30 Days of Writing and Publishing Tips – Day 2

This tip may seem obvious to some but I didn’t know it back when I was querying, so I’m including it here. If you are an unpublished writer seeking traditional publication, make sure your story fits its genre expectations, especially if you are trying to publish middle grade or young adult fiction. When you query your story, agents and editors want to know how they can sell it. You’ll have much better results if you can describe it as a particular genre and have a story that actually fits that genre.

I’ve had a few unpublished writers of adult fiction tell me their story is unique and can’t fit into a category. This is when I gently try to explain that they never want to say this to an agent or editor. “Unique” translates into “I think I am a special snowflake and the most amazing writer ever” which also translates into “I may possibly be a diva who won’t work well with an editor.”

Here’s a picture of a diva cat just because I like cat pictures:[image error]

I’ll list genres below, but first the following pictures are something I used to use when I taught landscape design, I’d show my students this first picture and ask if they could guess who painted it:

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Then I’d show them this picture:

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Yes, both were painted by Picasso. Picasso painted the first one when he was about 15 and learning his craft. The point of showing those pictures was to impress on students that even great creative people worked hard at learning the basics. One of those basics in writing to publish is understanding genres.

I want to list possible genres just in case you haven’t already put your story into one. Start with a time period: Contemporary, Historical, Alternative history, Science Fiction-meaning future time period, or Fantasy-meaning you have created a time period in that world.

Once you have that pinned down, add additional descriptions: Mystery, Magical realism, literary, space opera, near future, dystopian, thriller, outdoor adventure, suspense, horror, romance, paranormal, urban fantasy.

Most of these genres have some clear elements that need to be there. One of the most important is if you label something as a romance, it’s going to need to have romance as the main focus, not, for example, a subplot to a murder mystery, and it’s going to need to either a happily ever after ending (HEA), or a happily for now ending (HFN). The HFN ending is common in young adult fiction because we don’t have 18-year-olds getting married and planning to spend the rest of their lives together in most stories.

Therefore, if your story has romance in it but romance is not the main focus, don’t label it as one. You don’t want an agent rejecting you because they expected a romance and you didn’t give them one. Just call it a contemporary, historical, or whatever, and within the description of the story talk about the romance element.

Deciding if a story is horror or a paranormal can be a little more difficult. Things I might label as horror because I’m a big wimp are often not actually horror, If you think that’s what you are writing, make sure you’ve read other books in that genre that have been published in the last five years. One horrific scene will not make it horror.

If you label your story as a mystery, make sure it has the elements of a traditional mystery: a crime, someone who is trying to solve the crime/find the culprit, a series of clues and enough suspects with possible motives to keep the reader guessing. If your story doesn’t have all these elements but includes a crime and someone who wants to know who did it and is in danger, it may better fit the suspense category.

The literary category is one of the hardest to define. People argue over the definition all the time and I don’t want to fall into that trap. I have never published literary fiction though I do have an unpublished story I consider that fits in that category. It focuses less on plot and more on the main character as a coming of age type story, so that in the end the character better understands the world around her. If your story doesn’t fit in one of the obvious categories above, think about whether or not it might be called literary fiction. I am not qualified to write a whole long essay on literary fiction but I found this link useful.

https://nybookeditors.com/2018/07/what-is-literary-fiction/

So to sum up, it’s too easy to spend a lot of effort on a story and when you finish it, have something that may be well written, but too difficult to sell. Don’t let all your hours of work go to waste.

And since I’m writing these posts because the third book in my sci fi series is out now, here’s a pretty picture of them:

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If you missed the Day 1 tip, it’s here: https://deegarretson.wordpress.com/2019/08/07/30-days-of-writing-and-publishing-tips-day-1/