I don't know how to squeeze my book into a single genre. Its a mixture of fantasy, horror and romance. Its all three genres, but I can't tell publishers that for fear of putting them off. Is there a way to narrow it down to one, or a word that describes all three?
What is the focus of the book? It fantasy is the most prominent element, call it fantasy. A lot of fantasy has romantic and horror elements, so unless those are the focus of the story, you're probably okay just calling it "fantasy." If you really want to convey fantasy, horror, and romance, call it "a romantic dark fantasy." Good luck!
Isn't horror a sub-genre of fantasy? If so, then it is a fantasy book, a romantic fantasy. "A romantic dark fantasy" sounds even better.
Horror is a sub-genre of any number of genres, and is out of the running. You just have to ask yourself if the most important quality of the book is the fantasy or the romance. Is it a fantasy book that just happens to have a romance in it? Or is it a romance book that just happens to be set in a fantasy? Which ever factor seems the most incidental (the story could survive without this, albeit with tons of editing) is the genre it is not.
Dark romance, I like that. Yeah its actually a fantasy book with a little romance in but the 'horror' bit is quite important as there are some quite gruesome parts to it. Is dark fantasy a genre?
Yes! Quoth Wikipedia: "Dark fantasy is a term used to describe a fantasy story with a pronounced horror element." I stay with my previous assessment: "Romantic dark fantasy." However... If the romance is just a sub-plot, not a focus of the main story, just "dark fantasy" would be better. The reason for this is that romantic sub-plots are so common in every type of story that they are pretty much expected. Unless the romance is a major element of the plot, it's safe to drop it from the label.
I agree with mammamaia. You should not be worrying about this. Work on obtaining an agent. That agent will work on getting the book placed with a publisher, and a publisher will decide for marketing reasons what genre to call it.
that said, you still need to have some sense of what genre/s it fits, in order to find agents that handle same... so, if it's a sort of horror/thriller/romance, don't waste time/energy/money querying those who only rep political intrigue and 'cozy' mysteries...
that's both nonsensical and childish... there are serious writers here asking serious questions and hoping for serious answers... sorry to say, your avatar seems well-chosen, if that's all you have to offer...
@mammamaia Sorry for making a joke, geeeeez And what do you have against cute bears with wrist watches? I don't like asteroids hitting Earth, but I don't point out your avatar!! I'm being sarcastic, of course. And trying to lighten the mood. Sorry Mamma! Frankly, I agree with you that, if you need an agent before going to the publisher, you should discuss your book's genre with him. A good agent should be able to help you more then an internet forum
sorry for overreacting, but i couldn't tell you were just being sarcastic... though i suppose i should've, since you did add a winker... must not have had my morning's gree tea yet... the avatar thing was simply a reference to it being sort of a little kid's kind of image... as for discussing your genre with your agent [which i didn't say should be done, btw... maybe another poster did], how do you think you'll get an agent if you don't have at least a 'good guess' for your book's genre to begin with, since you need to query only agents who rep that genre... and the genre has to be mentioned in the query... love and make-up hugs, maia
well, Toxic has narrowed down her work to fantasy, sort of, but I don't believe there are agents out there that deal exclusively with "dark romance" type of books I mean, there must be many cross-genre writers out there (even in Wales ), not to mention "no-genre" writers, and some of them have agents too. And of course, there is no shame in trying out your charm with several agents - if the first one is not interested or doesn't understand you, look for another. The same thing is going to happen with publishers of your first book anyways. But personally, after seeing how much money Stephenie Meyer made with her dark romance series.... Happy New Year!!!
Is a multiple genre-story a bad thing when you approach a publisher? (since here we do that directly) because even mine is a mix or two or three, but should I avoid labelling it altogether or just try to decide for one or just call it a mix?
