Join Indies Who Sell hosts Mary Novak and Sylvia Frost as we offer a live critique of an indie book’s cover, blurb, and Look Inside text excerpt displayed on Amazon.
In this segment we offer our perspective as a cover designer, author (Sylvia) and developmental editor (Mary) to a volunteer author.
This month, urban fantasy author Felicia Beasley joins us to discuss Nephilim Falling, a prequel to her urban fantasy series Trenton Investigations.
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Felicia, and any future authors participating in these live critiques… and we listeners for that matter, would be better served if Ms. Novak and her partner were more familiar with the genre the author being critiqued writes. The advice on the ‘look inside’ is terribly off the mark. Sound writing advice for some genres (lit fic and romance come to mind) but striking in how much of the advice clearly emanates from a misapprehension of urban fantasy norms and expectations.
Re my prior post, a touch of specificity:
The critique of Ms. Beasley’s opening sentence, descriptive pop cultural references, etc is so… honestly, clueless (i hope that doesn’t run afoul of standards of decorum). If either host has written professionally I would wager it is entirely in romance or literary fiction. Germane because the most salient impression I was left with is that the hosts are attempting to recraft the book for another genre. A great deal of what was said is spot-on for litfic; it stands athwart UF and, indeed, most genre fiction.
The opening sentence was wonderfully within the lane for UF, btw. I do hope that Ms. Beasley pays little heed to the advice insofar as her writing and the story. (by contrast, the cover branding advice should be well taken; it’s sound advice.)
Hi, Gary,
Thanks for your thoughts. I appreciate the different perspective. Both Mary and I come at writing indie fiction from a place of experience. Mary, in particular has helped edit some of indie fictions larger urban fantasy sellers, including a few of Jasmine Walt’s books. I have written paranormal romance that has sold well and has lots of elements from Urban Fantasy. Proponents of literary fiction we are most certainly not. Both of us have read widely in the UF space, although whether we’ve gleaned anything from reading, I’ll leave for you and our listeners to decide.
Our goal was not to re-craft F.M Beasley’s book for another genre, but to help her hone her book to better serve UF audiences. We certainly do not want her to cut out pop culture references, but to better hone how she uses them so that they add richness to her world. Ditto for her opening sentence, which while not bad, confused both Mary and I upon first read. Clarity isn’t something that only belongs in romance and literary fiction. 🙂
Of course, our opinions are only opinions. You are free to disagree with us and call you clueless all you like, but I do want to clarify that we approach all of our critiques from the perspective of readers — not as some master of writing advice from on high. If, as a reader, the first sentence and other elements worked perfectly for you, I can only hope that Felicia finds many more such readers! 🙂
Thanks,
Sylvia