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What's your biggest issue when choosing which genre to write in?
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I confess to searching by genre. Only occasionally I search for a specific book that someone has told me about.
Justin wrote: "Genres and categories are two different things IMO. You should write the genre your comfortable writing in and the issue tends to come after when your on AmazoJust to clan and you find out that while they hav..."Just to clarify, Justin, genres and categories do tend to be equivalent, certainly on Amazon, which uses "browse categories" that correspond to the BISAC Subject Headings List (also known as BISAC Subject Codes) for taxonomizing its books. Here's what they say:
"Browse categories are the sections of the Amazon site where customers can find your book. Think of browse categories like the sections of a physical bookstore (fiction, history, and so on). [Author's note: Umm, you mean genres?!]
During title setup, you'll select a BISAC (Book Industry Standards and Communications) code. The codes you choose, along with your selected keywords, are used to place your book into certain categories, or browse paths, on Amazon. After your book has an Amazon listing, your book's category will appear under the Product Details section of your listing. This will be the path a customer can follow to find your book."
Felix wrote: "I don't choose a genre - they choose me."From an artistic imperative perspective, Felix, I can appreciate how that would work well.
However from a marketing standpoint - i.e. to make a living from selling one's novels, while using a single author name (rather than multiple pseudonyms, which requires building a brand platform for each one, ugh!), I am curious as to how you see that playing out.
Something that just came to mind...Maybe you'd want to try Sherrilyn Kenyon's approach.
She made her fame as a paranormal romance writer, making loooooooooooong series, but in one of her latest books she said she had taken an interest in Native American mythology. So she wrote a Native American mythology story with a little bit of formulaic paranormal romance in it (only one short love scene, isn't that lame?) and put it as another book of one of her neverending PR series.
Sales-wise she's doing great, so it seems she could have the cake and eat it this way.
I'm aware of all of that but I still feel they are different because genres are direct and Amazon categories are selective and tend to be in a wide variety.
Haru wrote: "Something that just came to mind...Maybe you'd want to try Sherrilyn Kenyon's approach."Thanks for pointing that out, Haru. I wonder how Sherrilyn's devoted Paranormal Romance fans reacted halfway through reading her Native American mythology story, only to discover that they'd been, how shall I put it, served a less than expected portion of PR.
My view is, I write my stories "about something", and worry about the categories later. Unfortunately, they seldom fit into what most expect from a genre, but at the same time I keep hearing people say they want original stories. You can't be original if you are following a recipe :-) But then again, I guess I am not a best seller, so maybe my advice should be confined to the bin :-(
Ian wrote: "My view is, I write my stories "about something", and worry about the categories later. Unfortunately, they seldom fit into what most expect from a genre, but at the same time I keep hearing people..."I agree.
I had problems pinpointing the genre of the ms I'm getting ready for pub. Yesterday I talked to our local librarian who told me it should come under Women Studies (Well it was women something).
Mark: The novel's name is Time Untime (Dark Hunter #21) and I couldn't resist checking it out. The general rating is 4.11, but the reviews are a very mixed bag. A lot of people are like "I love this author so much and have followed her for so long", so maybe that's something to try when you got a large, faithful following.Ian: From my experience, people want something "original, but not too original" (reminds me of Lisa Simpson's phrase: "Rebellious... in a conformist sort of way"). They want something new but that it's somehow kinda similar to the things before.
Mark wrote: "Justin wrote: "Genres and categories are two different things IMO. You should write the genre your comfortable writing in and the issue tends to come after when your on AmazoJust to clan and you fi..."Thanks for the BISAC info and breakdown. Very helpful.
You should write whatever genre you want, enjoy and are good at writing in. It could be a good idea to look at categories on Amazon to get an idea of where your book could best be placed but I don't feel it should change what genre you should write in.
New writers often have problems with genre selection. Also true of authors who are not focused on marketing. I often see "well, it is ____________, but it also has romantic elements, and suspense, and..." and authors don't know how to categorize them or market them. Using the store aisles analogy that was used further up the thread, if you are an inventor and you are trying to sell a product in a store, you need to know what it is and what aisle it needs to go on. It can't be maybe sports and maybe pharmacy and maybe luggage. You need to know what it is you have created and what aisle it should appear on. You need to make sure that it meets buyer expectations, so they know where to look for it, and when they are browsing that area say "oh, yeah, I need one of those" instead of "what the heck is that and why is it on this aisle?"
Genre can be based on a lot of different things, reader age group (children/ya), time and place (historical fiction, regency, steam punk, dystopian, sci fi), central conflict (romance, mystery, suspense, thriller), belief system (clean romance, christian fiction, amish romance), aspects of the main character (age, genders, professional/amateur sleuth,) etc. Certain elements push it into one particular genre despite any other elements.
It is helpful if you know what the genre is before you start the book, and know what the reader expectations in that genre are. If you're writing a romance, there are different expectations than if you are writing women's fiction or erotica. If you are writing a whodunnit or cozy mystery, the expectations are different than if you're writing mystery/suspense or a thriller.
Trying to shoehorn it into a genre or subcategory after it is written or going back to rewrite in order to make it fit within a category is much harder than knowing what genre it is before you start.
Know what genre it is, write a logline, write a synopsis and back cover blurb before you even start the book, and it will be a lot more focused and marketable, and you'll be much closer to being able to publish when you finish writing it. That doesn't mean you have to pick genre fiction or follow every single reader trope. That doesn't mean you have to tell a different story than the one you were planning. It just means... it's easier if you know what you're doing before you start...
hmm, I'm not sure this advise above fits everyone. I struggle with the genre of my web series because it has multiple genres of equal standing. romance, fantasy, tall tale, and even a hint of the Chinese genre; wuxia. each hold a percentage over the book, non truly higher than the other. the only thing that hold precedence is the main character's scheming mind and hold over everyone's life, but that is not a genre. well, it is set in a time that could be scene as historical in a way even if it's not a real place and time, it bears resemblance to historical times here, so i went with historical fiction. can any one help?
Romance tends to be an element of most genres, so unless your central conflict is romance (boy and girl fight odds to get together, live happily ever after) then it is not romance. If the central conflict is to save the world, find the treasure, fight for the right, etc. it is not romance. If it has fantasy elements, then it is probably fantasy. You can't really insert fantasy elements into other genres without converting it to a fantasy. When I said "Certain elements push it into one particular genre despite any other elements" one of those elements is fantasy. You can't fight dragons in historical fiction or whodunnit.
Just bearing a resemblance to a historical time and place does not make it historical fiction. Historical fiction must accurately represent the real-world details of an actual time and place.
you have been great help. this made me go on wiki and find out every single hoe genre. I think I have narrowed it down according to your earlier post. epic fantasy is as close as it gets.
P.D. Workman (Pamela) wrote: "Using the store aisles analogy that was used further up the thread, if you are an inventor and you are trying to sell a product in a store, you need to know what it is and what aisle it needs to go on. It can't be maybe sports and maybe pharmacy and maybe luggage. You need to know what it is you have created and what aisle it should appear on." Note that this happens AFTER the inventor has made the thing. After they've worked out all the kinks and made sure it works the way they envisioned. After they've perfected the product. I don't think there was an electronics section in most stores a hundred years ago. But now those products have been invented and so the stores have made room for them.
P.D. Workman (Pamela) wrote: "You can't fight dragons in historical fiction or whodunnit.
Just bearing a resemblance to a historical time and place does not make it historical fiction. Historical fiction must accurately represent the real-world details of an actual time and place. "
Then there's HIstorical Fantasy. There are all kinds of subgenres that evolve over time as writers branch out. This is why most sales platforms let you pick several categories and add keywords and such.
Plus, stories evolve as we write them. Things come up and impose themselves that were never part of the plan. Authors abandon projects all the time for other, more compelling ones, or because the one they're trying to work on isn't working the way that they're trying to write them.
I don't agree that we should be too concerned with how to market a thing before it even exists.
Once it's there, once you can look at it and see the final product, that's the time to think about marketing and try to figure out who it appeals to and how to pull those readers in.
The writing part, the creative part, is an organic process and if you want to do it right, in my opinion, and have it resonate, then you need to let it develop naturally and let it be creative and leave the marketing concerns aside, just the same way many often advise that when it's time to publish and market and sell you need to leave your author hat behind and put on the business hat.
/2cents
I absolutely agree,Noor. Subgenres are added all the time. When I first published, paranormal and urban fantasy wasn't an available category on Amazon and now it's one of the biggest. Romantic is a modifier on nearly all genres, and romance has subcategories galore, so yes, it is very possible to have a romantic vs nonromantic story in another genre, which means it's possible to have that book in a romance subgenre as well. I've got a series that is sci-fi, technothriller, romance, and urban fantasy. It fits perfectly into every one of those categories without leaps in logic and that's how I market it. I'm not confused, nor am I a new author who just isn't sure. I'm simply making sure my books are available to everyone who might be interested in one of the key elements. It's worked fine so far.
I feel that the genre thriller/horror chose me. When I picked up a couple of books all those years ago, I had no idea what I was in for. Aged 10 or 11, I’d never heard of Stephen King or Virginia Andrews. The stories were obviously unlike anything I’d read at that age. I was mesmerised. It took me decades before I wrote my first novel, but for some, writing is about timing. To live, learn, and draw on the experience of whatever is thrown your way.
My first novel has so much anger, frustration, and rage. All drawn from feelings towards myself.
It’s hard to say I’ll never write something outside of my chosen genre as a story from within will choose to be told and leave me no choice but to tell it.
P.D. Workman (Pamela) wrote: "New writers often have problems with genre selection. Also true of authors who are not focused on marketing. I often see "well, it is ____________, but it also has romantic elements, and suspense, ..."I must applaud your detailed comment, P.D. You have really captured the essence of this discussion thread! Thank you for your multiple contributions.
From everything I am hearing in this thread, it's clear to me that genre selection - and categorizing of fiction - still poses a major problem from a marketing standpoint.
Continuing to work on one potential solution. :-)
Anyway, whatever genre we label our work has concrete implications for how searchable via keywords it is on Amazon (or similar platforms). May I ask, when you all search for books on Amazon, do you search using genre? Or a specific author/title?
Thanks!