The genre question…

/ Marcia Meara

Another of Sue Vincent’s terrific poems, and very relatable to many of us, for sure! Enjoy! 🙂

Sue Vincent's Daily Echo

Let’s see now…

Mystery, history, romance, or thriller,
Fantasy, sci-fi, or seek for the killer,
Classics, Jurassics, occasional science
Symbolic studies, books on self-reliance,
Alternative therapies, young adult fiction,
Cordon bleu cooking, artistic depiction,
Esoteric theories and Zen meditations
Poems and drama and comic creations,
Old childhood favourites, folklore and fables
Standing stones, pyramids, magical tables,
Anthropological investigations,
How to prepare alcoholic libations,
Autobiography and archaeology
Bee keeping, dog training and herpetology,
Museum catalogues, works on photography
(all that is missing is blatant pornography)
Quantum mechanics, psychology textbook,
Comparative studies… then on to the next book…
“What do you read?” is the question they asked me…
Look at my bookshelves and try to unmask me!
But in their minds the next question is humming,
“What do you write?” Well, I knew it was coming…
The hardest of questions… and its undeniable
“Most of our books? Genre: Unclassifiable…”

See for yourself…

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23 thoughts on “The genre question…”

  2. Wonderfully witty but it also makes me wince – I really, really struggle with genre. I try to stick within recognisable parameters and then my characters decide to go walkabout and the classification waters are muddied! Thanks for making me smile.

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    • I suspect many of us can identify with that, Trish. Both of my series were meant to be romantic suspense, but by Book 2 in each one, they’d wandered off in all sorts of direction. One of the things I’m hoping to fix soon is a better choice of genres for each series. (One of MANY!) 🙂

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      • It’s good to feel I’m not completely alone in this genre minefield! I do feel out of my depth on so much of this. For instance, why does WordPress ignore me (with an offensive blank rectangle) when I try to like something? I suppose that’s what googles for, but then I sometimes struggle to follow what I find on there… However, life could be much, much worse and I know it’s silly to be narked over something so trivial! 🙂 ❤ 🙂

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        • It may not be the end of the world in the grand scheme of things, but when technology thwarts our efforts to socialize or to sell our work, it is extremely frustrating. You are not alone in this regard, truly. I may know how to do some of the things that hamper you, but trust me, there are many, many more things I want to do and have no idea where to start. And then, just when you think you’re all set, the rules change! 😀 Oh, well. If not for technology, I would never have had the opportunity to make friends all over the world, or have 24/7 information at my fingertips when I need it, or WRITE a book!! So, I reckon we have to take the bad with the good, and adjust. (At least, that’s what I tell myself when I’m pulling my hair out trying to learn something new.) 😀 ❤

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      • See my response to Jaye. It isn’t because we need them properly categorized to follow the rules. It’s because that’s how readers find our books. And from all I’ve read, it makes a HUGE difference. If they can’t find your book, they can’t buy it. When I figure out the best plan (and I’ve bookmarked LOTS of information on this), I promise I’ll share it! 😀 Together, we can find a way to make it easier. Surely? Maybe? 😀

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    • That’s true, but if we want readers to be able to actually FIND the books we write, it becomes pretty important. I actually need to sell. My husband will be retiring in a couple of years, putting us on a fixed income, and I want my book sales to augment that, so that we don’t have to scrimp or cut too many corners. There are over 600,000 (maybe WAY over) books published on Amazon. We need every trick in the book to steer potential readers to ours, so I’m determined to learn how to get my books in the best categories to make them come up when readers are searching for their next great escape. 🙂

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        • VERY true! I had one reviewer comment on how the last 50 pages of Swamp Ghosts should have been cut, because the mystery was solved. But in a Romantic Suspense novel, most readers expect everything to calm down and the couple to have a Happily Ever After moment. That can be done more briefly with just the couple swearing eternal love for each other, or it can be an actual love scene and wedding. I wanted that for Maggie & Gunn, and I also wanted to set up Hunter and Willow for the 2nd book. Hence, the extra pages. I’d like to think I made them entertaining enough not to bore most Romantic Suspense readers, but for sure, if thrillers and whodunnits are what you crave, you could probably skip the ending of the love story. But take it away from a RomSuspense reader, and they are not happy with you! 😯 😀

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        • 😀 😀 😀

          Honestly, when people ASK me what kind of book it is, I don’t do a good job of explaining, because it definitely crosses genre lines, but on Amazon, it’s pretty important. And I know there are some posts out telling you how to “drill down” through the layers to get to sub-categories that will draw more people. When I figure it out, I’ll share, I promise! 😀

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