Or: Why You Should Embrace Pigeonholes
Agents and Publishers are keen to pigeonhole writers into ever more restrictive book genres. What used to be Sci-Fi/Fantasy became Fantasy became Paranormal became Urban Fantasy became Dark Urban Fantasy became Dark Urban Fantasy with Romantic Elements.
Uhm. Seriously?
Authors spend valuable time figuring out the category their work falls in. Most of the time, their books are wedged firmly between two subgenres. Which do they choose? But choose they must, because agents and editors demand ever more specific classifications. Do readers really care? Not so much. Artificial distinctions won’t overtly affect whether or not anyone reads your book. I’m an avid reader, yet I don’t care if you write Dark Urban Fantasy with Romantic Elements or a lighter variety of vampire fiction. If you have an effective blurb, a great cover and a descriptive title, readers will find you. Right?
Well, maybe. There is one very specific way in which authors directly benefit from pigeonholing themselves.
While your specific genre might not mean a lot on the face of it, let’s examine this back-to-front, starting with the reader.
Case study: Ms. Gertrude Sample
A reader, let’s call her Gertrude, likes Kim Harrison and Jaye Wells. Gertrude’s friend Barney might surmise she likes Urban Fantasy with witches. If Barney were to recommend a book to her, he’d pick another series featuring witches. Makes sense, doesn’t it? However, only a limited number of books with this particular element exist, and Gertrude is hungry for more reading material.
If Gertrude likes Kim Harrison, perhaps she also digs Patricia Briggs. It’s then reasonable to assume she likes witches, vampires, werewolves and hopefully shifters generally. Barney’s list of recommendations grows.
Once Gertrude has exhausted this list, what next? Perhaps she also has an interest in other supernatural/preternatural creatures from lore, e.g. succubi, satyrs, fae, and so on. Fantastic. That’s another twenty or thirty titles to add to Barney’s list.
Three months later, Gertrude’s back for more. Instead of rolling his eyes at his demanding reader friend, Barney mines more remote subgenres. How about demons and angels? Or Urban Fantasy with worlds and beings hitherto unheard of? Oh, and how important is the romance angle in Gertrude’s decision-making process anyhow?
Finally, after a lot of reading, Gertrude reaches the huge crop of books generically referred to as Urban Fantasy. But she had to read hundreds and hundreds of books along the way.
At what point might Barney recommend my books to Gertrude? My first book Divide and Conquer features no creatures from lore. Instead, I built a new world with new conflicts and new preternatural elements. It specifically appeals to readers who like fun reads, with major plot twists, a hidden world separate from everyday Seattle, and a healthy but not overwhelming splash of romance. Shoot! There is no category for that. Perhaps I should make up my own. I will promote it as Multiworld Urban Fantasy with Romantic Elements. Catchy, eh? But how is Gertrude going to find me? She will have to work her way through a frak-ing long index before she stumbles on Multiworld Urban Fantasies with Romantic Elements on Barney’s list. So in the year 2026, then?
Okay. Perhaps it doesn’t need to be quite that precise. Let’s just call it Urban Fantasy with Original Worlds. Still, it’ll take a long time before I can count Gertrude as one of my readers.
Case study: Ms. Shaniqua Sample
Now, Gertrude’s estranged sister Shaniqua loves Amanda Bonilla. She loves the love triangle, the idea of hidden worlds and beings that have been around a long time. Since Divide and Conquer has some of these elements (a hidden world, romantic elements, beings with unusual powers), Shaniqua should discover my book pretty quickly. Even without Barney’s help. Because we have both built original worlds.
My second book, Guarded, features werewolves, vampires, demons, and one spunky satyr detective learning about her place in a world she’d rather not live in. Even though it features creatures from lore, the book is not concerned with their agendas. No vampire politics, werewolf hierarchy issues. Yet I would comfortably place it alongside Kim Harrison and Patricia Briggs. No doubt Gertrude will pounce soon. Shaniqua? Nope. Not a chance.
Not unless Shaniqua and Gertrude bury the family hatchet and reconnect over a cup of tea and a good ol’ yap about books, during which Gertrude recommends Guarded to Shaniqua.
Aha!
Categories help you find your ideal audience quickly. Hopefully, your Getrudes will leave positive reviews on Amazon and Goodreads and tell their non-cyber friends and estranged sisters about your book. Before you know it, Shaniqua and her friends will have found you through word-of-mouth, no matter if they normally read your specific genres or not. (Incidentally, if readers who can’t stand your specific genre won’t read your book, they can’t leave negative reviews either.)
What this comes down to
Even though as readers we might casually declare our love for Urban Fantasy, we have preferences. We have books or authors we are drawn to like the lines of a triangle. If new authors provide their readers with a suitable comparison, they might find each other more quickly, and the word-of-mouth campaign can start. But advertise yourself as an “Urban Fantasy” author, and you’ll be at the bottom of a very long list, both for Gertrude and for Shaniqua.
This is why I embrace classifications. In fact, I’d go even further. As a reader, I follow voice more than genre. I love Darynda Jones and Jennifer Rardin, and can comfortably settle down with one of Mary Buckham’s offerings. I very much enjoy the less sassy and more suspenseful offerings of Kim Harrison or Keri Arthur, too. In a book Venn diagram, Divide and Conquer falls between Darynda Jones for voice and Kim Harrison for suspense and Amanda Bonilla for content.
How would you categorize your favorite genres? Are you led more by genre or by word of mouth?
