The moment I mention the impending
arrival of a new book, prospective readers ask, “What’s the genre?”
“Well, um…it’s hard to say,” I
respond, staring at my shoes, wondering why such a simple question has no
equally simple answer.
I have a tendency to write stories
without giving thought to where they might fit in literary culture. So
far, my titles have been variously listed as soft-thriller, contemporary
fiction, romantic suspense, historical fiction, women’s fiction, and young
adult fiction. So you can see why labeling my work tends to make my head spin.
Still, identifying a genre for your
novel is important.
A Light in the Desert is a
suspense novel.
“We use genre as a way to identify the
category of a book. Where it should be sold in a store. Or who its competition
will be,” long-time literary agent Steve Laub wrote in his blog article Does
Genre Matter? “The best way to describe it is to say that publishers and
booksellers sell books out of boxes. The boxes are labeled “Romance” “Thriller”
“Mystery” etc. Before we resist that exercise I would claim that we consumers
buy books out of those boxes. It is quite possible that the boxes were created
by us (the consumers).”
Wild Horses on the Salt has been called women’s fiction and suspense with a touch of romance.
There is some dispute about which English book should be
called the first novel. Some believe Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote of La Mancha, published in 1605,
deserves the honor. Others opine that Daniel Defoe’s 1719 Robinson Crusoe should get the nod. Either way,
neither author had to think too hard about genre.
“In 1719, when “Robinson Crusoe” appeared, many people
considered “the novel,” in itself, to be a genre,” said Joshua Rothman in
his The New Yorker article titled A Better Way to
Think About The Genre Debate. “The novel was a new thing—a long, fictitious,
drama-filled work of prose—and its competitors were other prose genres:
histories, biographies, political tracts, sermons, testimonies about travel to
far-off lands. What set the novel apart from those other prose genres was its
ostentatious fictitiousness.”
Clearly, modern-day authors can find
labeling their work infinitely more complicated than those early novelists.
Look at today’s overwhelming number of possible fiction genres. The Book
Industry Study Group’s list of fiction topics includes approximately 140
genres, all of which can be combined in what seems like a never-ending number
of possibilities.
The Scent of Rain was marketed as young-adult fiction.
I’ll admit, sometimes I’m jealous of
my romance-writer friends, their covers bursting with muscled torsos and
over-flowing bodices that leave not a hint of confusion about what type of
story resides inside. Still, as difficult as pinning down that perfect genre
might be, there’s no way around it, especially if you want to contact agents,
or publishers, or editors, or reviewers, because those folks are pretty
specific about the types of book they’re interested in. If you want to be
considered an amateur in the publishing world, go ahead and send a query about
your sci-fi, apocalyptic, young adult romance to someone who has made clear
their genre of choice is Regency historical fiction. (And you were
wondering why you hadn’t heard back.)
While some authors may be tempted to leave the genre
decision to others, remember you wrote the book. You know the story and the
characters better than anyone. Ultimately, you should choose. An article on the
blog Rock Your Writing called How To Figure Out Your Book’s Genre suggests you
consider, “who is the mostly likely to seek out this
particular type of book, buy this type
of book, and enjoy this type of book.”
While the decision on genre is yours,
it’s the reader we authors need to consider, because, as Laub pointed out, if
our “baby” is in the wrong box, maybe those readers won’t find it.
The Castle is contemporary women’s fiction/suspense
A reporter seeks
information on an eleventh century magician and discovers that black market
sales of antiquities can lead to murder.
In 1939, archaeologists
uncovered a tomb at the Northern Arizona site called Ridge Ruin. The man,
bedecked in fine turquoise jewelry and intricate beadwork, was surrounded by
wooden swords with handles carved into animal hooves and human hands. The Hopi workers
stepped back from the grave, knowing what the Moochiwimi sticks meant. This
man, buried nine-hundred years earlier, was a magician.
Former television journalist Kate Butler hangs on to her
investigative reporting career by writing freelance magazine articles. Her
research on The Magician shows he bore some European facial characteristics and
physical qualities that made him different from the people who buried him. Her
quest to discover The Magician’s origin carries her back to a time when the
high desert world was shattered by the birth of a volcano and into the
present-day dangers of archaeological looting where black-market sales of antiquities
can lead to murder.
This is my latest release. It’s Native American Literature and
U.S. Historical Fiction. Picking a genre definitely is not easy.
The past and present collide when a tenacious reporter seeks information on an eleventh century magician…and uncovers more than she bargained for.In 1939, archeologists uncovered a tomb at the Northern Arizona site called Ridge Ruin. The man, bedecked in fine turquoise jewelry and intricate bead work, was surrounded by wooden swords with handles carved into animal hooves and human hands. The Hopi workers stepped back from the grave, knowing what the Moochiwimi sticks meant. This man, buried nine hundred years earlier, was a magician.
Former television journalist Kate Butler hangs on to her investigative reporting career by writing freelance magazine articles. Her research on The Magician shows he bore some European facial characteristics and physical qualities that made him different from the people who buried him. Her quest to discover The Magician’s origin carries her back to a time when the high desert world was shattered by the birth of a volcano and into the present-day dangers of archeological looting where black market sales of antiquities can lead to murder.
Former television journalist Kate Butler hangs on to her investigative reporting career by writing freelance magazine articles. Her research on The Magician shows he bore some European facial characteristics and physical qualities that made him different from the people who buried him. Her quest to discover The Magician’s origin carries her back to a time when the high desert world was shattered by the birth of a volcano and into the present-day dangers of archaeological looting where black market sales of antiquities can lead to murder.
Anne Montgomery has worked as a television sportscaster, newspaper and magazine writer, teacher, amateur baseball umpire, and high school football referee. She worked at WRBL‐TV in Columbus, Georgia, WROC‐TV in Rochester, New York, KTSP‐TV in Phoenix, Arizona, ESPN in Bristol, Connecticut, where she anchored the Emmy and ACE award‐winning SportsCenter, and ASPN-TV as the studio host for the NBA’s Phoenix Suns. Montgomery has been a freelance and staff writer for six publications, writing sports, features, movie reviews, and archeological pieces.
When she can, Anne indulges in her passions: rock collecting, scuba diving, football refereeing, and playing her guitar.
Learn more about
Anne Montgomery on her
website and
Wikipedia. Stay connected on
Facebook,
Linkedin, and
Twitter.
Janis Lane is the pen-name for gifted author Emma Lane who writes cozy mysteries as Janis, Regency as Emma, and spice as Sunny Lane. 
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