G is for Genre

For those who haven't died of boredom, or migrated to more regularly updated blogs, I thought I'd jot down something about genre. The G-word. That's easy then, because that just means type or class or style or content. No problem. Or so I once thought. (Actually, I didn't think. That was my problem.)

Genre, I'd say, was the single biggest stumbling block on my path to publication. Oh, that and actually having the staying power to complete a novel, deciding what to write about, er...not writing drivel, um...getting an agent...yadda yadda...

When I was seven or eight, I wrote a story about a rabbit. And her husband rabbit. Really, it was a tale about me and the boy I was sweet on in my class. I showed it to him and he got it. He said 'I'm that rabbit, and you're the girl rabbit.' I blushed. No one else in the class understood. They thought it was stupid and laughed. True, it was rather an exclusive book. (Six stapled-together pages and only one copy ever printed.) It wasn't easy to identify with. It wasn't strictly romance, and neither was there an adventure. It didn't have pictures and there wasn't much of a story. Genre wasn't even a twinkle in my eye back then.

Going on ten - a little more jaded (think the rabbit had dumped me by then) - and I got into horror stories. I didn't know I was writing horror, but I always used to wait until everyone had gone out of the house before I began. I would scare myself witless with tales of ghosts and zombie children and haunted houses that swallowed people up... You get the picture. At least I was experimenting with a real genre, even though I hadn't yet got a clue about such things. I went through a boarding school phase, inspired by Enid, of course. Then there were the fantasy epics, quite a bit more romance, some science fiction and quite a large number of pages that had absolutely no genre whatsoever. I think I was trying to be literary.

So while I was experimenting with genre, I didn't actually know it. Didn't realise how important it is to be successful. And I didn't realise either, the subtlety of sub-genres or that genres suffer from trends and popularity - or lack of - just like any other product.

Has anyone ever asked you what your book's about? Isn't that the most annoying question ever? Well, it was for me. Because I couldn' answer. Not easily, anyway. 'Oh, it's...um...well, there's this girl in it and...well, something happens and...'

Yes, but what is it?

All anyone wants to hear (initially) - especially those in the business - is what IS it? A romance. Horror. A thriller. Crime. Women's fiction. Young adult. Science fiction. Historical. If you can answer that, then really, nuff said. To begin with, at least. From the moment you approach an agent or editor, their minds are fast-tracking to how/where they can place the novel. How they can categorise it. For that, it needs a label.

Imagine if, overnight, every supermarket manager decided to mix up and randomise ALL the products on ALL the shelves in the shop. Worse - they peeled off all the labels too. So you have ten minutes to grab something for dinner on the way home before you fetch the kids... Supermarket sweep takes on a whole new meaning. Your spaghetti bolognese may well be made with custard.

What if bookshops did the same? And I completely agree with everyone who's now shouting out: But what amazing literary discoveries we would all make! (Custard bolognese). Yes, but also imagine the confusion, the let down, the sales that would be lost when a reader desperate for the next thriller in a series could only find...a kids' picture book, a romance. You go in for salmon and come away with frozen lamb chops. Yuk. Or maybe a better analogy is what if Whiskas cat food started making sandwich fillers. In pink foil sachets. For humans. It's all about expectation. Wasn't there green ketchup once?

Anyway, enough of the food analogy. Genre is important. Books are products, after all. They need to be created with selling in mind. (Yes, of course killer story, amazing characters are important too etc).

Most readers (I realise there are exceptions) want a book to do what it says on the tin. In the correct section of the bookshop. With a cover that shows what lies inside. And all this is important for the author too. It's not just so that CEOs of publishing houses can stack up figures. With some exceptions, most authors want to sell as many books as they can. Right from the start of their careers, they'll be faced with genre. Approaching the right agent (no point sending a YA novel to an agent that deals solely with crime thrillers), the agent sending out the typescript to appropriate editors, the editors balancing their lists/positioning titles and genres in the market place, publicity and marketing strategies - all of these these things are based on genre. What works for one type of novel, may not necessarily work for another.

In the commercial publising business, genre is so important. Decisions are made based upon it. An author needs to be true to their genre - and maybe will have more than one genre - think pseudonyms. I'm constantly excited by writing what I write. Emotional and psychological thrillers. For the moment, I can't imagine writing anything else. I have a ton of ideas stacked up. It feels right. While authors don't want to bore readers with one novel after another that are so similar in content only the cover art makes them unique, we do like to be consistent. It's all about fitting in.

Odd, given that most authors strive to break right out.