How to categorize my novel?

I'd say women's fiction too. Possibly romance, but if that's only a small element and it's more about Ellie than Ellie + 1, then go with women's fiction.

It depends on what kind of conflict you have which you don't go into. I assume that there is some kind of problem in there and it's not all just sweetness and light.

It sounds like a romance but that depends on whether it revolves around the relationship with the man, which I couldn't tell for sure. It could be all kinds of things from what you have there.

Also Having Category Problem

I'm having the same problem. Below is a short synopsis as part of a query letter I've worked up. I've started two other novels with women as MCs, but with elements of romance. HELP!

Monique Witherspoon is divorced, childless and employed in a mind-numbing job. She feels she has failed at love and life and wonders if she will die having lived a totally unremarkable life.

To her astonishment, Monique wins a multi-million dollar lottery. Her first indulgence satisfies a long-held passion for travel. Aboard cruise liner Sylph of the Seas she befriends, among others, an author and her grandson, a Scotland Yard Specialist; a Southern Belle; a down-to-earth redhead; and a devastatingly handsome Italian with more on his mind than a simple good time.

Monique finds Gian-Carlo Luchetti interesting but senses he hides secrets. Luchetti’s interest in her draws Monique into a scheme to steal a priceless maritime artifact from a museum in one of the liner’s ports-of-call.

Architect of the scheme, Charles Jenkins-aka Richard Rochester, believes Monique knows too much. He changes the plan, forces Luchetti to accompany him from the ship, and has Monique kidnapped.

In a game of wits, Monique and Gian-Carlo find a way to thwart Rochester and a surprise cohort and remain alive in the process, but not before other murders are committed and one man lies near death.

As Monique, Gian-Carlo, and Phillip Shaw work together to resolve the crimes, Monique begins to depend on Phillip and finds herself drawn to him. Ultimately, Monique’s wish for excitement brings her more than she ever anticipated.

Is there a forum post somewhere dealing with how to categorize your novel? Is it cheating to query an ambivalent novel under more than one genre? Just wondering because I always struggle with this myself.

jannawrites said:

So, what kind of fiction would something like this be? I don't ever know what my answer should be when people ask what I'm writing. Is it women's fiction? I'm leaning toward that over anything else, but I don't want it to mean a man will assume he can't read it.

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Might be romance, might be "women's fiction," and with a certain attitude, it might even be chicklit (which isn't all about shopping and diets).

But you also might have--the audience gasps in astonishment--a novel on your hands. A regular old mainstream novel.

There's a tendency now to put anything that involves people involved in ordinary life into "women's fiction" as a marketing ploy. Is Judith Guest's Ordinary People women's fiction? Is Larry McMurtry's Terms of Endearment? What about Anna Qundlan's brilliant One True Thing? Plenty of men bought, read, and admired these books.

I'm not sure you need to decide what it is until you have it finished. And meanwhile, when your friends ask what your book's about, tell them, "Life, death--you know, everything." Save your logline for when you're searching for an agent.

It depends on how it ends...but right now I'd vote for women's fiction.

When my agent offered representation she did not so much ask what genre my novel was but what AUTHORS' work it was similar to i.e. Sue Monk Kidd? Jackie Mitchard? Jody Picoult? Danielle Steele? Nora Roberts? Nicholas Sparks? (Add others here)
Between these (or others) you should be able to determine where yours fits and then see how they are marketed at bookstores and on Amazon. When in doubt call it mainstream and then when your beta readers read it let them decide.
Hope this helps

Add my vote for Mainstream.

It's not a historical. Not fantasy. Not sci-fi. Doesn't sound specifically like romance. Doesn't sound like you're shooting for literary. So I'd go with good ol' mainstream. Which is, in itself, a category.

Yes, mainstream is a category of its own, and nothing wrong with it.

ORION said:

When my agent offered representation she did not so much ask what genre my novel was but what AUTHORS' work it was similar to i.e. Sue Monk Kidd? Jackie Mitchard? Jody Picoult? Danielle Steele? Nora Roberts? Nicholas Sparks? (Add others here)
Between these (or others) you should be able to determine where yours fits and then see how they are marketed at bookstores and on Amazon. When in doubt call it mainstream and then when your beta readers read it let them decide.
Hope this helps

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Yikes, Pat, that scares me more than anything. I can put a genre label on mine fairly easily, but the thought that someone might ask me whose work it's similar to gives me the cold willies. I haven't a clue.

Janna, dare I say it, but you might have written literary fiction.

Janna--I don't think anyone would hate you. Just don't use the term "fiction novel" anywhere in your query.

I would also suggest you get the central conflict into your query. Revise that to read, very strongly suggest. Adjure. Exhort.

You get the idea.

I'll try. Literary fiction--and this is a personal definition--focuses on character above all. That doesn't mean it's plotless; far from it. I don't like plotless stories. But the characterization is what grabs you, and it's not just the situation in which the characters find themselves. I need to see their inner lives unfolding, and that's what holds me. Working in biographical facts or quirks isn't the same thing; I need to feel as if I'm inside that person's head or skin. I can know, for instance, that a character grew up the child of a corporation man who moved around a lot, and I'm ready to accept that the son's dream is to stay in one place. But I need to see that play out, preferably in a subtle way.

Notice I haven't said that the writing needs to be astounding. I love beautiful writing, but I can't stand self-conscious prose. I also can't stand sloppy prose.

Not that literary fiction has a lock on beautiful prose, deep characters, or characters with inner lives.

Does that help, Janna?

Frankly, so far, I haven't gotten a sense that this is literary fiction. And from what I've seen on some agent blogs, "literary fiction" doesn't sell as well as "mainstream."

For a definition or at least helpful discussion of "literary fiction," see this AW article: How to Create Literary Fiction



Disclaimer--I'm firmly aiming for literary fiction in my writing so I'm definitely not criticizing literary fiction. Just trying to be helpful.

*muffles her snicker* What are you looking at me for? Janna's a very charming young woman.