Saturday, December 10, 2016

Genre- How do You Decide?


I’ve got a book almost ready to publish. I’m almost ready to send it to my proof reader and get a cover.

I started to think about marketing. What genre do I put the book in?
I write romantic suspense. Some are western and other’s PI and detective. This one is a medical about cloning. It’s setting is a hospital. The cloning is designer children, and cloning for body part’s. There’s suspense, but I’m wondering if this fits into a sci-fi category. I don’t write sci-fi but this seems a little in that direction.

So when I market it – what do I say? I checked out Wikipedia and here’s some of the genres they define.
          Classic – fiction that has become part of an accepted literary canon, widely taught in schools
  • Crime/detective – fiction about a crime, how the criminal gets caught, and the repercussions of the crime
  • Fantasy – fiction with strange or otherworldly settings or characters; fiction which invites suspension of reality
  • Historical fiction – story with fictional characters and events in a historical setting
  • Horror – fiction in which events evoke a feeling of dread and sometimes fear in both the characters and the reader
  • Mystery – this is fiction dealing with the solution of a crime or the unraveling of secrets
  • Science fiction – story based on impact of actual, imagined, or potential science, usually set in the future or on other planets
  • Short story – fiction of such brevity that it supports no subplots
  • Suspense/thriller – fiction about harm about to befall a person or group and the attempts made to evade the harm
  • Western  – set in the American Old West frontier and typically set in the late eighteenth to late nineteenth century
If you write a straight romance, or western it’s easy, but what if you cross genres, how do you decide where your book works?
 

10 comments:

  1. Oh boy, do I share this conundrum with you! I also cross genres, Romantic suspense/paranormal. But Paranormal readers often expect vampires or shape shifter type stories, so to be safe I call mine Romantic Suspense with a light paranormal thread.

    For the book you describe, and based on these descriptions, I'd call it a romantic thriller because "harm about to befall a person or group and the attempts made to evade the harm."

    I wouldn't go Sci-Fi because of this portion of the description "usually set in the future or on other planets"

    good luck!

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    1. Thanks Kathryn. That helps. I was afraid to use thriller because I didn't want to disappoint someone looking for thrillers, but people do die and everyone is at risk.
      I think I'll use thriller and see how it works.

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  2. I also go through this when I publish. Mine have a bit of supernatural mixed in with Romantic Suspense. I find that I enjoy writing in cross genres but not when it comes to marketing.

    Best Wishes!

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    1. Thanks Kate. I agree the writing part is fun but the labeling for marketing is a challenge.

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  3. This is why genres are so limiting. People love stories based on the blurb and cover... it's not always about the genre!

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    1. Hmm, good point, especially about genres being so limiting. I'll work on the blurb.

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  4. I would definitely say that this is more of a medical thriller or a sci-fi story than anything. I cross genres a lot but most of my stories have their main origins in a specific genre. I write what I was calling Urban Fantasy but now find out it's more like supernatural because they are taking care of those type of critters. Makes me wonder if Supernatural Fantasy isn't becoming a genre.

    Genres are limiting and it's hard sometimes to get to the right one. I think that's why when you pick those categories as key terms you'll discover somewhere down the line, they don't match any more.

    I do agree with Melissa though...sometimes it isn't about the genre at all...great covers and blurbs plus word-of-mouth should be enough to get stories in front of new readers.

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    1. thanks, Lynn. I think I am going to go with Medical Thriller.
      And I agree with you and a few others. The traditional genres are limiting, but from people's comments, I'm thinking maybe because of self publishing genres are changing and expanding -like Supernatural Fantasy.

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  5. Sounds like science fiction, however with the way science keeps improving you could call it medical thriller. There's also speculative fiction that you could use.

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  6. You've got me on that one, Janice. I don't know speculative fiction. What's the definition of that one?

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