Your Definitive Guide to Novel Genres

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Determining your book’s genre can be tricky — but knowing how to categorize and label your book is crucial if you want it to reach the right literary agents and readers. In this video, I’m going to break down the various genre terms and categories used in the publishing industry and provide a clear framework for determining the genre of your book.
 
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MORE WRITING AND PUBLISHING ADVICE:
 
HOW TO DETERMINE YOUR BOOK’S GENRE:
01:37 – Age category
03:49 – Setting  
04:36 – Prose style
07:34 – Most common fiction genres
10:23 – Your genre template
 
ABOUT ME: 
My name is Alyssa Matesic, and I’m a professional book editor with nearly a decade of book publishing and editorial experience. Throughout my career, I’ve held editorial roles across both sides of the publishing industry: Big Five publishing houses and literary agencies. The goal of this channel is to help writers throughout the book writing journey—whether you're working on your manuscript or you're looking for publishing advice.
 
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[Vvvvvvvvvssssssssssssss]

please make one for non fiction as well!!!

[wilshade]

Alyssa. The reference to "1976" as historical fiction was brutal. B-R-U-T-A-L. That means "Saturday Night Fever" & "Grease" are historical fiction. Not even my first Social Security check was that brutal.

[Lorna-JWB]

I needed this video so much. I spend much of my should-be-writing time trying to figure out my genre.

[jbos-]

Thanks Alyssa. Insightful and informative as always. I would love to hear your thoughts on non-fiction genres as well.

[notalltheories]

Super close to self-publishing my book which I now know is a "new adult upmarket fantasy" Great video and perfect timing!

[StevenMathews-tzto]

Worthwhile discussion. Heel these coming. Currently working on a SciFi Romance.

[TheEccentricRaven]

Great overview. I especially like the explanation on the differences between Literary and Upmarket fiction. My WIP is YA Dystopia. One tip I would give to writers is be sure to research and read the genre and subgenre you're writing. I've seen many writers on social media believe that their book is non-categorizable or can't be put in any genre, when doing a little search on Google or Goodreads would reveal there's actually already a lot of books in their subgenre, both traditionally published and self-published.

[csbnm]

The genre doesn't exclude the possibility of romance/relationships, just that in non-romance genres it is not the overarching theme. In keeping with the amazing breakdown, just stating the perhaps not-so-obvious obvious.

[pramjam]

My novel is a historical, philosophical thriller. A number of writing colleagues have asked, "Who's your audience?" I have no idea, but I continue to write.

[marcomagiolo]

Amazing video. Thanks
And your newsletter is very very good too. It is worth every cent

[brandonparsons]

Ive been working on a Sci-fi/Fantasy novel for a year and a half at this point(years in the think tank). It’s sort of a blend of many genres but weaves together very well in the context of this universe! Hopefully you get a chance to see it one day as your videos have been extremely helpful throughout my writing process.

[Gene]

Automotive. I'm doing a collection of short stories that all revolve around owners' life moment while owning a pickup truck or yearning to own one. Most books do the cliche of the moments of building or restoring the pickup but not the experiences that happen during the rest of that friendship.

[maggiepfob]

Thank you SO MUCH for this, Alyssa! It really does break it down in a way that makes it clear to me, instead of having to fiddle with all those micro-subgenres, which change every day anyway. That helps to narrow down the list of potential agents, anyway! After that, for the finer divisions, the only real key is to read the agent's bio and wish list.

[melissamartinez]

Thank you for this! I've just finished a manuscript that crosses into elements of multiple genres and I've been having an awful time trying to nail down my main genre for the query letter. This helped tremendously!

[y.t]

The more I watch your videos, the more eager I am to read a book from you 😆 I mean, why not? You could write a guide book on book publishing 😆

[shelisadaniel]

Thank you so much! I now know I have written a contemporary, adult (new adult), upmarket women's novel. ❤

[ghostchick]

I am glad you separated mystery and thriller. They always get rammed together and that is annoying.

[larssjostrom]

A video about non-fiction genres would be interesting.

[tdd]

And folks, literary books can (and often do) have elements of commercial genres. Example: The Road by Cormac McCarthy won the Pulitzer. It's apocalyptic and speculative (sci fi without diverging far from reality), but it's generally labeled literary and literary alone. Another one of his novels, No Country for Old Men, is also literary, whereas the film which very closely adapted his book is labeled a thriller.

[dear_prudence]

Alyssa, thanks a lot. I think I've pinned it down to Adult Southern Gothic/Horror with historical elements LOL... a mouthful, surely.