Clean Romance, Sustainability, and “Pantsing” books with Kirsten Oliphant

Episode 009 / Kirsten Oliphant writes clean romance–and lots of other sub-genres. She joins Jami Albright and Sara Rosett to talk about the genre of clean romance as well as sustainability and “pantsing” books. They also tackle the pros and cons of author success stories.

You can find show notes and links at wishidknownforwriters.com.

In the intro, Jami shared that she’s closing in on her deadline the book is going to the developmental editor. Sara’s back from London, where things didn’t go as planned. London Book Fair was cancelled, and she had to return to the US early, which meant she missed the SPF-Live event. The upside was that Sara had plenty of time to see London, had several afternoon teas, and met up with other mystery writers.

In this podcast episode, you’ll discover:

How Kirsten fell in love with the subgenre of billionaire romance while writing a parody of it
What audience expectations are in sweet/clean romance
The mistake of reading only traditionally published books in for genre research
How Kirsten is able to “pants” a book and write instinctively without an outline
What Kirsten wishes she’d known about how successful marketing tactics vary between genres
Finding balance–or tension–in your writing life
The two questions Kirsten uses to decide if something is a good use of her time
How to listen to success stories–the benefits and drawbacks of sharing
Collaboration
Rebranding a book
What changes Kirsten has seen in the clean romance genre
Things that have helped Kirsten be successful, including her focus on email and continuing to read in her genre