What is "commercial fiction"?

RG570 · Jul 12, 2006

I'm looking at agents, and they seem pretty vague about what they're looking for, at least the few in Canada I can find. Most of them say they want "commercial fiction".

What is commercial fiction? Does that include genre fiction or is this another word for mainstream?

Siddow · Jul 12, 2006

It's 'stuff that sells'.

UrsusMinor · Jul 12, 2006

As Siddow says, big sales potential.

If you asked an agent to dump all fiction into two bins, those would likely be labeled "commercial" and "literary."

RG570 · Jul 12, 2006

Hm. Okay, then I'll rephrase the question. Is science fiction/fantasy "commercial fiction"?

davids · Jul 12, 2006

If it sells for $$$ it sure is-too many examples-how about Dune?

Siddow · Jul 12, 2006

Check out the bestseller list at www.nytimes.com. #2 is a vampire novel. Anything that has the potential to hit that list is 'commercial fiction'. It's a vague term, and can cover any genre.

Which makes our job of choosing an agent even harder...don't we all hope that our fiction has commercial potential? How can we know if the agent seeking commercial fiction will agree with out assesment? Check out the agent's list. If there's something on there that your book might sit next to in the bookstore, then send it in.

UrsusMinor · Jul 12, 2006

RG570 said:
Hm. Okay, then I'll rephrase the question. Is science fiction/fantasy "commercial fiction"?

If you aren't claiming it is lit-fic, then you ought to be claiming it is commercial. In other words, yes.

maestrowork · Jul 12, 2006

Most genres are considered "commercial."

LeeFlower · Jul 12, 2006

Red Shonja said:
Well then, what would be lit-fic?

If a highschool teacher can use it to bore their students to tears, crush their souls, and convince them that reading is a tedious, pointless endeavor that does nothing to uplift the human spirit, it's lit-fic.

...not that I'm biased or anything. Or bitter. Certainly not bitter.

Tracy · Jul 13, 2006

I love LeeFlowers definition of literary fiction! If it's plot-driven and has a story it's commercial fiction. If it's character driven with lots of angst and really poetic prose then it's literary fiction. Commericial fiction sells in much bigger numbers and you have more chance of making proper money writing that. Literary fiction wins prestigious awards and gets written about in the Sunday Papers - some of the awards can carry reasonable money with them too. But usually literary fiction sells in much smaller numbers.
Oh, literary fiction novels tend to be shorter too.

the1dsquared · Jul 13, 2006

Lee your description is pure genius.

Jamesaritchie · Jul 13, 2006

Red Shonja said:
Well then, what would be lit-fic?

Literary fiction is fiction that may be written very well, but that does not have a large commercial audience. If it starts selling very well, they stop calling it literary fiction and start calling it mainstream.

What is "commercial fiction"?

RG570

Siddow

I'm super! Thanks for asking

UrsusMinor

RG570

davids

Siddow

I'm super! Thanks for asking

UrsusMinor

maestrowork

Fear the Death Ray

LeeFlower

Lurker Extraordinaire

Tracy

the1dsquared

Dave Diamantes

Jamesaritchie