Who writes like me? What books in today’s market resemble mine? These questions are crucial to publishing and marketing these days, but leave me stymied. I know I want to write like Kristin Hannah or Anthony Doerr, but my frontier fiction wasn’t exactly in the same category. Sandra Dallas and Jane Kilpatrick write in my genre, but my writing style is different. I never know how to answer the question—and with new books coming out, I need to know.
An email invitation to a free webinar by Bowker Identifiers attracted my attention. The title Learn to Know Whose Books are Like Yours seemed tailor-made for me. I spent a fascinating afternoon listening to the webinar and learned that each person’s writing style is unique like a fingerprint. Unlike genres, writing styles cross genres and are useful for targeted marketing. They recommended submitting a writing sample to Score It! linguistic software. The technology will compare my writing style with other authors. In other words, I’ll find out who writes like me.
It’s worth a try. I submitted a writing sample. I’ll keep you posted on results!
Candace Simar likes to imagine how things might have been. She combines her love of history with her Scandinavian heritage in historical novels that examine the early days of Minnesota and North Dakota. “I write historical novels to share painless history lessons about the fascinating and unique history of our region.”
One Response
Happy Valentine’s day, Candace