definitions please

Literary fiction is a term that has come into common usage since around 1970, principally to distinguish serious fiction (that is, work with claims to literary merit) from the many types of genre fiction and popular fiction (i.e., paraliterature). In broad terms, literary fiction focuses more on style, psychological depth, and character, whereas mainstream commercial fiction (the page-turner) focuses more on narrative and plot.

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Stlight said:

Now the second question, does this mean that I should send my mystery novel to commercial fiction agents or does it only go to agents who specifically say they want mystery?

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Danthia said:

The easiest way to break it all down is to look at bookstores. That's the reason we have these breakdowns, so readers know where to go to buy the types of books they like.

Genre fiction are stories that follow specific "formulas" or styles, and the novel depends on those tropes for the story to work. Science fiction & fantasy, horror, romance, mystery and western all are considered genre. There are subcatagories within these genres, like erotica (romance), cozy (mystery), or urban fantasy (fantasy), and books can cross over into mulitple genres. Paranormal mystery or fantasy romance. These are books found in their own sections in the bookstore.

Mainstream fiction is everything else. These are your stories that might have a splash of genre in them, but the bulk of the story doesn't rely on a trope for it to work. "The Lovely Bones" has a paranormal element, but it would never be shelved in the SFF section. These are books found in the "fiction" section of a bookstore.

Literary fiction is typically stories that rely on the inner journey of a character and not the external plot. The writing is more lyrical and the text itself is part of the appeal of the book. The prose is just as important as the story. These are also books found in the "fiction" section of the bookstore. Sometimes you see them in "literarture" if the store breaks them down further. Classics are also often found in the "literature" section.

Commercial fiction is anything that has wide commercial appeal, or will sell to a lot of people across boundries. Bestselling authors fall into this category. Stephen King is a horror writer, but you never see him the the SFF section because there are people who read King who would never call themselves SFF readers. Same with Michael Cricton. Janet Evanovich is a mystery writer, but her books are usually not shelved there, and she appeals to people who don't read mysteries. Commerial fiction is typically found in the "fiction" section, and often on special displays and racks that publishers pay for in the bookstore, because they are the first things people see when they walk in, hence they get noticed by the largest number of people.

As for submitting, think about where your novel would be shevled in a bookstore. If your novel falls into the tropes and format of a typical genre novel, it's that genre and submit it to agents who represent that genre. If your novel only has elements of a genre in it, but the story doesn't rely on those tropes, then submit to a mainstream or commerical agent.

DWSTXS, I'd call your novel mainstream. Depending on the writing, it could have literary appeal, but it sounds like a regular non-genre story.

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DWSTXS said:

Okay, could someone clue me in on commercial fiction, mainstream fiction, and literary fiction?

My novel is about a young man growing up in the 60's and 70's with sex, drugs, rock and roll, protests of politics and the Vietnam war, and falling in love and losing her, then trying to find her. . . but the story goes all the way up to 1999.

It is largely character driven with lots of dialogue.

What do I call this? (besides a mess, LOL) mainstream? commercial?

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Use Her Name said:

Hey cool, DWSTXS, I write about the same sort of thing, usually in the 60's or 70's. I call mine mainstream. I kind of stick to whatever category T.C. Boyle, Ian McEwan, Annie Proulx, Anchee Min and "high end mainstrean to literary" writers are writing. Their books are serious, well written, and have plots.

I think the problem is when you get into acedemic descriptions it is different than when you get into the descriptions that book sellers use to define what tables to put everything on. There's an obvious difference between cookbooks and sports books, but there is not as much a difference (other than skill) between a story written with a thin plot using an 8th grade word list, and a Pulitzer Prize winning novel, they are both "commercial."

There is a lot of "grey area" between literary and mainstream. Mark Twain wrote books that are considered literary, perhaps because they helped to refine the art of novel writing. A lot of beginning writers see themselves as literary because only they understand their work. Readers reading it can't make heads or tails out of it, and as anything other than a wandering poem it is probably unpublishable because no one would read it. That is the farthest reaches of "literary," when you no longer have an audience you can reach.

I tend to think of mainstream as a little more down-market than literary, but not always. It usually is not a book that you can throw in any gener bin, but often has a smidge of some genre in it (as you said, your growing up story includes a love story-- yet it is not a romance novel).

A literary novel is about something deeper than the novel itself. The words may be organized around a story but you come out of it with the experience that you have new understanding about some intrinsic hidden knowledge that is difficult to explain in any way other than a story. Sozhenitzev, Nabikov, and others did this, and it is considered to be more serious writing. (Literary is sometimes also defined as contributing to the vast knowlege stream of the human race.) Popular novels are for entertainment, not enlightenment. They are often about things that are not deeply plumbed. Mainstream can have many geners including literary. So you can have a nearly literary war epic written for a mass audience and have it be mainstream and though it might fall on the line between literary and action adventure-- Mailer's "The Naked and the Dead," for instance is both literary and mainstream.

I am sure I did not answer your question-- but I know it is a common question, and I don't think anone has a concrete answer.

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