Finding the Genre of Your Novel

"My novel will appeal to everyone," the young writer exclaims. "There's a murder in it, so crime fiction readers will love it. The hero has a girlfriend, so there's romance. There's time travel, elves and vampires, so I've got science fiction, fantasy and horror covered. The hero's sidekick is a lesbian tap-dance instructor, so it's lesbian fiction. And the killer turns out to be a born again Christian, so it'll appeal to the Christian fiction market! How could I lose?"

But the writer in the above paragraph will lose, and lose big, because he doesn't yet understand genre and how it is used in the marketing of books. A genre is a category of writing. In a bookstore, major genres have their own section--- there is a romance section, a mystery section, a science fiction and fantasy section, and others. Readers know that the section devoted to their favorite genre is a good place to go to find a book similar to the books they have read and enjoyed in the past.

Book publishers use genres to sell more books, and use the profits to pay their writers. They know that genre readers are loyal. This means that a mystery reader will be willing to buy a book from an unknown author, as long as it is a mystery. The same holds true for romance readers, science fiction readers, and so on.

Mainstream fiction is fiction that is not in one of the traditional genres. Literary fiction is a subgroup of mainstream fiction. These two kinds of fiction are shelved in the general fiction section of the bookstore. They don't usually sell as well as genre fiction, unless they are written by authors who frequently make the best-seller list.

In The Career Novelist by literary agent Donald Maass, the author points out that there is no such thing as loyal mainstream fiction fans. In mainstream fiction, each novelist is a genre-unto-himself, and this makes mainstream even harder to write , and to sell books, than the traditional genres.

So--- genre is important. But how do you tell which genre fits your novel? It's sometimes hard to be objective about your own work. Perhaps it is best to start by looking at other people's fiction. How do you know whether the book you just read is a mystery, a romance, or science fiction, other than by looking at the cover?

A romance novel is not just a story which contains a love relationship, but a story that is centered around the love relationship. A mystery is not just a story in which a crime happens, but one in which the crime and its solution is central to the story. In speculative fiction, things not part of our normal life are central to the story. If those things are future scientific inventions or invading aliens, it is science fiction. If it is elves and magic, it is traditional fantasy. If it's a scary supernatural monster that eats people, it might be considered horror, or else be classified as dark fantasy.

Looking at your current writing project, ask yourself which genre theme is most important to your story--- the romance, the crime, the science fiction element. If you are still unsure, read a number of books in different genres to decide which genre your book fits best. It is likely to be a genre that you enjoy reading.

What about the crossover novel? There are mysteries set on future space stations or romance involving time travel. Publishers dislike crossovers, since it is difficult to decide where to shelve them, and they are popular only with those who enjoy both of the genres involved. It's better for the beginning writer to emphasize one genre and minimize the other to keep the novel within a single genre.

In addition to the traditional genres like mystery or romance, there is another type of genre, the identity genre. One example is that of Christian fiction. There are Christian publishers who publisher Christian novels in various genres--- Christian romances, Christian mysteries, even Christian science fiction. Christian fans enjoy it because in addition to being able to read their favorite genre, they can read about characters that are like themselves in one important way. Another similar example is Gay and Lesbian fiction, published by a few specialty publishers, which also is available in different genres such as mystery and romance.

These two are the only two identity genres which have their own sections in bookstores, but in an informal way there are many others. For example, people of the Wiccan and Neopagan religions often share names of books which have positive characters of their faith, or of writers likely to write such books. An identity genre, whether formal or informal, can gain the writer some loyal readers, but it can alienate others if the writer is not careful.

The genre decision is one of the most important decisions the young writer will make. The most successful writers are genre writers, and picking the genre that works best for you is important to making a career out of being a writer.

References:

Genre fiction: Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genre_fiction

Maass, Donald - The Career Novelist - Heinemann 1996

Block, Lawrence - Writing the Novel - Writer's Digest Books 1979