Choosing a Genre for Your Self-Published Book with M.H. Mead

For some authors, genre is obvious. Their book is a cozy mystery, or a historical romance, or a space opera. Not everyone writes in tidy categories, though, which brings in the problem of selecting a spot for it in the bookstore (even digital stores have categories for organizing ebooks) and writing a blurb that lets people know what they'll be getting. Nobody's out there searching for "cross-genre" stories. So, as independent authors who must wear the hats of publishers and marketers as well, what do we do?

Today we have a guest poster, actually a writing team, Harry Campion and Margaret Yang, to mull on this topic for us:

Will the real genre please stand up?

Like most writers, we read a lot. Like most readers, we read some of everything, from mystery to fantasy to YA. But the books that really get our hearts thumping and our brains twirling are books about the near future. We love picturing life in the decades to come. We love imagining how current technology will change, and how society will change because of it. We love thinking about the kinds of characters who will live in that world.

So, naturally, our first novel, FATE'S MIRROR, is about a super hacker in the year 2043. THE CALINE CONSPIRACY, set in the same time period, is about a private investigator trying to save a genetically engineered dog accused of killing its owner. Our books look forward to the future. In a way they also look backward, to classics by Neal Stephenson, William Gibson, and Bruce Sterling. But they're very contemporary books, with the pacing of a modern-day thriller.

So what genre are they? What are we supposed to call them? We once had a famous New York agent. He spent a couple of  fruitless years submitting our manuscripts to traditional publishers. We saw the rejection letters—all of them from top-notch editors. The science fiction editors said our books "weren't science fiction enough" and the mystery/thriller editors said "we don't publish science fiction."

But here's the funny thing. Readers don't care. They want a good story, well told. They understand that genre is a marketing label that helps publishers and bookstores, but has very little to do with what interests the reader. We don't know anyone who exclusively reads a single genre and we bet you don't either. And when genres blend, we like it even more.

Once we became independent authors, the most unlikely demographic found our books. Our novels cross age and gender lines, but do especially well with college-educated women in generation X. Nobody knew how to market a thriller/science fiction mashup to them, but it didn't matter. Thanks to the way indie books are sold directly to readers, the people who like our kind of books could now find them. Our readers decide for themselves what to call our books when recommending them to friends—some say sci-fi, some say cyberpunk, and some even call them technological mythology.

So, what do we call FATE'S MIRROR and THE CALINE CONSPIRACY? Sometimes we say they are "Science fiction for people who read thrillers." Sometimes we say, "They are near-future adventures." Mostly, we say, "It's a book we wrote about a hacker who saves the world" or "It's a book about a genetically engineered pet who may or may not have killed its owner." The reader doesn't really want to know what kind of book it is. He wants to know if it sounds like a book he'll enjoy reading.

If you have to slap a label on it, this is the book I would like is the very best genre label of all.

Bio:

M. H. Mead is the shared pen name of Margaret Yang and Harry R. Campion.

Margaret Yang is a writer and parent who lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She loves living in the modern age, and can't wait for the day when she has her own flying car. Although parenting, writing and reading fill her days, her true mission in life is to find the perfect slice of key lime pie.

Harry R. Campion is a writer, teacher, and parent who lives in Harper Woods, Michigan. He and his librarian wife are doing their part to bring up the next generation of readers. In addition to reading and writing, Harry's favorite activity is camping in remote areas, especially when he has a canoe and a river to explore.

Margaret and Harry have been friends and co-authors for many years. To learn more about them, or to read more of their stories, visit www.yangandcampion.com.

Check out the books at Smashwords, Amazon, or Barnes & Noble.

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