I know a lot of those who use this site are either fantasy or literary fiction, but I wondered if there were any of you struggling to pin your book(s) down to just one catagory. I know I have to before submission, but I find the catagories limiting. It's not just a romance or women's fiction and it certainly isn't chick lit. (I have nothing against chick lit and have written one of those too, but this one just isn't.) I think mainstream is the best way to describe it and offers it to the full audience it caters for, but that's not really a catagory. I noticed someone earlier call their book 'travel fiction'. I could tick that box too, but it's not best described that way. When I do describe it, I call it 'The story of a man with both physical and mental ilness who refused to go to the doctor.' The series of five books covers every area of his strange life. How do I pigeonhole that? - saga?
Susanne, I think you could broadly term that romance and that's the section it would fit best in in a bookshop, but if you were kindle publishing you would be able to add keywords to aid searchers, such as travel.
I'm in the same situation with a draft I have. with regards to genre. It verges in the genre of
chick-lit but with a more down to earth working class element to it. It is also set between Australia and the UK, with the main characters meeting each other while backpacking.
Any ideas?
Thanks
Susanne
Thanks Louise. I was hoping to provoke that discussion too, but also asked the question about my own work quite genuinely.
Katie-Ellen, my course tutor, a novelist called Lynne Barratt-Lee (who is currently doing very well as a ghost for those writing misery memoirs but still finds the time to teach two excellent short courses at the Uni of Cardiff - quick plug for her!) was the one who convinced me of the importance of tailoring your work to a specific market and identifiable genre, but I do wonder if the idea of genre to sell books is changing with publishing in this new era of Amazon dominance.
I noted the other night when I checked the genres listed, the website brings up several of the same books under differing umbrella subjects. It is probably their popularity that has put them there, rather than their publisher, agent or their suitability to the catagory. Or possibly it is their enrollment in KDP select or other services Amazon offers to boost an author's sales. Either way, it is possible that the role of genre in marketing is at least being watered down and that to call something mainstream fiction is now sufficient.
Phil, there are quite enough of the 'hard-boiled' variety of thriller so yours gets my vote. I like to relax when I read, but be intrigued.