PLEASE READ AND WEIGH IN

[TammiKeymaster]

Hey, y’all, I need help making decisions about this forum. Two main areas:

1) where does it live?

– Do we keep it here in February 2022?
– Or move it out into a Cookie Challenge forum that will apply to all cohorts that take the course?
– Or move it out to an even broader forum than that, should I ever open the message board to the public?

2) how do we break down the genres? I don’t want them to be so broad that they’re not helpful, nor so narrow that you’re alone in your paranormal historical m/m octopus shifter stepbrother romance* forum.

– Should Fantasy and Science Fiction be together? Is that just Spec Fic? Does that include dystopian? What about post-apocalyptic?
– Should Mystery/Suspense/Thriller be broken out? Do cozy people and thriller people even have enough in common to belong in the same forum?
– How far down do we want to subdivide Romance?
– Is YA a genre? (I vote no.) Should it have its own forum anyway? (I vote maybe?)

🌟 and bonus question 3) Do some of the answers to #2 depend on how we answer #1? (I suspect they might.)

* If you know, you know.

[Valerie LaroucheParticipant]

Hi Tammi! Great stuff! Can’t wait to meet the other authors in my genre 😊

I think the forum should stay dedicated per classes (I.e.February 2022) because otherwise in a few years you guys are going to have to admin like 185,423 posts per thread and it’ll get crazy in no time lol
Maybe an option would be to lock this forum and give access to future students for reading only? And maybe a larger forum for all classes with different topics? I dunno But, just spitballing here
But I think a forum specific to this class is a good idea (IMO ^_^)

Genres are hella difficult to divide and subdivide and subsubsubsubdivide. Maybe go along with what Amazon does? I know there’s a ton of “phantom categories” that don’t appear on the ebooks categories list on Amazon, but maybe just stick to those that do appear? Just a suggestion 😊

I think sci-fi and fantasy should be separate.
Indeed mysteries and thrillers are cousins but not siblings 😋
I can’t talk about romance as I know nothing of the genre…

I’ve never considered YA a genre: it’s an age range.

(Is that all the questions? When we reply we can’t see the original post… ☹)

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by Valerie Larouche.

[Stephanie FlintParticipant]

I like the idea of dedicating this forum to a specific class, but having it available to future students in read-only mode.

I agree with having separate categories for fantasy and sci-fi. I know they can easily blend (I definitely like doing this), but they can also rely heavily on different tropes.

YA is kind of weird in that it’s an age category with specific tropes that are common, but still heavily divided by genre. Not sure if it should have it’s own genre subdivision or not. If there’s a lot of people writing that here, then maybe, because it might be easier to pinpoint potential swaps. If not, then I think I’d filter it through the genre category first.

[Jobie BaldwinParticipant]

I write cozy mystery and ya urban fantasy. With the cozy I sometimes feel my books have little in common with other cozies, let alone suspense. Cozy is a super-broad sub-genre that has a very different reader profile than other mystery sub-genres. With ya urban fantasy, I feel like there’s a bit more of a crossover with other fantasy sub-genres but still, Harry Potter isn’t exactly comparable with LOTR or SOIAF.

So, in summary, my vote is breaking down to sub-genre where possible.

[MoiraParticipant]

I wonder if with genre it could be more about self-identification than outside classification. What if my sub-genre doesn’t really fit with anyone else? I’m contemporary romance so this isn’t going to be a factor for me. So why not keep it big and ask people to self-select? Then break out threads can be created?

[Trisha MessmerParticipant]

Good questions, all. (am I talking like Yoda?)
As far as the abode for this forum, Valerie has a good point when thinking “forward.” Perhaps keep it in February 2022 (for this class) and then make something like an archive where future classes can poke around to find answers if they wish. I dunno.
Oh, genre. TBH I’m a little bummed because I seem to be the only one in this challenge who writes historical romance. Romance is such a broad, broad category/genre–it’s the largest on Amazon (followed by Literature and Fiction–which is duh, kind of everything that’s not non-fiction (is that a double negative?)). So contemporary and historical romance are quite different. There is definitely some reader cross over (I’m one of those readers, I’ll read/have read just about anything). But I think there’s wisdom in keeping it tighter within your niche. (pronounced neeche–thank you, Tammi).
I don’t read a lot of it, but IMHO Fantasy and Sci Fi have very different audiences in general–so I would keep those separate.
Mystery/suspense/thriller might have more cross-over–but when it comes to cozy (or cosy as the Brits would say) I’m thinking those are also different audiences. I will admit I have yet to read a cozy but it seems like those are more lighthearted and with very specific guidelines for the protag, etc. whereas the others (for things like James Patterson/Lee Childs) are more gritty.
I don’t know if YA is a genre or more of an age of the protag/leads. However, I do think it falls into one of Amazon’s categories/sub-categories. What I do believe is the reader audience is super broad group of folks. Lord, I’ve read the Harry Potter series five times and I’m in my 60s. 😀 If anything it might be a sub-genre.
I don’t know if this helps.

[Valerie LaroucheParticipant]

Don’t despair! At least you got other romance authors to bounce ideas off of.
I think there’s only 2 of us writing mysteries (my genre) and I’m the only one writing paranormal mysteries.
It truly ticks me off when I see “paranormal” romance. I can’t be the only one who thinks Paranormal Activity when they hear the word paranormal, right? Where’s the romance in Paranormal Activity??
(Sorry…that’s my own issue I guess 😆)

[Trisha MessmerParticipant]

@valerie. LOL It’s the whole shifter/vampire thing in romance. So I think the “paranormal” is the sub-genre of both the romance and mystery genres. It’s that paranormal element that sets it apart from others in the genre.

Good point about bouncing ideas off other romance authors. I was talking to my writing partner (who is doing the challenge and writes contemporary romance) and she said not to worry about–that even if I don’t have anyone to swap with, I’ll get a cookie written. She has more faith in me than I have in myself. LOL Plus we have Tammi who says she’s written everything. 😀

[Valerie LaroucheParticipant]

You’re totally right!! And so is your friend! 😊 I’m sure you’ll do just great! And I guess I’ll bounce ideas off Tammi lol
Unless we have mystery readers in the room?? 😃

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