Full transcript
0:00This might be one of the most important
0:03non-writing skills that I think every
0:06writer should learn. And I don't say
0:08that lightly. This is I'm just going to
0:10be showing you what I have been doing
0:12recently to research different genres
0:16and different subgenres and often
0:18sub-sub-subgenres
0:20because you can get very very specific
0:22with the type of books that are out
0:24there and there are literally hundreds
0:26of these subgenres. Chances are whatever
0:28book you have in your mind even if you
0:31didn't really write it or or think about
0:33it with the intention of categorizing it
0:35in this way,
0:36you can probably find something that is
0:39really close and get that sort of sweet
0:41spot of the kind of stuff you love to
0:43write mixed with the kind of stuff that
0:46readers like to read. I take the
0:48position that we are all here to serve
0:51the reader.
0:52We are here to do what they want to do.
0:54Even the more innovative books that have
0:57gone and like developed entirely new
0:59genres only came from authors that
1:03really understood the genre that they
1:04were in best. There are very very few
1:06exceptions. So, what I'm going to show
1:07you today is my process to actually go
1:09through and learn about a genre. I'm not
1:12going to necessarily going to show you
1:13the process to like figure out if
1:15they're profitable or not because that's
1:17a whole 'nother thing. I I I'll give you
1:19some pointers, but really I'm more
1:21interested in learning how can I present
1:24something that is both unique and has my
1:26own flair to it,
1:28but also is clearly part of a specific
1:32genre so I know how to market it and
1:33readers know what they're looking at
1:35when they see it.
1:36Because if that doesn't happen, they're
1:38not going to buy it. You're not going to
1:39sell any books. I got a couple of people
1:42once challenged me on this idea, which
1:44by the way, this is not an original idea
1:46to me. This is like this is a
1:47well-established idea.
1:49Uh the idea of writing to market. I had
1:51some people say, "We need to challenge
1:53the readers to you know, they they need
1:56to branch out. We're not here to tell
1:58the reader what they should or should
1:59not do. We're here to deliver a service
2:02for that. And once we get to know the
2:05readers better
2:08and they get to know us better, then you
2:11can start to maybe branch out and try
2:13some interesting and new and inventive
2:15things.
2:17And especially if you already have an
2:18established audience, you're more likely
2:20to get some of your existing readership
2:23to give you a chance. But if you are
2:25trying to break into the industry, if
2:28you're trying to make money, that's not
2:29going to work for you. You will never
2:31make money that way. And I rarely use an
2:33extreme word like never. I can pretty
2:35confidently say that odds are like one
2:37in a thousand that you'll actually have
2:39any kind of success that way.
2:41Uh as a mentor of mine once said, we
2:43need to become slaves to the letter of
2:45the law before we can understand the
2:46spirit of the law. And so that's what
2:48I'm going to show you today. Sorry for
2:49the extended preamble.
2:51Today, we're going to be going through
2:53the process that I've currently been
2:55going through doing a lot of research on
2:57different genres. I'm in the process of
2:58developing a whole bunch of subgenre
3:01guides
3:03um using AI to analyze a bunch of
3:05different things. And the most important
3:07part of this whole process that I go
3:09through to create these guides is
3:11[snorts] to actually go on Amazon and do
3:14some research. And this this part takes
3:16me some time. I do not know very many
3:19people that go through this level of
3:22research.
3:23But anyway, the subgenre that I have
3:26been getting into recently is the cozy
3:28mystery.
3:29And there's actually a good we'll we'll
3:32say like seven or eight
3:34subgenres to this that I found so far.
3:36Depends on your definition. But first of
3:38all, I really like
3:40the reports that come out of K-Lytics.
3:44This is not sponsored by K-Lytics or
3:46anything. I do have a affiliate code
3:48that I'm happy to share in the link down
3:50below.
3:52But I find these guides that K-Lytics
3:55comes out with to be very, very helpful
3:58as a starting place for this. Now, they
4:00don't have all of the major genres out
4:02there on K-Lytics,
4:05but I find that if they do have
4:07something, I will usually start there
4:09and then go over to Amazon and start
4:11digging into the weeds myself.
4:13And so they have this one about cozy
4:15mystery. This one came out just
4:17recently.
4:18This one also gets into cozy to
4:21paranormal cozy mystery.
4:23And when you log in here, if if you're
4:26subscribed to it, you get all of their
4:28stuff, or you can just purchase a single
4:31report. They're very well researched,
4:33lots of data,
4:35but it gives you a cozy mystery market
4:37report, so a list of best themes and
4:39characters, which is also very helpful.
4:42And and this one in particular also gave
4:44a bonus for a paranormal cozy mystery.
4:47And then it also gives you a whole bunch
4:48of keyword files that you can run
4:51through.
4:52Or a bunch of keywords in a file.
4:55And so I start here, and he also has
4:57this video that goes in depth. This
4:59one's like literally like an hour and a
5:01half of just talking about this. It's a
5:03great way to get a sort of solid
5:05understanding
5:06of the genre.
5:08And I'll show you if I'm using K-Lytics,
5:12this is one of the reports, and I'm not
5:13going to show you too much of this
5:15because I don't want to cheapen the all
5:18of the work that has gone into creating
5:20these reports.
5:24But in one of the reports, you'll get
5:26something like this where it actually
5:27shows you the book covers of a whole
5:29bunch, and they're categorized by things
5:30like what's on the cover, like animals,
5:32persons, symbols, and objects. And from
5:34here, I can often get a very good sense
5:37of which books are in which subgenre.
5:41And I will start actually literally
5:44going through each of these and looking
5:46at them and kind of saying how would I
5:47categorize this? Because I can go much
5:50deeper than just cozy mysteries. There's
5:52all kinds of different types of cozy
5:54mystery that have sort of solidified
5:56themselves as a solid subgenre. Seeing
5:59if there's anything in particular that
6:01sets them apart. Additionally, Amazon
6:03has a number of categories. And so this
6:05is also a great place to start. You'll
6:07notice here on the left here,
6:08it says under cozy,
6:11which by the way, the way to find this
6:13is you go to bestsellers here.
6:15At the top of your Amazon,
6:17find books.
6:19Quick pause. If you're an author who
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6:43There's no commitment to join though,
6:45and you'll still be able to get all of
6:46the freebies you signed up for either
6:48way. All right, back to the video.
6:51Then well, in this case we'll navigate
6:53down to mystery,
6:54mystery, cozy mystery, and then under
6:57cozy mystery we have animals, cozy
7:00books, bookstores and libraries cuz I
7:02apparently there are enough of those
7:04that like take place in a bookstore or
7:06library.
7:07Crafts and hobbies and culinary.
7:10And the one I'm going through right at
7:12the moment is culinary. But as you're
7:14going through this, you may actually
7:15spot additional subgenres that aren't
7:18they don't have their own category on
7:20Amazon, but are clearly a trend that
7:23you'll see going on. One such example of
7:26that, so I will show you the spreadsheet
7:28I'm working on. This is just a list of
7:30stuff that I have found in in cozy
7:32mysteries. I try to find to find five to
7:36six examples of each of these subgenres.
7:39And one such subgenre that I found that
7:41was kind of a surprise to me, but kept
7:43coming up so uh uh and from different
7:45authors, so I know that this is a legit
7:47thing, is this historical 1920s cozy
7:50mystery. So, there aren't that many
7:52historical cozy mystery genres, but this
7:55is one that specifically comes up in the
7:581920s is pretty common. So, here's an
8:00example here of one in the uh called
8:04Murder on the Golden Arrow, a 1920s
8:06historical cozy mystery. And very often
8:08on Amazon, you will see
8:10if there is a subgenre that the author
8:12is specifically targeting, it will be in
8:15the subtitle, just like you see here.
8:17And then the what I do to kind of
8:19validate what I'm doing here is first
8:21off, read through it to make sure I
8:24understand what the sub subgenre is. I
8:27make sure that it's got at least a 4.2
8:30star average, and I try to get above
8:341,000 reviews. That just shows me that
8:36there's that it has sold well. You might
8:39get some that are brand new, they have
8:41like 50 reviews, um
8:43and I might consider those if they are
8:45brand new and and they're from an
8:47established author, but generally I try
8:49to look for something that's over 1,000.
8:51Sometimes, if I can't find that many in
8:54the subgenre that are over 1,000, I just
8:56look for I make sure it's over 500 at
8:58least. And so, this is a good example of
9:00one that I just sort of discovered while
9:02I was digging through the weeds of all
9:04of the bestsellers on Amazon. But
9:06anyway, let's get back to the
9:07bestsellers. The ones I'm looking for
9:09right now are culinary. Uh I want to get
9:11a list of five to six of these that are
9:13culinary and fit the those criteria of
9:17having over 1,000 reviews, at least a
9:194.2 average, and uh ideally from a
9:22variety of different authors. Okay? So,
9:25we've got this one, A Spoonful of
9:27Murder, but this one is actually below
9:29four stars, so I think I'm going to
9:31avoid that one. It still has quite a
9:34number of reviews, but I'm going to
9:35avoid that one because low star reviews
9:38could mean that the author has done some
9:40stuff where it's not actually a good
9:43example of a culinary cozy mystery.
9:45Uh they might have subverted the
9:47expectations too much that it actually
9:49alienated readers. Maybe it was not cozy
9:51enough, you know, that um one of the
9:54people in my group actually published a
9:56cozy mystery and said they were being
9:57savaged in the reviews because this
9:59person actually it kind of
10:03spiraled out of cozy mystery territory
10:05into a proper bloodier mystery.
10:09And if you got somebody who wants a cozy
10:11mystery, they're not going to be happy
10:12with that. So, that's why I look for
10:14really strong reviews cuz I know that
10:16that means people enjoyed this and the
10:17people of the genre enjoyed it. Uh here
10:19we go. A shot of scandal.
10:22I'll go ahead open that that up in a new
10:23tab. This one, Murder by Cheesecake,
10:26looks pretty good. Uh it's got over a
10:28thousand. This one had just under a
10:30thousand, so I'm okay with that.
10:32Uh let's see.
10:34Again, many of these might be brand new
10:36releases, which is why they're in a
10:39best-seller category, but only have like
10:4110 reviews in this case. I am going to
10:44avoid those.
10:46Here's Here's a good one, Trouble afoot
10:48at the Three Hounds Bakery. We'll open
10:50that one up.
10:51And then the problem with going through
10:55the category here
10:58is that you will often find a number of
11:00books categorized in this category that
11:02don't actually fit the category. So, for
11:05instance, here, this one's called A Very
11:06English Murder. I already know because
11:08I've looked into this author that this
11:11is actually a 1920s, and you can kind of
11:13tell by the Art Deco design, it's a
11:16actually a 1920s cozy mystery.
11:19And so, what's it doing here? Well, I
11:21don't know.
11:22Uh sometimes we just don't have enough
11:23categories, right? And so, another thing
11:26you can do, so I've covered two
11:28different ways to find these books,
11:29right? The first one I mentioned is
11:31using a tool like Klytics to kind of
11:35show you a bunch of the books and then
11:36you go look them up individually.
11:39Yeah, you can do it that way.
11:41And another way is to just go through
11:43the categories here.
11:45If there is a category, cuz often there
11:47isn't for the subgenre you're looking
11:49at, but the other way to do is to just
11:51do a search. So, let's do culinary cozy
11:55mystery.
11:57Mysteries.
11:59And now we have a bunch more and I can
12:01already tell that we've got some really
12:02good ones here. So, Apple Pie and
12:04Arsenic
12:06um
12:07sounds good.
12:10Let's see. I mean, it doesn't sound
12:12good. I would
12:13I would not eat that. Um
12:16often if they have like the name of the
12:19subgenre in the title or subtitle, I
12:22know that that's a good target fit.
12:24Except this one only has 22 reviews, so
12:26we'll skip that.
12:29I love the title of this one.
12:32Baking Bad: A Funny Cozy Mystery with
12:34Dragons.
12:35Uh we're definitely going to take a look
12:37at that one.
12:39Murder by Cheesecake. I might have
12:41gotten that one already, I don't know,
12:42but uh we'll figure that out a little
12:45bit later.
12:48A Scone to Die For: Oxford Tea Room Cozy
12:51Mystery. Let's look at that one.
12:53And I think we have enough to be going
12:55on here with. So, now I've got all these
12:59tabs, right? Now, I'm going to go
13:00through these and just kind of briefly
13:02glance at the book description
13:05just to make sure it seems to fit the
13:07subgenre that we're after here, which
13:09this one definitely does because it
13:11takes place in a cafe and it's
13:13definitely a cozy mystery. So, because
13:16this one is nearly at a thousand reviews
13:19and it has a 4.2 average, actually 4.4
13:21on Amazon, it's always a little lower on
13:23good good reads. I usually go with the
13:26Amazon one. Then I'll take this link, go
13:30to my spreadsheet that I'm working with,
13:32and I will plop it into there.
13:35And then
13:36I'll just continue. So
13:38X out of that.
13:41Um Murdered by Cheesecake.
13:44This one has a 4.1 review. That's that's
13:47a little low. What I might do in that
13:49case if it's borderline is let's check
13:52out the other books.
13:53Looks like she's got one on pre-order.
13:56Um so this isn't a very good example.
13:59I think I'll do it though because it's
14:01so clearly in the right genre.
14:04Uh I do want to make sure I got the
14:05Kindle link though.
14:08So we'll go ahead and grab that.
14:11Put it in my cozy mystery. But if I end
14:13up having like too many good examples
14:15that one might get removed.
14:18All right, Trouble afoot the Three
14:19Hounds Bakery.
14:21For some reason this cover doesn't look
14:23very cozy mystery to me, but it's
14:25clearly doing well. It's got a 4.5
14:27average, 1,300 reviews.
14:29Um
14:31small town. It's got all the right
14:33tropes. And it's bakery related. So
14:36yeah, this one definitely
14:37would fit.
14:41Who am I to argue with a best seller on
14:43what their cover is?
14:46Um all right, I think I actually got
14:47this one already in my list.
14:51Yes, I did.
14:53Uh Baking Bad. Okay.
14:58So the only problem I have with this, I
15:00love I love the title. It's definitely a
15:04a culinary
15:05cozy mystery. The only problem I have
15:08with this one is that it's clearly got
15:09fantasy elements. And that's a different
15:12genre.
15:13Uh there's definitely like fantasy
15:15culinary cozies as well.
15:19I'm not sure if I'm going to like that
15:21might be too much to try and create two
15:23guides for that.
15:25So maybe I'll combine them.
15:27But
15:29I'll come back to this one. Let's let's
15:30just do that because I've got
15:33two slots
15:35left
15:37for this category uh to get my full six
15:40that I'm looking for.
15:41Uh we already got Murder by Cheesecake,
15:43A Scone to Die For.
15:46Um looks pretty good. That's a 4.3
15:49average, 8,000 reviews. That's pretty
15:51good.
15:52And
15:54yeah, this one looks good. So we're
15:55definitely going to grab this one
15:57as one of our two remaining.
16:03And I guess yeah, I guess we have room
16:06for this. So
16:08hopefully this won't mess up the
16:10analysis a little bit to have something
16:11a little bit different fantasy in it.
16:14Um but there we go. Now I've got six
16:16different cozy culinary cozy mysteries.
16:19What am I going to do with these in the
16:21future? Well,
16:22uh I'm going to be using these as I've
16:25alluded to before, I am a huge nerd when
16:27it comes to storytelling and everything
16:30to do with storytelling. So I'm doing
16:32this partly just because I am a curious
16:33person about all these things. But also
16:36I am going to be creating some genre
16:38guides based on these books that I'm
16:41uh adding links here for. I've already
16:43got bookstore cozy mysteries, cozy
16:45mysteries with animals, historical 1920s
16:47cozy mysteries, which as I mentioned I
16:49found earlier, your typical standard
16:51cozy mystery, paranormal cozy mystery,
16:54paranormal animal cozy mystery,
16:57cozy witch books. There are a lot of
16:59cozies that have witches involved
17:01somehow.
17:02The culinary cozy mystery that we just
17:04went through and then I'm going to be
17:05doing some research on cozy fantasy.
17:08And right now I know just from what I've
17:11been spotting as I've been doing this
17:13research, I know there's cozy fantasy,
17:15cozy cozy urban fantasy, and which might
17:18actually be the same as cozy paranormal
17:20fantasy
17:21or paranormal cozy mystery, I should
17:23say.
17:24Uh I may find that some of these like
17:27don't quite match up or they're not
17:28clearly distinct from other genres. And
17:30I might also find in the research
17:31process that there are other subgenres
17:34under say cozy fantasy. Like I
17:36discovered this one cozy fantasy romance
17:38in my research. I just jotted it down
17:40like, "Oh, this seems to be a subgenre."
17:42So, as I'm doing my research, I often
17:44will find more that I'm like, "This is a
17:46clearly a totally separate subgenre."
17:49And then I'll go through and find
17:51examples for each of those. Kay Lidecker
17:53has an entire report just on cozy
17:55fantasy. So, I have a feeling there's
17:56going to be a a few more that I might
17:58find in my research of cozy fantasy. So,
18:00that's why I'm going to continue my
18:02research there.
18:03But, this is just my process to actually
18:05go out and find
18:06a bunch of books in a subgenre. And this
18:09is a good thing that I recommend
18:11everybody do before you start working on
18:13your book. Cuz if you can get it dialed
18:15down this specific, I can tell you your
18:17chances of selling books at the end of
18:20the day after you've written the book in
18:22this genre,
18:23go up like exponentially. It's
18:26absolutely
18:27night and day difference from the
18:29authors that I've seen
18:31who have made the shift to to focus this
18:33granularly on the genre. And I know a
18:36lot of people think that this is going
18:37to be super limiting. I do not believe
18:39so. I believe that this that constraint
18:41breeds creativity. More constraints you
18:43have, the more freedom you are to kind
18:46of work within those constraints and
18:48really work your brain to come up with
18:50new and inventive ways to do it. And you
18:53know, it there's still quite a bit of
18:55freedom here. Like I could say, uh
18:58culinary cozy mystery,
19:00that what I would then do is add an
19:03extra unique element. So, we want to
19:05keep all of the things that make a
19:07culinary cozy mystery a culinary cozy
19:09mystery, but then we'll just add an
19:11additional injection of something new
19:14into that. So, culinary cozy mystery,
19:17but the main character is Irish.
19:21Uh or
19:23culinary cozy mystery that takes place
19:27in
19:28LA. Um I'm I'm not giving you
19:32Let's say culinary cozy mystery takes
19:34place in Shanghai, okay? Like so
19:36somewhere where we have might have some
19:38kind of specific different cuisine. Uh
19:40there's one that I found in I think it's
19:43one of the paranormal cozy mysteries
19:46that takes place in a small town in New
19:48Zealand. You know, go somewhere that's
19:51less common. You know, most of the
19:53cozies take place in somewhere in
19:54America or in Britain, but if you live
19:58outside of those areas or there's a
19:59specific place that you love that would
20:02make a good setting, do that. New
20:04Zealand's a great example, I think. Um
20:07so you can play around with setting, you
20:08can play around with the nationality of
20:10the character. You could um say instead
20:13of a witch, they could be I don't know
20:17um like what kind of a witch? There's
20:18different types of witches.
20:20Uh so pick a different type. I don't
20:22know. There's all kinds of ways to just
20:24inject this with a little bit of your
20:26own flair.
20:28And that's where it can get really fun
20:30to make these things your own, so it
20:32doesn't feel like you're just churning
20:34out a formula. Because once again,
20:36constraint breathes creativity. Uh it's
20:39actually a good thing. And I found that
20:41some of my best ideas were applied to an
20:44existing thing. Here's a good example.
20:46I have another genre that I've
20:48researched that is a young adult
20:50medieval academy
20:53fantasy.
20:54Okay? Very specific, but I found all of
20:56the examples that were clearly like
20:59yeah, this is a subgenre here.
21:01That was something I got into because I
21:03had a specific series of my own that I
21:06wanted to do that was kind of similar.
21:08So, what I did is I looked at all of the
21:10examples for that and I'm like, "Okay,
21:11it's going to be like that, but set in
21:14Avalon." Like an all-girls school
21:16Avalon. The main character is Elaine.
21:19Lancelot plays a big role. And now it's
21:21actually, even though it's the same sub
21:23sub subgenre, it's actually quite a bit
21:25different.
21:27Carries all the same tropes, but it's
21:28quite a bit different from
21:30the examples that I found. So, it still
21:34manages just to stay in the same genre,
21:36but also being quite unique. So, that is
21:38just everything that I have to spew out
21:40to you guys about the process of
21:44researching your genre. Try to get this
21:47granular, and I can promise you you will
21:49see better results once you start
21:51publishing those books.
21:52Uh those are my thoughts, and I will see
21:54you in the next video.