Genre?????

What's it about?

Any genre can have romantic elements, so that doesn't really narrow it down.

Lots of people struggle with it.

Here is RWA's (Romance Writers of America) baseline definition of romance:

Two basic elements comprise every romance novel: a central love story and an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending.

A Central Love Story: The main plot centers around individuals falling in love and struggling to make the relationship work. A writer can include as many subplots as he/she wants as long as the love story is the main focus of the novel.

An Emotionally Satisfying and Optimistic Ending: In a romance, the lovers who risk and struggle for each other and their relationship are rewarded with emotional justice and unconditional love.

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Beyond that, the variables are endless. Without both, you don't have a romance. So that's a check-markable thing. If you meet the criteria, great, if not, then you have to drill harder. From what you've said, you're right, it's not romance.

So, there's Women's Fiction, which is generally oriented around a FMC's emotional journey, often with an important cast of love interest(s) and/or family and/or friends.

Past that, as Tazlima indicates, we'd have to know WAY more about what you have on your hands. It could be mystery, it could be mainstream, it could be thriller. For querying purposes, often stories combine/cross genres so nailing down one can feel stressful. You just have to try to pick the most representative. Nothing is written in stone. It's only so you can target the right agents and help them envision your book on the shelves. If you're SPing, you have a lot more latitude.

Is the book written? If not, unless you're hoping to get in on some category thing with really strict guidelines on how they're written, I wouldn't sweat it too much.

Don't sweat what to call it until it's done. Plenty of time to worry about this once you know the entire story and what threads form its tapestry.

What everyone else said. Unless you're setting out to write a romance (central romantic arc w/ a happy ending), there's no need to worry about genre until it's written. And even then, you may read through your first draft and decide you want to move the romance plot to center stage, or nix it altogether. The clay's going to stay wet for a while; no use in fretting about how you're going to glaze it just yet.

I'm having the same issue! I'm labeling it as women's fiction now. There's 2 pov, wife and husband. But the husband is dead and in purgatory so it could be kind of paranormal. Then the wife eventually falls in love and is saved by the husbands best friend. I have mystery, romance, paranormal...if one agent is accepting paranormal and another is only accepting women's fiction can you query both with different genres?

Fortunately there's a subgenre of romance called paranormal romance. I don't write this kind and I don't read in it much, so I'm no authority. A lot of it seems to be shapeshifters and were-animals and zombies and stuff of that nature that holds no interest for me. But yours might well be a paranormal. I'd decide, once your ready, on which way to pitch it and stick to that pitch. If a house/agent doesn't take anything but women's fiction, I'd give that party a miss and concentrate on those who crave paranormals. I'd rather have an agency or publisher that's 100% behind my genre than one that is "meh" about it and won't give your project as much support as it deserves.

Deb Kinnard said:

Fortunately there's a subgenre of romance called paranormal romance. I don't write this kind and I don't read in it much, so I'm no authority. A lot of it seems to be shapeshifters and were-animals and zombies and stuff of that nature that holds no interest for me. But yours might well be a paranormal. I'd decide, once your ready, on which way to pitch it and stick to that pitch. If a house/agent doesn't take anything but women's fiction, I'd give that party a miss and concentrate on those who crave paranormals. I'd rather have an agency or publisher that's 100% behind my genre than one that is "meh" about it and won't give your project as much support as it deserves.

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Thanks deb. I've found books similar to mine in women's fiction. This is because the character that's "dead" but narrarating one pov isnt in a romantic relationship with the mc. The other main character falls in love with a man that's alive. It sounds complicated but it's not.