There’s no denying that categorization can be useful. It can help us find what we want.
But I have to be honest: I hate book genres.
In some ways, I can appreciate knowing what to expect in the form of parameters. If you know you love romance and require a happy ending, you know where to look. If your favorite thing is clever world-building, sci-fi is probably your friend. Trust me, it’s a lot easier than searching the whole bookstore for something you’ll like. (Take it from somebody who generally ends up doing just that.)
But no matter how you cut it, I’ve got beef with genres in general, and here’s why.
Stop Telling Me What’s Going to Happen!
If there is one book description I hate, it’s that romance template. You know the one, where you flip it over and there’s a paragraph about the girl, a paragraph about the guy, and a pair of completely superfluous questions about the both of them.
“Will she overcome her fears and fall for-” Yes.
“Can he move beyond his tragic past to-” Obviously.
“Will the two of them find in each other-” Without question.
And I only have to read one of those books to know how all of them go.
I’m not here just to hate on romance. As genres go, I’ve got plenty of rage to go around. One of the biggest components we love about being told stories in general is that we don’t know what’s going to happen, or at least we don’t know how it’s going to happen. We want to be surprised, and when you give me an outline of your entire novel on the cover, I may as well put it back and save my money! There is something to be said for enjoying the journey. But I don’t think a book should give so much away, either in its description or by nature of what section it occupies on the shelves.
Every Cover Looks the Same
It’s one of the many paradoxes of humanity: when something works, we go for it again and again. Until it becomes so ordinary that it loses its efficacy, and then we pick something new and the cycle begins again.
So let’s stop pretending that current book sales are happening in a vacuum. At one point, edgy covers with a soot-colored palette accented by a flash of red or gold were the Thing. The folly lies in thinking that it will always be the Thing. I can’t speak for the rest of the reading population, but when I pick up another one of those books nowadays, I put it back because I feel like I’ve already read it.
I’ve actually gotten some flak for this one, because my cover is unusual. People don’t immediately know what to make of it. That’s not because it isn’t beautifully rendered, but because you can’t guess the genre just by looking at it. Most romances have a young woman gazing into the distance. Most mysteries have a shadowy, urgent-looking cover. But Angels Strange and Beautiful includes elements from both types of story without fitting into either category, and I wanted my cover to convey that. Once you’ve read it, you’ll know the significance of the things you do see.
From a marketing standpoint, I recognize that it would be easier to sell my books if I jumped on one bandwagon or another. But that’s the thing about writers: we’re artists. Artists love to try new things and stand out. We live by a vision that not everyone else can see, and in that lies inherent risk. Sometimes we’re even willing to starve for a while to give people time to take to it.
New Ideas Need Not Apply
I get it: some stories are timeless. We love love, we love underdogs who become champions, and we love it when the hero wins. But I still place great value in the element of surprise. It’s why we have more than one author in the universe, and why we continue to explore. We want to be told a story we’ve never heard. And sometimes I feel that the parameters of genre fiction have become so rigid as to prevent any change.
I know some of where this comes from is simply sales. When Twilight was all the rage, tons of authors jumped on the trend and whipped out vampire romances as fast as they could type. And for a while, they sold. But I’ve got to say, I can’t imagine writing that way.
I see art as work that comes from the heart, and I don’t think I could produce that on command, nor follow a trend just because it seems to be selling well right now. My heart wouldn’t be in it and I would lose interest, and a bored writer makes for a bored reader. Evidently some writers can write like that, but I think it’s better to write what’s on your heart, not try to ride on the coattails of someone who just got a movie deal.
If you want to chase trends, other occupations would offer more certainty of return on investment. Not that I think writing a book that blurs genre lines is going to make me rich, either. The point is that writing isn’t that kind of pursuit. You put years of your life into a work of art that people may not even like, but that’s the risk you run. If you have something to say, you have to say it, even knowing that people might be angry or apathetic toward your message. The point is to create something new.
The Future I See
Like everything, I think book marketing is a cycle. One thing gets popular, everyone does it, and then it fades away while the next big thing takes its place. And perhaps as we get tired of the rigidity of some of our current genres, new genres will be born to reflect the shift. No, I don’t think romance or sci-fi will ever go away, nor do I want them to. But I believe that every category needs a bit of fresh air, and that requires new ideas and variation.
In some ways, the same market that created our current genres will solve that problem. As people get bored of certain tropes, they will want something new to entertain them, and the money will move on. Many ideas will be ventured and only a few will make their authors rich. But if you love what you do, that’s not the most important thing on your mind.
Here’s the way I see it: Write your story. Create your vision. And don’t worry if not every part of it belongs in a certain genre. You have to believe in your craft enough to let it be what it is and then market it the best you can. Maybe not the most lucrative way to write, but like I said, if you came here to be rich, you might have better luck panning for gold.
If you like a certain genre, that’s fine by me. But don’t let the constraints of that genre put your work or your reading list in a stranglehold.
