This is the second of a five part series about authors navigating fantasy’s many overlapping subgenres (for Part 1, please see: Whose Fantasy Is This Anyway? Part 1 ).
The risk of being categorized with books significantly different from your chosen subgenre is especially true for indie fantasy writers (and lessor known traditionally published fantasy authors) without an established brand to cue potential readers about where their novel fits in the fantasy firmament.
Authorial anonymity increases the chances that your work will be inappropriately aggregated until it’s sold enough so that potential readers know where to find it or a platform’s search architecture has trained itself about what kind of book you’ve written. Meantime, you may find yourself in strange company thanks to ‘sponsored products related to this title’ functionality (e.g. on Amazon). Keyword descriptors including ‘urban’, ‘contemporary’, ‘modern’, and ‘paranormal’ seem especially prone to uncertain interpretations by both humans and machine driven searches. My own modern fantasies often wind up on the same page as completely different types of books ( https://amzn.to/2DhS9bo ).
But so what if your opus is mistaken for some other subgenre by the casual shopper miss-directed by clumsy algorithms? Isn’t a little reader confusion potentially helpful? Maybe they’ll buy your book (or at least read some sample pages) and discover that they adore your stuff. In an era where ‘discoverability’ is a damnable challenge for lesser-known authors, being mistakenly associated with more popular books in other subgenres certainly sounds like a recipe for broader reader awareness. And discovery by fair means or foul gains you recognition…
…except getting discovered by the right readers is what you really need.
In an era of hyperbolic book critiques on platforms like Goodreads, it’s helpful to a nascent authorial reputation if your potential readers are predisposed to like your subgenre. And while a few readers might be pleasantly surprised that they’ve stumbled unexpectedly on your work, many more are likely to be irritated and vent with a bad review – just look at reviewers taking vengeance on some poor book for all the wrongs real and imagined that life has inflicted on them. Worse, folks that really would be interested in your work won’t spot it. So, this is a calamity on several fronts – working to ensure that your book is grouped with other work most like it is vital to successfully marketing your novels. (see Part 3 of the series)
I write modern fantasy novels that are hopefully both exciting and literate. These novels include an on-going series about a near-immortal magician who grew up in Camelot and grew famous in San Francisco's 'Summer of Love'. He's still having adventures to this day described in The Lords of the Summer Season, The Lords of Powder, and The Lords of Oblivion. The books can be read in any order.
As author S Alessandro Martinez has stated about the series:
"Lords of Oblivion
A 1500-year-old wizard. A pair of savage druids raised from the dead. Modern day San Francisco. A wolf that takes no gruff. Blaisdell creates a fascinating world in this magical realism novel with smart writing, complex characters, and clever use of history and mythology. I was sucked in from the very beginning. I look forward to more of Bradan and Tintagel's mystical adventures.
Lords of Powder
Merlin's former apprentice, Bradan, is back! The 1500-year-old wizard, who is sometimes too smart for his own good, returns for another exciting adventure, this time in 70s Miami as he takes on the criminal world of drug trafficking. Blaisdell's smart, fast-paced writing and use of fascinating history and mythology keeps you on the edge of your seat as Bradan uses his wits, charm, and illusions to navigate the modern era and get himself into plenty of trouble.
Lords of the Summer Season
Being Merlin's former apprentice and living for 1500 years is bound to make you a few enemies. Travel back to the 60s with Bradan the wizard and his otherworldly wolf Tintagel. As Bradan juggles careers as a professor and musician, he must defend himself from his greatest threat yet: a literal god. Blaisdell continues with his clever, skillful, and imaginative writing that will keep readers eagerly turning the next page. My favorite of the Bradan books, Blaisdell dives deeper into the Arthur mythology, and brings the reader even more elements of magic and folklore, all the while weaving an entertaining tale of gods, wizards, ghosts, and 60s acid rock. Thoroughly enjoyable!"
Besides the literary side of my life, my background includes membership on a scientific advisory board for a non-profit professional organization promoting the biomedical and digital health business community in the greater Los Angeles area.
I’ve authored both basic research publications and business management articles focusing on the bio/pharma industry. My Ph.D. is in Biochemistry from the University of Minnesota where I also conducted post-doctoral research in microbiology. And my BS is from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) with a double major in chemistry and cell biology.
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