Genre Help

[AnimaDictio]

I LOVE Cold Mountain! (...the movie ... I never read the book ... sorry ... don't beat me up.)

This is a fascinating discussion. I, too, have wondered what genre I'm writing. To me, however, the answer isn't terribly important. It's mostly a business decision, no? In query letters, I plan to label the story whatever genre I can reasonably claim among the genres that agent represents. If my story doesn't quite fit within the conventions, I'll let the agent correct me. That's their job. My job is to write a whiz-bang story someone can sell.

Sometimes I play with the idea of creating my own genre label, but my meager business sense tells me that will not work. When people ask me what genre it is, I say things like, "Christian Urban Fantasy or Christian Adventure Romance or Mainstream Commercial Fiction" (because this plot would probably offend the women who typically read the books in Christian book stores.)