What genre are you writing?
In this post we are addressing the traditional understanding of genre, as opposed to the market segment (described in the previous posts). Christian fiction is a market segment, like Young Adult. There are different genres within the Christian fiction segment, just as there are different genres in the general market.
It is important that you are well-read in your chosen genre. Don’t just read books by established authors (which get published because of the author’s track history, not necessarily because of their quality). Read books by debut authors, because you need to understand what publishers are choosing to publish now, and what readers buy.
It’s also important to be widely-read: Nicholas Sparks reads 100 books a year. Some authors don’t like to read while they are writing, as they are afraid they will subconsciously ‘borrow’ (plagiarise) from the books they are reading. If this is a problem for you, then read outside your genre while you are writing, then go back to reading in your genre when editing.
Read Amazon review for books in your genre, because you also need to understand what readers do and don’t like. Read the glowing five-star reviews, the critical one-star reviews and the middle-of-the-road three-star reviews. Think about the themes that come through in the reviews. What do the readers like? What don’t they like? What makes them stop reading? While reviews are for readers (to help them make a decision as to whether or not this a book they will enjoy), they can serve a useful purpose for authors as well, by telling them what not to do.
Some authors want to blend genres , either because they believe it makes for a more satisfying plot or (more commonly) because they don’t understand genre and want to appeal to everyone. If you fall in that second group, I suggest you read the first post in this series again. By seeking to appeal to everyone, it is likely you will end up appealing to no one .
Fiction is generally divided into literary and genre fiction. Literary fiction has been defined as “complex, literate, multi-layered novels that wrestle with universal dilemmas” . some is challenging; I often find it is so focused on the writing and ideas that it fails to convey the story. One good place to look for literary fiction is the Man Booker Prize long list. Don’t expect to find any in your local Christian bookshop, as Christian fiction is most definitely genre fiction.
Genre (or category) fiction is something literary authors look down on as inferior writing, because it is literary fiction that wins major awards. Be that as it may: genre fiction sells books. Literary fiction may win awards, but rank and file consumers only buy it when it wins a big award (and then can’t always finish reading it).
At the highest level, there are three main genres:
Romance: developing a romantic relationship between two people, with a happy-ever-after ending;
Action: mystery, suspense or thrillers, where the primary focus is on the action, not the character relationships;
Worldbuilder: genres such as science fiction, fantasy, dystopian and paranormal, set in another world.
Note that many genres have a range of sub-genres , and I will be discussing the major genres in future posts, starting next week with romance. But first I’m going to cover one major and one minor genre that don’t fit easily into the three main genres above:
Women’s Fiction
Women make up approximately 85% of the market for Christian fiction (and are still a majority of general market fiction). The novels are focused on women (although they are not necessarily written by women, e.g. The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks), and they explore the nature of character, human nature and relationships without the requirement for a romance or a happy-ever-after ending. Characters are searching for meaning, for an answer to a problem of the mind. They may cover more than one generation, and the ending may be bittersweet. While women’s fiction might be difficult to define, it’s had a place in the bookshop for years and will continue to do so.
Men’s Fiction
You’ve never heard of the term? That’s not a surprise. I made it up. Only 13% of members of American Christian Fiction Writers are men , and that’s reflected in the books that are published. So Men’s fiction isn’t so much a genre as a possible gap in the market. The problem is that, as a woman, I have no idea what men like to read. Of the men I know well enough to know what they read (all three), all of them read the same kinds of books as their wives (if they read at all). Is this because they like the genres their wives read, or is it because they don’t read, therefore don’t buy books, so are stuck reading whatever their wife brings home?
The other issue, especially in Christian fiction, is that the major publishing houses don’t know how to sell to men, as discussed by Mike Duran regarding mystery writer J Mark Bertrand.
So, men. What do you like to read? If there really was a men’s fiction genre, what would it be?
