Happy Wednesday, or, if you preffer, Happy Hump Day!
Since I tend to pontificate on Wednesdays about whatever I'm thinking about, here goes today's subject. I'm thinking about the changes in books from traditional publishing to today's indie self-publishing.
Since the advent of ebooks, most authors I know now publish their books themselves rather than trying to place them with traditional publishers. There are many reasons for this, but I'm going to discuss one aspect of indie self-publishing: story concept.
STORY CONCEPT CHANGES
Back when I published my first novel with a New York publisher, romance novels were peopled by the young and beautiful. Many of them still are, but back in those days, the heroine was requried to be young. The hero could be older and more mature—you know, the cliche of the seasoned lover.
At one writer's conference I attended many years ago, the editor gave a speech and said, "Make your heroine twenty-three years old and the CEO of a company.” According to the publishing house guidelines for category romance, that was what readers wanted.
Is there anything farther from reality than a 23-year-old female CEO? I didn't know any back then, and I don't know any in today's world.
No one author ever got a book with a 40-year-old heroine or a heroine who'd survived cancer or any of the other life challenges so many women face. Heaven forbid if an author tried to show senior citizens with active sex lives.
Writers were constrained by ridiculous guidelines. Is it any wonder so many authors happily deserted traditional publishers and embraced indie authorship?
Even today, some young readers turn their nose up at middle-aged characters having a rich and fulfilling sex life. I rememeber when I published Old Enough to Know Better, an age-gap romance, one of the reviews was from a young woman who thought it was gross that a 40-year-old man would want to have sex with a 50-year-old woman.
Love, Sex, and Romance are something everyone wants from the time those emotions and needs hits the conscious mind, and that doesn't end at some magic age number.
Mary Roberts Rinehart famously wrote in
The Man in Lower Ten, that “Love is like the measles. The older you get, the worse the attack.”
Even authors who are old enough to be grandparents still write about Love, Sex, and Romance. I think it's because everyone—readers and writers—have a self-image embedded in the brain that doesn’t age. We are all forever locked into that age.
I mean, when you dream, are you ever a child again or are you a white-haired senior citizen. Chances are neither of those pictures are true.
Maybe that’s why you are startled when you walk down the street and catch your reflection in a store window. Ever done that? Ever thought, “My God, I look just like my mother!”
TODAY'S STORY CONCEPT—REALITY BASED
Self-published authors can write about any kind of character they want because there are readers out there who want that. Authors are not limited by age, ethnicity, gender, or anything else.
We can write about young or old main characters, about people who survived devastating situations and found love, about fantasy and reality, about introverts, extroverts, normal people, weirdos, and everyone in between.
Characters and plot elements today are based on reality and reflect Life. If you are older than 30—40, 50, 60, or beyond—don’t despair. The road of life is long and offers love and romance—and, yes, sex too—every step of the way. You can fall in love, and you can read about women and men your age falling in love.
TAKEAWAY TRUTHIn this new age of publishing, authors aren’t restricted by arbitrary guidelines so there are books out there that you will love.
When you find one you like, be sure and leave a review. That's the best way to thank an author.
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