Harry Whitewolf's Blog - Posts Tagged "classification"
GENRE GRIPES
I'm one of those people that's bookish, but not overly bookish; if simply for the fact that life often throws curve balls at me, during which it is sometimes difficult to read amongst the chaos. But I digress already. My point for bringing it up is that I would have once been able to easily list the genres into which books are categorised, and before joining Goodreads, I thought I was still pretty much up to date with things. I knew about YA. Yeah, I was down with the Harry Potter kids. Hm, what I didn't realise was that the last ten years had just flown by in the blink of an eye and I was now digitally handicapped in a new author age.
Steampunk? What the hell is that? Dystopia's now a genre? What is the correct classification for all these goddamn vampire books? What the hell is the difference between New Adult and Young Adult? Isn't a new adult young by nature? What's the difference between Memoir and Autobiography? Does the latter have to be written by someone famous and the former by some wannabe writer describing their funny holiday to The Isle of Wight? Steampunk Romance, Western Historical Romance, Paranormal Romance... And Amish Fiction? Doesn't anyone see the irony of selling Amish literature on the internet? I mean, who the hell buys that?
Hm, at thirty eight years old, I am not up to speed. Not that I'm much interested in those genres anyway, but it would be good to think that, as an author, I knew about books.
So, with all the hundreds of genre choices available (just like shampoo, for instance), it's frustrating for me to be the author of books which are still pretty unclassifiable. Route Number 11 and The Road To Purification are in: Travel and Mind Body Spirit (which is confusing in itself, seeing as that term is correct in the U.K, whereas it's Body Mind Spirit in the U.S, and simply Spirituality on Goodreads). Equally, my work could be a Memoir, or perhaps, at a long shot, be included amongst Poetry. And yet, the whole of Route Number 11- a uniquely written, cut up, beat-like true story of travel, hedonism and spirituality which reads somewhat like fiction- remains unclassifiable. As an author attempting to find a target audience, this is in no way helpful.
Hopefully my books find the right readers amongst the blur of virtual bookshelf name tags, but, jeez, it's hard trying to promote oneself for such books as mine. But then I remember that it's those unclassifiable books that I've always loved the most. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, On The Road, Naked Lunch...
Though, if I'm ever to make any money out of this baring my soul, working like a madman activity of writing, perhaps I should just write 'The Vampires of Death Street' or 'Henry The Half Wizard' instead.
Steampunk? What the hell is that? Dystopia's now a genre? What is the correct classification for all these goddamn vampire books? What the hell is the difference between New Adult and Young Adult? Isn't a new adult young by nature? What's the difference between Memoir and Autobiography? Does the latter have to be written by someone famous and the former by some wannabe writer describing their funny holiday to The Isle of Wight? Steampunk Romance, Western Historical Romance, Paranormal Romance... And Amish Fiction? Doesn't anyone see the irony of selling Amish literature on the internet? I mean, who the hell buys that?
Hm, at thirty eight years old, I am not up to speed. Not that I'm much interested in those genres anyway, but it would be good to think that, as an author, I knew about books.
So, with all the hundreds of genre choices available (just like shampoo, for instance), it's frustrating for me to be the author of books which are still pretty unclassifiable. Route Number 11 and The Road To Purification are in: Travel and Mind Body Spirit (which is confusing in itself, seeing as that term is correct in the U.K, whereas it's Body Mind Spirit in the U.S, and simply Spirituality on Goodreads). Equally, my work could be a Memoir, or perhaps, at a long shot, be included amongst Poetry. And yet, the whole of Route Number 11- a uniquely written, cut up, beat-like true story of travel, hedonism and spirituality which reads somewhat like fiction- remains unclassifiable. As an author attempting to find a target audience, this is in no way helpful.
Hopefully my books find the right readers amongst the blur of virtual bookshelf name tags, but, jeez, it's hard trying to promote oneself for such books as mine. But then I remember that it's those unclassifiable books that I've always loved the most. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, On The Road, Naked Lunch...
Though, if I'm ever to make any money out of this baring my soul, working like a madman activity of writing, perhaps I should just write 'The Vampires of Death Street' or 'Henry The Half Wizard' instead.
