Why You Should Read Your Genre

(Hint: You’ll Become a Better Writer)

“What kind of books do you like?”

Ask any reader, and they’ll be able to rattle off a list of titles, authors, or books they enjoy.

Often, this is the start of a great book-swap friendship. “Oh, have you read so-and-so? So good!” or “If you like that book, you should really check this out this one, too.”

More than a way to add to your reading wish list, this is a great question to ask yourself as a writer. What kinds of books do you like to read? Is the book you’re writing like any of them?

Because, my friends, the books you read can tell you a lot. About yourself, sure…but also how to be a better writer, period.

Be A Reader, First

One of the strange side effects of the indie publishing boom—though we probably shouldn’t be too surprised by this—is the increasing number of people who want to write a book although they themselves don’t read any. I find this very strange.

Imagine not listening to music, and wanting to be a musician.

Or wanting to be a standup comic and never watching standup comedy. Or, deciding you want to be a chef when you don’t know how to boil an egg.

How good do you think you would be?

The same goes for writing books. How good will you be, if you never look at other books?

Be a reader.

And not just any reader. Be sure to include your genre in your reading list.

Benefits of Reading Your Genre

Think of reading in your genre like being undercover on a search for clues…clues for what makes a book work.

Here is a small selection of the benefits:

• Get to know your audience. What do readers in this genre want? What do they look for? Whether you want to meet or subvert those expectations, you need to know what they are. (And you will need to meet at least some of them, trust me.)
• See how other authors approach a topic or idea. We can always learn from how someone else in our field gets the job done.
• Solve your structure problems. Are you having a hard time plotting your book? Or deciding on the organization? Genre is a key to that door.
• Become a better writer. Learn about the latest trends and terminology important to your genre.
• Make your marketing easier. Once you know what your audience wants, you can get your book into their grubby little hands much more easily!

Let’s look at a few of these more closely.

Get to Know Your Audience

Folks, this is the biggest one. Readers have expectations. As I said in this post about knowing your own genre, they’re going to judge your book against those expectations. And those expectations vary widely by genre.

Readers of a history book about art theft and recovery during and after World War II (The Monuments Men) will expect a lot of historical detail: dates, place names, people, sequences of events. They likely won’t worry too much about dialogue or pacing. Readers of a thriller and murder mystery set in the Australian Outback (Force of Nature) expect a great mystery, incredible pacing, tension, tantalizing clues, and false herrings…and probably dialogue. They likely won’t want a lot of background information slowing the story down.

Who are you selling—oops, sorry, telling your story—to?

See How Other Authors Approach a Topic or Idea

Why reinvent the wheel? Skip the baseline problems and level up. Your advantages are two-fold.

First, I’m a big fan of seeing what others do well and poaching those techniques and stratagems. Nobody has an exclusive right to writing craft (thank goodness). As you read, ask yourself: What do I like about this? Why does this work so well?

Secondly, this gives you a good view of the competition. Maybe a lot of other books in this genre are rehashing the same types of things, whether techniques or actual content. Knowing this, you can avoid becoming another lukewarm book-a-dozen, and set yourself apart from the crowd. (I predict this will become increasingly important in the Age of AI.)

Solve Your Structure Problems

Your structure does a lot of storytelling work for you. How do other books in your genre handle the problems for your type of story? Again, you’re checking out what works…and what doesn’t.

Structure is 100 percent fundamental to nonfiction. Take a look at the Tables of Contents and other organizational elements, such as pull-quotes, images, figures, tables, and references, in addition to reading the base story.

Novels can be structured many different ways, though some are genre-preferred. You can really set yourself apart with your book structure, so take note!

Memoirists should look at how other memoirs move through time and how they use details such as dialogue. Are they chronological? Do they move between more than one timeline? How much dialogue is there, and how much needed to be reconstructed?

Ask yourself how you can organize your book to most delight your readers.

Closing Note on “Rules”

The rebels and rule-breakers among you may feel that a focus on reader and genre expectations smells too much like prescriptivism—a “book template” or “book by numbers” experience that will strangle your creativity before it’s fully realized. To you I say: How can you break the rules if you don’t know what they are?

Plus, that’s just hooey. We’ve been dealing with conventions in books, music, and performance (TV, movies, stage) for a loooong time, and that doesn’t stop us from loving new offerings that follow a well-known set of expectations.

Bottom Line

Reading in your genre is a win-win. Win for you, win for your readers. What’s not to love?

So, what kind of books do you like?
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Not sure what genre you’re writing? Let’s schedule a book structure intensive and dig into what you’ve got.

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The books you read can help you become a better writer—so read your genre! CC image “Reading” courtesy of Pedro Ribeiro Simões on Flickr. Some rights reserved.