Writing What You Like vs. Writing What Sells
Issue #7 - Choosing your genre
Sitting down and writing fiction can be a rush, but that doesn’t mean you should be in a rush. Whether pantser or plotter (a dichotomy we’ll cover in issue #12), it pays to contemplate details first. And when it comes to the important choice of genre, a little contemplation could make all the difference.
Here are three genre considerations I keep in mind.
1) What do I like to write?
2) What is actually selling?
3) How far can I flex my creative muscle?
Do I Love It?
As writers, we usually want to write what we read. I’ve always been fond of reading horror, along with literary and mainstream fiction, plus some sci-fi and poetry. I stay in propinquity to such books, meaning that I am close to them psychologically and literally. Even as I write these words, in fact, I have shelves of these genres only a few feet away.
You need an affinity toward a subject before spending time either reading or producing it, but you’ve no doubt figured that out. It’s a no-brainer to decide what you actually want to write. But before you start, at least consider what people are actually paying to read.
Will They Buy It?
According to Bubblecow, here are the current most profitable book genres on Amazon:
Romance/Erotica ($1.44 billion) Crime/Mystery ($728.2 million) Religious/Inspirational ($720 million) Science Fiction/Fantasy ($590.2 million) Horror ($79.6 million)
I looked at this and realized that my preferred genre, horror, while still profitable, is last in line in that grouping of five. I’ve written a lot of horror and have more horror tales in me, and would never dissuade anyone from penning the subject they love. But it is food for thought, and it’s wise to know what your chances are from the beginning.
Flex Your Creative Muscle
Here's my perspective. Check out what’s selling, then write what you wish, even while keeping in mind what readers want. If you’ve done everything on the lists to prepare your manuscript and it still does not sell—either to an agent, if going traditional, or Indie, if you are going that route—challenge yourself to try something different.
The romance genre is number one on the Amazon list. I respect this genre and I respect my many friends who write it, but it’s not my personal favorite. The next best-selling genre on Amazon’s list is crime/mystery, which is one I both read and write. This was a definite factor in my mind when coming up with the concept of my Touch series (the first book of which, The Spider Bite Murders, will be released in spring, 2023).
The series revolves around fictional cases of hard-to-crack and unusual serial killings. But here’s the flexing-the-creative-muscle part: I mashed it up by making my detective protagonist, Michael Calrissi, a psychic. By doing this I tapped into another fiction genre, Speculative, which includes Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy, and not only covered another base in the list of Amazon top-sellers, but satisfied my own personal interest in those genres.
You do have to be careful when mashing it up. Genre readers return again and again to their chosen subjects specifically because they know they can count on certain elements. If you veer too far from the expected playbook, you lose the audience.
Book-Genres.com offers this definition of the Mystery Genre:
“…stories with narration in which one or more elements remain unknown until the end; the stories are like puzzles where the reader is given one piece at a time to try to figure out the big picture…”
I made sure the Touch series qualifies on all levels as a mystery, based on this definition. In each book, the mystery is revealed a step at a time using researched police procedure to make sure that Calrissi and his peers solve their cases in time-honored literary tradition.
I mixed in the speculative aspects with the same care.
Here’s my own definition of this latter overall genre:
Book-Genres.com says the Speculative Fiction Genre is composed of:
“...stories about places, characters and worlds…unlike what we know…they encourage [readers] to think about the what-ifs beyond their understanding…”
I made Calrissi’s psychic talents an ongoing subplot in which he must constantly choose how and when to ethically use them. I wanted to engage the reader by presenting a relatable character who has a talent beyond understanding but who is otherwise human and normally flawed, and who faces the difficulties of solving unique but worldly serial murders. The reader will thus not only see him struggle with the crimes, but watch him deal with inner struggles as well.
If you yearn to write in more than one genre, mashing it up is an option. But must you? No. You probably shouldn’t. It’s perfectly okay to do great genre fiction, and safer as well regarding finding and keeping your audience. But it doesn’t hurt to push the envelope a little. Just sayin’.
Q: I want to write, but I like all kinds of fiction. How do I decide my genre?
A: Go do an inventory of the books you’ve read in the last few years. Find the trend, and you’ll have your answer.
Time again to challenge yourself. Remember this word from earlier? If not, you might want to test yourself, hear it, and say it (and then take these steps to heart the next time you become aware of a new word!).
What is propinquity?
Don’t forget to correctly try the word out in a sentence, too.
Action Plan
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Next up:
#8) Fiction Genres: A List. See you in two weeks!
Craig
Thank you this has given me a lot to think about.
The genre stats are eye opening!