Defining Genre

Literary agents Jessica and James define what book genres are and how they are used in the industry to market books, and discuss the difference between the upmarket, literary, and commercial book categories.

Mentioned in the video:

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Jessica Faust’s love for books is what first brought her to open BookEnds Literary Agency. It is her desire to be an advocate for all authors that pushed her to create her blog, the BookEnds YouTube channel and to maintain a vibrant presence on Twitter.

Jessica is proud to have grown BookEnds to an agency that represents authors of all genres for children and adults, allowing her to reach more readers and help more authors and illustrators achieve their dreams.
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James McGowan is a Literary Agent at BookEnds and writer for children. He began working with the agency as an intern in the summer of 2015, and basically never left. He represents a talented group of authors and illustrators working in everything from board books to middle grade graphic novels. He also works in adult nonfiction, and adult mystery and suspense projects. James is the author of GOOD NIGHT OPPY, which is available now.

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[portiawrites]

I once heard someone describe the difference between literary/commercial fiction as the difference between stained glass (beautiful to look at, sometimes challenging to see through) and a picture window (clear glass lets you see the story easily).

[lisakaufman]

Jessica 's comment about the vision of the house for book marketing is the rub regarding issues with genre! If you only take in one sentence, this is everything! You should've seen me working this over in my head! TY

[AJ_Dunn]

International Thriller Writers (of which I am a member) clearly defines mystery, "thriller, " suspense, and horror. They clearly state on their website that mystery involves the uncovering of a crime by a single person, usually a detective who follows clues. A thriller is not that, but builds fear, suspense and dread of a future crime. Which is why horror is included in the thriller umbrella. There are sub-categories of thrillers: psychological, crime, action, political, legal, mystery, spy, science fiction, supernatural, paranormal, etc. I hope that's helpful for anyone interested in writing those genres.

[jaybe]

Thank you for another great video. My understanding ([please] correct me if I'm wrong) is that if an agent wants MG/YA, they will represent (and therefore accept queries from) any genre under those umbrellas, even if they do not represent fantasy/sci-fi etc.. in adult fiction. Unless (ofc) they specifically mention that they do not accept MG/YA fantasy etc...

Would love to hear some stories about things that new clients (after accepting your representation) did that surprised you (both good and bad) and/or made you change the way you see things. Thank you for genuinely helping others through times that seem so stressful and helping us all stay positive. ❤

[Keepitkind]

QUESTION FOR JESSICA AND JAMES: For authors of both an adult upmarket novel AND several children's picture books (and illustrator), how would you advise on querying an agent?—one who represents both? Or?

[unusualintrests]

Thank you so much. This does help alot. I was confused on how to pitch my book. But helped break it down. Young adult/ middle grade/ picture book/ adult is who your aiming to sell it to. Then what is the primary genre. What does it seem to say put me here in a bookstore. And then its the writing type. Like the manuscript I'm trying to pitch now is commercial/upmarket young adult fantasy

[clintoreilly]

Great help. I have no idea of what I'm doing but writing. Lots to learn, I guess. Thanks.

[susanmatley]

A helpful and nuanced conversation. Thank you!

[maggiepfob]

Wait, what? Did I hear you say "Literary Fantasy"? I'm breaking my brain but the only Fantasy I can think of that I would consider Literary is Lord of the Rings. Everything after that is commercial (and I know, because I read every word of it in throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s!) But I gave up after that, so if anyone here can prove me wrong, I'd be absolutely delighted! (I would consider McGuire's "Wayward Children" cycle to be Literary, or at least upmarket, but I'm thinking/hoping for Fantasy specifically intended for an adult audience.)

In my experience, if anything has real (within the context of the story) magic in it, it is rigidly and forever doomed to be filed under "Fantasy" no matter how literary it may be. Are you sure you're not thinking of Magical Realism (in which any "magic" must never be provable to be real within the context of the story-world, except in the narrator's unreliable mind)? I would consider the bulk of Magical Realism to be Literary.

PS: No, I have never read GoT, and I never will because GRRM referred to his work as "Tolkien for grownups" and that's just insulting, and I don't read work by authors who insult their readers. But you'd have a hard time convincing me his work is anything near Literary, either.

[annworthington]

I appreciate your insight. And a spoonful of humor helps the medicine go down 😊

[michaelhenricks]

So genre just identifies the audience. Writer's like to know what the words mean and the point of this episode is that nobody knows. And we think it has to be correct. If it indicates the audience, I guess its as good as you can guess.

[MrDanroche]

To be honest, I’m still not sure of my genre. I think I’m an upmarket writer because my style isn’t as purple as literary, and it isn’t commercial either. It always contains enough social and spiritual content that it asks for a little more attention from the reader. But I try not to bog it down with too many fancy lines of prose and I try not to make it too fast paced. Maybe you’re right. Maybe I should just market myself as an upmarket writer

[jwalker]

I think sometimes as writers it can be difficult to see which genre forest we're in through the grove of words we've planted. That's not a bad thing. That's just the nature of growing books. When we get lost there are plenty of people around us (family, critique groups, beta readers, writing associations, etc.) to help us figure it out. And even if we do get it wrong an agent or editor isn't going to reject our work solely because we named our baby Thriller instead of Horror.

[salomeydraws]

People in the comments complaining about writing a defined genre and saying agents should "do their job and label their book for them"... 😬 Really? If you can't say to an agent off the bat, "this is a horror", and they read it and agree, then HOW do you expect them to be an ambassador for your book to someone else? That's just absurd. All you actually have to do as an author is at least take time to UNDERSTAND the umbrella genres and write LEANING TOWARD the main genre you want to focus on in your book. If you understand the UMBRELLA genre the main theme of your book falls beneath, be it romance, Sci fi, thriller, mystery etc, you will make it MUCH EASIER for your agent to talk about your book and pitch it to the right publishers. You all go to book stores, so where in the book store do you see YOUR book? No, the "everything" category doesn't exist... What matters is eventually getting your book IN the book store!!

[tinacelentano]

I find fantasy a very broad genre. I thought my manuscript was an urban fantasy because the definition I had seen was paranormal elements in a real world setting. But I have read other urban fantasies and they all had world building which mine does not. So I've started to query it as a speculative fiction because that seems to cover a broader scope but honestly not certain. My story is set in the real world with my MC encountering a supernatural character who becomes a major character. I appreciate you saying it doesn't have to be perfect! It is confusing though. Thanks for all the great information!

[ArtemisMS]

That's the good thing about being a fantasy writer! We're simple folk. We know what we are! 😂😂 RE: age groups, I would love a discussion on MG, YA, and adult, and all the crossover spaces in between! (e.g. is upper MG dead? is NA self-pub romance only? is crossover fantasy more successful than YA/adult?)

[apeculiarproject]

I don't think they are saying you have to be 100% precise and accurate. If you submit something as a romance, and they decide it's more of a romantic suspense, it's probably not a big deal if they like the book. Ultimately, it's the publisher that will make the final call on how to market it.

I look at it this way - what's the core question of your story? What answer comes out in the climax?
-if it's they get married, hurray. Then you have a romance.
-they outshoot/out run/out fight the bad guys (whether it's drug runners, corporate espionage, diplomatic espionage, art thieves, terrorists, whatever) it's some kind of action/suspense.
-some sort of make-believe science is invented to save the day, it's science fiction.
-if a killer is discovered, mystery.
-if the whole world is make-believe and a hero (or team) shows us how to overcome some evil, probably a fantasy.
- if one person survives after watching their friends die, horror.
- a woman learns to accept her past and live her best life, women's fiction.

Remember, there can be subplots. It's the core question of the story - the one that's asked in the hook and answered in the climax - that defines the genre. I don't know if this works for everyone, but it helps me.

[noblshtplz]

Would you consider focusing on picture book submissions?

[Justafox]

Question. what if you have a commercial novel that is paranormal, however on query tracker, there is usually only a drop down for fantasy or contemporary. Should I go ahead and select fantasy, even if that's not the exact same thing?

[livinginthenow]

This is the really frustrating thing: a writer's function is to WRITE the book, not to define it. It's not really his/her job to decide what shelf the book goes on or how to market it. That isn't where their expertise lies, and it isn't how they make their living. While it's totally understandable that agents and publishers want to know what the general genre and age category is before they take a look at a submission, expecting an author to PRECISELY and ACCURATELY define it seems like they are asking writers to do their job for them. This is why your previous video "Know Your Genre" was so frustrating. I know I'm whining here, but if a writer provides a well written piece, why can't they rely on their agent to decide what genre to label it and pitch it as? Why is there so much emphasis on whether or not a writer "knows their genre" if they aren't the ones who will be marketing it?