What genre is my book?

Sounds like mainstream or women's lit.

Maybe you can find something in these descriptions:
http://www.agentquery.com/genre_descriptions.aspx

Sounds like it would work as mainstream or even suspense.

Tri

Suspense or thriller. Could be mainstream, depending on the focus of the main story.

It really depends on how you're writing it, but it sounds to me like Suspence.

Irresponsible mom, though. Where does she leave her kids? They would play NICELY into the drama of the story.

LindsayP said:

OK, this is going to sound so stupid, but what genre should I catorgorize my book?

The main plot is a suburban mom gets ripped off by an internet scam and goes after the person who ripped her off in the process she uncovers a large counterfeit hangbag ring. The authorities won't help her so she continues on her own.

The subplot is her failing marriage which comes to light as she gets deeper into her quest for justice.

I'm thinking it's a crime story, but it's not a really a mystery. Then the whole marriage thing makes me think chick lit, but she's a mom so it's more mommy lit.

Would it be women's fiction? Crime? Chick Lit?

Any opinions?
Thanks!

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Actually, no surprise at the confusion. There are three genres on the shelf in the mystery section. I spent a long time trying to figure out where one of my projects fit. Like yours, it had a crime in it, but it just didn't fit in with mystery. Suspense and thriller often get lumped together or lumped in with mystery, though they are all very different from each other. There is virtually nothing written about writing suspense or thriller.

Your book sounds like a suspense novel. Those books are often written for women and have women as the heroine. The problem often finds the woman and puts her in jeopardy while she tries to get to the bottom of it. The stories are also heavily focused on relationships; many of them, in fact, have a major romantic element. The stories themselves are also focused on the individual. One storyline I can think of off the top of my head is a woman convicted of killing her husband tries to clear her name. Romantic Times Book Reviews would be an excellent resource to giving you more examples of suspense novels. Once you know what to look for, they're actually easy to spot on the shelf.

Linda Adams said:

Those books are often written for women and have women as the heroine. The problem often finds the woman and puts her in jeopardy while she tries to get to the bottom of it. The stories are also heavily focused on relationships; many of them, in fact, have a major romantic element. The stories themselves are also focused on the individual.

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Would Tami Hoag's books be an example of these?

I've always wondered what genre the books by Micheal Connelly (Harry Bosch) and John Sandford (Lucas Davenport) fall into... Mystery, sure, but are novels with cops at the core just mysteries?

Solange Blue said:

Would Tami Hoag's books be an example of these?

I've always wondered what genre the books by Micheal Connelly (Harry Bosch) and John Sandford (Lucas Davenport) fall into... Mystery, sure, but are novels with cops at the core just mysteries?

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All three are actually thriller writers (each of their Web sites states this is what they're writing). That's why there's such confusion about the genres. Having a crime in a story doesn't necessarily make it a mystery. The crime is only one piece of a mystery.

Linda Adams said:

All three are actually thriller writers (each of their Web sites states this is what they're writing). That's why there's such confusion about the genres. Having a crime in a story doesn't necessarily make it a mystery. The crime is only one piece of a mystery.

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Whew! Thanks! I have a hard time figuring out what a thriller is... "Red Dragon" is CLEARLY a thriller... but recurring character cops solving cases in genre fiction don't NECESSARILY seem like thrillers. Yeah, this genre stuff is confusing.

Yeah, I thought my books were mystery, until someone pointed out that they're really thrillers. There's no save-the-world scenarios; just my protagonist completing a job she's hired to do. Which would sound like mysteries, right? Except there's a lot of action, and she kills quite a few people. And in the end, she doesn't so much solve the crime as make sure it can't happen again.