Hello,

Welcome to my first regular post from the Substack platform! Do you have any thoughts on my change to Substack? If so, please reply to this email to let me know!

Genres and Tropes

Do you consider yourself an “epic fantasy” reader? Or more generally, a “fantasy” reader? Is that still too narrow? Or not narrow enough?

To date, everything I’ve published has been in the epic fantasy genre. But as a reader, my interests are broader. Ever since I learned to read, I’ve loved all manner of fantasy and science fiction. I guess I consider myself an “SF&F” reader, if I had to pick a label.

These days, with the wealth of reading options available and the growing indie publishing community, stories are often tagged not (only) by genre and subgenre, but also with tropes.

Whenever I used to hear the word “trope”, I thought of it as a synonym for “cliché”. If it’s an idea that is easily recognizable from other stories, it’s been done, right? Boring.

But as I’ve been learning more about book marketing, I’ve come to understand the appeal and value of tropes: they are a powerful mechanism for setting expectations. Anyway, regardless of how original a story is, people will always find a way of putting labels on it. So, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, right?

I’ve read plenty of epic fantasy and sci-fi stories that went in a completely different direction than I was expecting. Sometimes the surprise was pleasant, many times it wasn’t. Seeing a list of a story’s tropes before committing to it goes a long way toward preventing disappointment or confusion.

I saw the following format for identifying tropes somewhere on social media and I thought it was effective. What do you think?

Upcoming Work

While I plan to continue The Kiynan Chronicles down the road, I’m switching genres/tropes for my next couple of projects. I’ve completed the first draft of a sci-fi short story (cyberpunk setting, space travel issues, underdog) and an urban fantasy novel (hidden world, good vs. evil, philosophical discussions, coming of age). These are Apollo Cup and Contested Souls (Danse Macabre Book One) respectively.

I’m planning to send drafts to my beta reading team in the coming weeks, for feedback. If you’re interested, you can join the team too!

Discover Indie Authors

Here’s a great way to fill up your TBR list for the spring! I’ve joined a group of indie authors who are giving away free fantasy stories to get more newsletter sign-ups (see if you can spot Arcane Aftermath in there from me): https://book.ericpcaillibot.com/fantasticapril/hp5f4k4zqo

The Lord of the Rings Giveaway Contest

Congratulations to Bernadette Gengler and Nicole Davis for being the Grand Prize winner and Runner-up (respectively) in the BookSweeps The Lord of the Rings giveaway contest! Enjoy all of those free books and prizes!