Guide to What your Genre Is?

What does it seem like to you? Out of the books you have read, which does it match?

I think horror, mystery, Western, etc. are pretty self-explanatory.

No. You're not the only one. I first classified my WIP as Young Adult. My first beta reader read the first chapter and said, "This sounds like an adult narrator telling a story about a teenager, I thought it would read younger."

I'm no longer classifying it as Young Adult. I'm leaning toward Mainstream/Contemporary or Literary, but I'm not sure if I want to go so far as Literary, or even what qualifies as Literary now, because the recent books I read that were classified as Literary were definitely not.

I wouldn't know how to write a novel unless I knew exactly what genre I wanted it to be, and made it so as I wrote it. The ability to do this is crucial. It's one thing to not be sure of your genre with a first novel, or with any novel before you sell one, but from that point on you really need to be able write within a given genre. When a publisher buys a book within a given genre, they really expect more of the same, and your contract will be based largely on this.

This doesn't mean you can't write in more than one genre, but it does mean you have to be able to intentionally write a book that falls within a given genre. It saves a lot of headaches, heartaches, and time, if you do this right from the beginning.

Yeah, it's my first novel, so the least of my problems is figuring out the genre at the moment, but I also know that not knowing/deciding on a genre is not helping my situation either. The beta reader mentioned above actually passed on reading it after the first chapter (which I totally understood).

But I figure it's better to get this stuff worked out now, before I start querying agents. My guess is, is that if you seem unsure of your work, it'll be apparent in the pitch.

Jamesaritchie said:

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This doesn't mean you can't write in more than one genre, but it does mean you have to be able to intentionally write a book that falls within a given genre. It saves a lot of headaches, heartaches, and time, if you do this right from the beginning.

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This is important. You don't want to be genre shifting once you get that first book published.

Nicholas Sparks turning in a horror novel wouldn't go great, I wouldn't think.

Edit: It sounds to me like you are overthinking your genre a bit, too. And make sure that you only listen to beta readers if they all are saying the same things (or most of them are). Don't go getting in a tizzy over genre if one guy says something.

I don't know that I'd say you can't-- but my understanding is that when people pay for something they are going to want more of the same.

It's the same reason all Cokes are the same flavor. If you bought a bottle of Coke and it tasted like Dr. Pepper it would be off-putting.

Yes, you can. But you might want to consider using pen names to separate them.

I think that is the usual solution, now that I think of it. Like Harry Turtledove does alternate history under his own name and straight up historical fiction under a pen name.

Related discussion here:

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=302955

caw

Also, YA is not a genre. It's a category.

Aggy B. said:

Also, YA is not a genre. It's a category.

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That's right. YA can be any genre--it's just written for/from a young adult perspective.

Yep, YA is an age demographic, not a genre. And while a YA novel is expected to have a junior high or high school aged protagonist, pov, perspective, emphasis, and voice are also important in determining whether it's actually YA, or simply an adult novel with a teenaged main character. It's particularly confusing, because the concept of books being narrowly focused on one age group and the approach to writing for teens has changed in recent years, especially in genre fiction. So some older books written in a more omniscient or "adult" feeling first person pov with teen (or even adult) protagonists are cross-shelved in YA by some bookstores and libraries.

And even among actual genres, there can be areas of crossover and confusion. And once you get into subgenres, it can get really sticky. Is a book heroic fantasy, or S&S? Is it epic or high? Military? Gunpowder? Manners? Can it be more than one of the above? How about none of the above? And how much emphasis does a romantic arc need before it becomes a "romantic fantasy" and gets a cover with a lot of pink on it, instead of a normal fantasy with a dark, broody dude/dudette in a cloak?

Fans sometimes get worked up over discussing where something falls too. Hard vs soft SF, as if it weren't a continuum. Debates over whether a lot of what's being marketed as UF these days is *really* PNR. Horror or paranormal or dark fantasy?

Gaaah.

It's not always about the elements present, since magic and supernatural beings can be present in fantasy, horror, paranormal, magical realism, or even historical novels sometimes. It's often down to the nature of the story and the emphasis on or role played by a given element in the story.

Roxxsmom said:

Yep, YA is an age demographic, not a genre.

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True, but it's still a box, within the boundaries of which an interested publisher expects your manuscript to fit, if it's to be accepted.

caw

Definitely, and with modern YA, if the voice, perspective, and pov don't fit the mold, it likely won't be considered YA, even if it's a coming of age story with a teen protagonist.

blacbird said:

True, but it's still a box, within the boundaries of which an interested publisher expects your manuscript to fit, if it's to be accepted.

caw

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Yes. But if an editor or agent were to ask "What genre is your novel?" and you said "It's YA," they would think you don't know much about the industry or your own book.

ETA: I mean that as a general "you". But it seemed that at least one of the folks upthread was not making the distinction.

Aggy B. said:

Yes. But if an editor or agent were to ask "What genre is your novel?" and you said "It's YA," they would think you don't know much about the industry or your own book.

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The latter would be my fear, but I guess not knowing the business would probably make me look bad too. Which is why I'm here trying to learn as much as possible.

I guess I should have clarified that I originally classified the WIP as Young Adult Contemporary. But after reading a few YA novels, and based on some of the feedback I've been getting, I don't feel like it even fits in the category, let alone narrowing it down to a genre within the category.

Sorry for hijacking your thread Mr. Mask.

My first novel has been the hardest to classify, especially back when I was querying on it (over 150 rejections!). On its surface, it seems to be a crime-thriller, but its core story is a love story (like the 90s version Romeo & Juliet movie, only one sides cops and the other a drug distribution syndicate). I can't call it a romance because, while it satisfies most to all of the criteria, it lacks the standard atmosphere of a romance. It has a good bit of action, but it starts pretty slowly for one. I wanted to call it a romantic crime-thriller, but that just sounds like I don't know what I'm talking about. I really just don't know.

Mr. Mask said:

Publius: Oh, nothing to worry about. This discussion is pretty interesting.


I do wonder about one pen name per genre. I want to write a variety of stories under the same pen name.

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Well, plenty of people write multiple genres while keeping the same name - Stephen King, for one, and Neil Gaiman uses his name for his grown-up stuff and his picture books, and they seem to be doing okay for themselves. It's not a rule, that you need a pen name for each genre you venture into. Some readers, especially SF/F readers, are quite willing to follow you wherever you go; others will simply not read books in genres they don't enjoy, but are hardly likely to hold it against you. (At least, I've never heard of a readership abandoning an author altogether for trying something new; Harry Potter still does pretty good, even after Rowling moved on to other things.) From a branding standpoint, though, separating things out makes sense. Especially if you write, say, hardcore vampire erotica and religious picture books; you're not likely to get much crossover - at least, crossover that's willing to admit it's crossing over - so it would make sense to use a different name for the genres.

Oh dear, whatever happened to the "If you write something good, it will get published" sentiment so often expressed here at AW?

caw

I wrote a story for a horror short-fiction contest a few years ago, and recently realized that it is actually Magical Realism (which I did't know about before.)