Here’s to getting old, and dirty.

I would have to see what the author was doing with her social media though. Someone mentioned this before, but I knew an author who had millions of blog followers. She went after knitters. Though she wrote sweet romance (macro) she honed in on knitters with social media (micro).

Well I think the point I was making here is we ARE social and we DO want a herd or as I call it a “tribe”. That is just being fundamentally human. We are social creatures. What HAS changed is that Madison Avenue is no longer in sole control of defining what tribes exist. There are a lot more of them and in a lot more variations. Sort of like when lipstick first came on the market, RED was the only color available. Then as more companies came into the fray, lipstick is available in every color imaginable. We gals still want to wear lipstick, but we can move beyond what one big company has to offer.

Very astute, RC Thompson. Do you have a background in social psychology or sociology?

I very much like your post as well, Kristen. Lots of food for thought.

While there is certainly a place for microtrends, all I see in my genre (Regency romance) is the same old, same old selling–fabulously rich, handsome noblemen, beautiful heroines, most of whom are poor, essentially a cross between Cinderella and “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”, and lots and lots of sex, getting kinkier by the minute.

I write sweet romantic comedy, which may contain other elements (paranormal, scifi, fantasy) in them, but few want to read a science fiction Regency. While a scifi Regency may be a bit out there (but no farther than paranormal Regencies, and there are lots of those), no one appreciates my comedy, which is closer to mainstream, either.

In this case, I see the indies who write what I described in my first paragraph selling, i.e., the macrotrends wiping out the microtrends.