Comments on: Lots of Hopping

By: Paul G. Tremblay

Paul G. Tremblay — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:29:40 +0000

What David said, Bryan!

By: davidadurham

davidadurham — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:47:36 +0000

Actually, sounds like we should thank you, Bryan. Handselling seems like a dying art. Thanks for keeping it alive!

By: Bryan Russell

Bryan Russell — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:08:47 +0000

Nice little discussion. I do both hopping and mixing, so it’s nice to see a few takes on it. And as a store owner I understand the difficulty of trying to find a spot for genre mixers, finding a way to market them to a perusing customer. But I also think it’s sort of lazy to ignore great books just because it’s a little more challenging to find a spot for them. I think it’s that initial awareness that’s key, as once a book becomes a little embedded in the culture it doesn’t matter - great books will make the rounds and spread across the audiences of it’s multi-genre-parents and find those who are interested. I think it’s those initial logistics that are difficult - how to draw people in? And I should say, also, that those sort of interesting and unclassifiable books are just the sort I handsell. It’s not just find a shelf space for them, but actually understanding readers and showcasing books. You want something interesting? Well, this is interesting…

Thanks, guys.

By: davidadurham

davidadurham — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:07:38 +0000

Okay. I’m happy to tell all!

By: paultremblay

paultremblay — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:18:05 +0000

David: I’m sure you’re plenty cool enough for genre mixing should you choose to.

While, clearly, there’s nothing wrong with writing within a genre and I didn’t mean to imply all singular genre work was safe or like comfort food (that’d be silly). I think where I was coming from in my admittedly rushed post (wrote it before running out the door to drive 3.5 hours to New Paltz, NY), was a response to the (perhaps perceived) industy attitude toward genre mixing.

Genre hopping is just as cool to me! And probably harder to do these days. You listed a few of my favorite hoppers, as it were, and would like to add Joyce Carol Oates and Stewart O’Nan to that list.

I’ll be interested to hear your editor’s/agent reaction to your own hopping on Friday.