Be Your Own Genre

Okay, I'll admit it. I got hung up. Look, I've touched this subject before and I'm going to revisit it because, well, why not? It's still pertinent. At least that's what I think. Here's the thing. I have this novel I'm working on. A sequel to--get this--the original. I'm telling you, when I finished the original I didn't know it was a horror novel. Swear to everything, I didn't know. However, several beta readers and plenty of reviews have since convinced me that I in fact wrote a horror novel.

One might ask the obvious question--how could you not know you wrote a horror novel. I'll tell you how right now. It's because I didn't write a horror novel. Just because it might be scary or heavily bloody and violent doesn't mean it's a horror novel. Or to quote Fight Club. "Sticking feathers up your ass does not make you a chicken."

In other words there are horror elements but it's not horror. It has thriller elements but it's not a thriller. There's even a few moments when boy meets girl and girl notices boy and I'll tell you right now, this is no romance. Not even close. All the main characters are barely eighteen and, man, this is not a young adult novel. God no. It's just not.

But I got hung up. I've been trying to push this bad boy as a horror novel, looking to dial in on my "audience". Yes, I put audience in quotes because it's not like I'm moving these books uncontrollably. I'ts not an audience I have; there're just people reading it. Let's keep it simple why don't we.

I was even told it was science fiction. I believed it too. There are aliens and spaceships and so by all means I added the sci-fi label. Now, I'm not saying it's not sci-fi. But enough of what it's not. In a minute we'll talk about what it is.

Here's the point. We were told by plenty of seasoned and wise people, publishers, agents fellow writers and even readers that a person needs to identify their audience. Some will go as far as to say you should write for a specific audience. Others will go as far as to say that if you don't have an audience in mind then you're making a big mistake. Well, here goes my mistake laid out for everyone to see, then.

My newest novel is a sci-fi/horror mystery with a partial J.D. Salinger narrative paying tribute to Vonnegut. You can find that section anywhere in a defunct Borders Books and Music and somewhere where no one is looking at any Barnes and Noble, and if you google this genre, one wrong word will probably take you to a porn site. I truly hope I'm wrong but I'll sell more books if I'm right, unfortunately.

The point is we have to stick out and be original. Is it cliche to say this? Yes. Do people want to be original? For the most part, no. Because how are you going to market yourself? You going to invent a market? The answer should be yes. But like I said. I got hung up. I tried to fit my key into somebody elses keyhole to open a door to a room that is full.

So here's the name of my genre: sciller-horrornneguttery. Yep, read it and weep. This will adequately fulfill most of the elements I mentioned above. Sciller-horrornneguttery. So, I guess, you can even call this blog post that. Sciller-horrornneguttery. This is the genre and my audience for my newest novel In Blackness. $16 and change as a paper book and $2.99 in its electronic glory.
In Blackness