Let’s say you love
mysteries.
You’ve got a long trip ahead. You’ve read all the books by your favorite authors, and you need to find something new.
In about twenty minutes.
You’re not going to wander randomly around the store. You’ll go straight to the mystery section.
**
Some people have genre identity crises that create confusion, just like in the real world. A writer might call their book a “fictionalized memoir,” for instance, because they’re riding between memoir and fiction. Another writer may have written women’s fiction, but the book is also a thriller and has hints of romance. These writers, and I’ve met them, are tempted to
explain the ways their books defy or cross genres, but they shouldn’t. Publishing, after all, is not particularly progressive when it comes to futzing with their classification systems, and you’re not a rebel because you’re trying to be clever, or straddle three genres; you’re just an amateur.
