Tag: which genre?

How do I know which genre is the right fit?

How do I know which genre is the right fit?

In my previous post, I wrote about how liberating it can be to identify the genre of your book. If you have found yourself in a position where you just don’t know what genre your novel fits into, you’ve come to the right place.

First of all you’re not alone. It’s an issue that many writers struggle with. It’s not that writers don’t know about ‘genre’ as such, though with the huge proliferation of sub-genres emerging it is fast becoming a moving target. The main issue faced by writers, myself included, is they feel their writing could fit into a number of genres. It’s hard not to feel you are missing out on a potential audience if you pigeon-hole yourself.

In terms of advice, I would say make sure you are familiar with what is out there. Take yourself out, notebook in hand, and visit your local bookstore or library. Here you will see quite literally how books are classified and sold.

For example:

  • Action/Adventure — stories including epic journeys, lots of conflict, high stakes, some violence.
  • Erotica — stories of sexual exploration.
  • Fantasy — stories usually involving magic, other worlds, mythological/mystical figures.
  • Horror — stories that invoke fear.
  • Literary Fiction — stories with a focus on the quality of the prose over the narrative arc.
  • Mystery — stories that involve solving a crime, usually a murder.
  • Thriller/Suspense — stories of high tension that can involve either action or mystery.
  • Romance — stories about love/intimacy.
  • Sci-fi — stories usually involving technology, aliens, science-related alternative worlds.
  • Westerns — stories taking place in America’s “Old West,” often with focus on justice.
  • Women’s fiction — stories about women experiencing emotional growth. The primary emotion here is hope.

Of course the above list appears to take a simplistic approach, but as you start delving into what defines each genre, you’ll see this is a useful starting point. Let’s take historical fiction as an example. Historical fiction is one of those areas that stirs up much controversy.

Essentially historical fiction is, surprise surprise, fiction set in the past. The question is, how far back in the past do you have to go to make it ‘historical’? Last week? Last year? Ten years ago? Fifty? Everyone – writers and authors included – has their own idea of what is historical to them.

For consistency it’s worth noting that a historical novel is set fifty years or more in the past and one in which the writer has had to base writings on ‘research’ (ie, not life experience – so autobiographical novels would not fit into a historical novel genre). Each classification or genre has it’s own set of rules, so make sure you research each genre to see what the rules are.

For all those who, like myself, feel their writing could fit into various genres you can break this approach down further.

Take this made up example: MacIndoe and the Maastricht Project

Mike MacIndoe is a detective solving cold cases of missing people. He tackles cases that usually involve adventures of epic proportions (giving the novels an action/adventure feel).

However, MacIndoe is a psychic wizard!

So here we have novels that would certainly satisfy readers with a thirst for adventure – but they would also have to be open to tales of fantasy. If you were the writer of such a novel you would have to think of your audience and what they would identify with most. Having drawn them into a world of fantasy and adventure, you would have to consider Urban Fantasy as a possible fit in terms of genre rather than action/adventure.

The subject of genre is crucial if you want to write a query letter and pitch your work to an agent or publisher. If you are self publishing genre can be more flexible due to the vast array of sub genres.

When writing a query letter you need to prove to your agent/publisher that you understand the market, your target audience and where your book would be most likely sell. The best advice I can give here is to think about the readership. Who is most likely to seek out books on psychic wizards taking on adventure?

There is no exact science when it comes to genre, but if you have studied the fundamentals, you will certainly be further along the road to writing a book that sells.

Benefits of knowing your genre

Benefits of knowing your genre

Of all the issues I struggled with in the early days of writing my novel (some of which I’ll explore in later posts), the most challenging for me was genre.

As with all writers who have a spark of an idea, I knew the rough story outline. However, there were so many elements in that story that I had the dawning realisation I would have to decide. It simply wouldn’t cut it to say well it’s a bit of this and a bit of that, with a dash of this and the other thrown in.

Of course many people will say to you – just write the book and then see where it fits in. By choosing to stay open to writing in any genre you are free to pursue any idea that grabs you. That’s great if your books are written in a constant stream of higher consciousness as I had once naively dreamt. Sorry to burst your bubble but writing a novel means large intakes of breathe every now and then. You need to plot, plan and assess your work to ensure it is staying on track, resulting in a process that’s so much longer than writing poetry from the heart or an inspired moment in time.

The topic of genre becomes crucial if you intend to market your book to a wider audience. In short, genre is about marketability. As someone who has written for corporates in marketing, I’m all too aware of the importance of marketability. If you don’t market your goods, products, services, or novel, to your target audience, well quite simply you don’t have a target audience that knows where to find you.

Identifying genre can actually help you in your writing process as I found out when I attended a recent workshop with Bloomsbury Press. I had developed my pitch based on a ‘genre-crossing’ novel. Of course I thought I had cleverly masked the fact I wasn’t sure whether my novel would fit onto a historical category or a philosophical category. It did both in my mind, but that wasn’t enough.

The feedback I received was invaluable. I could still have all the elements I wanted included in my novel, but the ‘cross-genre’ idea just wouldn’t fly with this particular publisher. After discussing the storyline it became clear that what I had been working on was indeed historical fiction. To take you back to my first point, this decision was based on not only content, but ‘marketability’. I have to say the sense of relief to finally nail my genre led me to the realisation that knowing your genre has it’s benefits.

  • Constraints breed creativity. Sometimes having some rules to write by actually makes you more creative. When you can write about anything it can be difficult to know where to start and often you find your story taking you off on a tangent.
  • You look more professional. It’s important for agents and publishers to see that you understand genre and the need to build a platform. If you have a clearer vision of where your title fits in they will view this positively and they will have confidence in your willingness to market yourself.
  • You become known as an expert. The more you write in one genre the more people see you as an authority in that area.
  • It’s one less choice to make. This benefit I cannot stress enough. It was as if someone had literally taken the fog and indecision from my mind. As a writer building a career your life is filled with endless choices. Now you have one less!