single titles from one publisher to similar single title books from another publisher. Apples to oranges.
So what are you looking for when you compare apples to oranges? Two things.
What’s the same? What’s different?
Again, if you’re trying to figure out what makes a certain category romance line click and you’re failing, your next step is to read a bunch of books from ONE other CATEGORY LINE. If you’re trying to figure out what makes a single title publisher’s books click and your failing, you read a bunch of books from ONE other SINGLE TITLE PUBLISHER and answer all the question on the index card, then compare the answers for your original line or publisher against the other line or publisher by asking two questions.
What’s the same about the books? What’s different?
What’s the same about these openings, these heroes, these black moments? What’s different?
The answers to the “what’s the same” will probably be things that are hot on the market right now. But it’s in the “what’s different” that you’ll begin to see what’s specific to your line or publisher and the other line or publisher because it either won’t show up at all, or if it shows up it will be sporadic.
For instance…
You will notice that certain “hooks” repeat in both lines or publishers. No help there.
But…what if you notice that all or most of the stories for the books of one take place in a small town and only some of the books for the other company/line do. That may be a lowest common denominator for your original line or publisher that you missed.
Maybe all the stories are “city” stories. Or maybe it suddenly becomes clear that one group had “family” playing a big part in the stories. Or maybe you notice other characters besides the hero and heroine get a POV in one group but the other group books only have H&H POV? Or maybe there’s a difference in characters. In the one group you notice that the heroes and heroines are of varying ages, while the heroines in the other group always seem to be somewhere near 28.
As an example, let’s compare a Blaze to a Silhouette Romance. The differences/constants quickly become obvious. One has virtually no sex, though there can be lots of sexual tension. The other has tons of sex. One relies on traditional hooks to please readers with reader favorite stories. The other breaks new ground with story types that we may not have seen before.
From that we quickly see that Sil Romance readers like a certain type of story, while Blaze readers like “new” things. They also like sexier stories. To please readers Sil Romance authors must stay within clear cut guidelines while authors for Blaze can “blaze” new trails.
This kind of contrast and comparison can help you quickly see what kind of story you need to write and/or stay away from if you’ve targeted a specific line.
But, what if you haven’t yet targeted a line or publisher, and you have a story idea brewing? All you want is to see where it fits.
The apples to oranges kind of analysis can quickly show you what line or publisher is the best target for your story.
Also, when you make this kind of contrast and comparison, you discover nuances that might help you to hit your target and not veer from the mark! Remember publishers buy specific stories because they are trying to please readers. If you want to sell you must write a story that pleases readers. Doing a contrast and comparison analysis between your line and another line may quickly show you something that your line’s readers want to see … because you see it in all your line’s books but not in the books of the other line.
Now how about contrasting and comparing category romance to single title or as I like to call it Apples to Papaya? Is there a point to that?
Absolutely. Put your category romance line up against a single title or historical and nine chances out of ten you’ll learn more about the single title or historical than the category! (But you may be surprised!) Seeing the volume of subject matter, the diversity of emotion, of a single title, I quickly saw what I was not allowed to do in category romance! I saved myself time, rejection and heartache.
How did I save myself heartache? Because lots of times authors think they’ve discovered a “whole new angle” for their line, when what they have actually done is tripped over into single title or another line’s venue.
That’s why contrast and comparison with other lines and single titles is so important. You need to be at least marginally aware of what the other lines are offering, and familiar enough with single title that you realize that stretching too far puts you into another subgenre.
The same works in reverse. If you’re writing single titles, you need to understand what makes a category tick! Some of the better category plots started out as single title plots that became so well used they weren’t fresh for single title anymore and they’re now found in category. You don’t want to accidentally write a category idea as a single title just because you saw Nora Roberts, Susan Elizabeth Phillips or Linda Howard write that plot ten years ago as a single title!
Your homework? How about comparing one category romance to one historical or single title?
susan meier
THE BABY PROJECT 4/11
SECOND CHANCE BABY 5/11
A BABY ON THE RANCH 6/11
All part of BABY IN THE BOARDROOM series for Harlequin Romance
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