What’s your genre?

We all know authors Stephen King, Tom Clancy, Anne Rice, John Grisham, Issac Asimov as masters of their respective genres– horror, military thriller, gothic vampire romance, legal thriller, science fiction. Depending on who you ask, there could be seven, a dozen or even hundreds of specific literary genres. But what is genre and why does it matter? 

Genre is often thought of as a series of conventions for a specific style of book. The setting, character archetypes and even the plot can be expected to fall within the certain conventions of that genre.  For example, in a hard-boiled detective story, you’ll probably expect to find a world-weary private eye, a crime to be solved, thugs and gangsters, as well as an alluring femme fatale. Dozens of stories, from authors like Dashielle Hammett and Raymond Chandler, to Mickey Spillane and Dennis Lahane use some or all of these elements to craft narratives that have come to define the genre itself. The audience expectation as they read genre fiction is to discover both familiar and unique applications of these elements as they read.  

While it’s not wrong to think about it that way, on a more basic and less whimsical level, “genre” is really a classification system for marketing purposes. It’s a quick shorthand to sell another book. The genre becomes a recommendation engine for someone who enjoys one story and wants to find more like it. If you're a fan of western/cowboy stories written by Louis L’amor, you’ll probably also enjoy the works of Larry McMurtree.  

While this sounds a lot less glamorous and almost cynical, it’s actually really helpful for us as writers. If you’re a new writer, writing genre fiction is a great way to help not only with the writing of your story itself, but with discovery after it’s out in the marketplace.  If you write a great example of a murder mystery, satisfying readers with a story that fits well in the genre (and also offers a few fun surprises as well), you have a have a good chance to leverage that powerful recommendation engine within your genre. Imagine having people say, “Oh, if you like funny science fiction like Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, then you’d also really enjoy (insert your story here).”  There’s few greater compliments than having your own work mentioned alongside your favorite genre author. 

So how do you use this understanding to your advantage?  The best thing you can do is to be clear on the genre that you’re writing in and get to know that genre as best you can. Start by reading extensively stories within your genre and be sure to find the ones that are generally considered the best examples. You could also look for critical analysis writings and videos for what defines the genre, what are the tropes and conventions and how have they changed over time. Finally take a second look at your own story to see if you can identify the genre elements, then figure out the ways you can improve your story by leaning into the tropes. Authors who do that can find a lot of success and come to have their name define the genre– just ask J.K. Rowling.