On Genre Casting... What Genre Are You?
Your writing that is. Slipstream, Mainstream, Bizarreo, Mixed, Historical, Faction? Meta fiction. Hysterical fiction, Steam Punk? Add the genres generated by the big publishing houses, like Dell; Farrar, Straus, Giroux; Harper and Row - and it's don't wanna bees, and you get - Chick lit, Romance, Adventure, Crime, and Mainstream.
There are a lot of choices aren't there? And science fiction is not even mentioned yet. The questions is: Why does it matter? Well, seems that the publishing - getting your work out there for readers to read - is in a state of emerging into something else besides writing your book, snagging an agent, the agent gets you a publisher, you sign the contact then start signing books at dusty book nooks from Barrow to Washington DC. Or something along those expected lines.
The change is more then Ebooks, which constitute a mere 10% of the market, so far. The economy these days has prompted the major publishing houses to bet only on books they know can find on the New york Times List, throw in one or two weird tomes for show. The houses have specialized, that is to say they each publish a certain kind of writing. How can one tell one special kind of writing from another?
Genre Casting.
So there you have it. What if you don't fit into one of the categories - of which only what they call "genre writing" is published, as stated. If your work does not fit into one of these "genres" then choose from the following: Slipstream, Bizarreo, Mixed Genre, Historical, Fiction? Meta fiction, Hysterical fiction, Steam Punk or make up one of your own. Ah, but then how to slip stream by the Big Pubs? Self publish? Small publishers? It's a maze. Well, good fffin luck as I say to myself... Anyway, It's fun and as I said, Who cares?
Your writing that is. Slipstream, Mainstream, Bizarreo, Mixed, Historical, Faction? Meta fiction. Hysterical fiction, Steam Punk? Add the genres generated by the big publishing houses, like Dell; Farrar, Straus, Giroux; Harper and Row - and it's don't wanna bees, and you get - Chick lit, Romance, Adventure, Crime, and Mainstream.
There are a lot of choices aren't there? And science fiction is not even mentioned yet. The questions is: Why does it matter? Well, seems that the publishing - getting your work out there for readers to read - is in a state of emerging into something else besides writing your book, snagging an agent, the agent gets you a publisher, you sign the contact then start signing books at dusty book nooks from Barrow to Washington DC. Or something along those expected lines.
The change is more then Ebooks, which constitute a mere 10% of the market, so far. The economy these days has prompted the major publishing houses to bet only on books they know can find on the New york Times List, throw in one or two weird tomes for show. The houses have specialized, that is to say they each publish a certain kind of writing. How can one tell one special kind of writing from another?
Genre Casting.
So there you have it. What if you don't fit into one of the categories - of which only what they call "genre writing" is published, as stated. If your work does not fit into one of these "genres" then choose from the following: Slipstream, Bizarreo, Mixed Genre, Historical, Fiction? Meta fiction, Hysterical fiction, Steam Punk or make up one of your own. Ah, but then how to slip stream by the Big Pubs? Self publish? Small publishers? It's a maze. Well, good fffin luck as I say to myself... Anyway, It's fun and as I said, Who cares?
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