Every time I feel like maybe sharing something about my WIP I find myself in a dilemma: What genre should I post my comment under? When I created my account here, I could chose "speculative" which I understand is a mixture between ScFi and Fantasy and paranormal. The authors (and readers) speculate about how and why something happens without the restrictions of time and space or the laws of physics. It can incorporate space-traveling werewolves or aunt Fanny's ghost or magical rollerblades. Or all of them. Here in the forums (and in many, many other platforms) there is SciFi, Fantasy, and Horror/paranormal, and then I'm stymied because my astronaut shape shifters don't belong in the Fantasy category, but aunt Fanny's ghost has nothing to do with SciFi. And though my main characters are quite young and have self-finding moments along the way, my story is definitely not "YA" because it also deals with philosophical topics (not that young people aren't interested in philosophy, but overall YA deals with other topics). Anyone here who's in the same boat as me? Given the above character/plot example (werewolves are in their early-mid 20s, aunt Fanny was an older spinster, and the rollerblades belong to a 12-year old girl) what genre would you assign to this WIP?
I'm not sure it matters until you publish, and maybe not then. Here's a lot of info about how Amazon goes about it: https://blog.reedsy.com/guide/kdp/amazon-book-categories/
@Earp Thanks for the link. I had a first look at it and it's definetely something I will read with more time on my hands than I have right now.
I also write science fiction with a blend of fantasy. Consider this: what genre does your story have the most of? Is it mostly science fiction? Or mostly fantasy? Or mostly paranormal? I would post according to what it is the most of. For example, my stories deal with gods, immortals, dragons, etc. But there is mostly a lot of space flight and science fiction stuff. So I post my stories as science fiction. If I can pick more categories I pick "soft" science fiction or add the fantasy tag. I mostly self publish for free on various internet pages though. If you go self-publish or the traditional route, you may need to do it according to the categorization system of the place you publish under. Or ask your publisher. But maybe I am doing it all wrong?
@Earp is probably right that it won't matter until you get ready to publish, but when you do, it will suddenly matter a lot. One of the first things you're supposed to mention in a query letter is the genre. I found an article about pitching a cross-genre book. I don't know why it's on LinkedIn, but it looked like legit advise. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/query-letter-genre-essentials-pitching-cross-genre-book-smith/ You might still not know what to call it by the end, but maybe you'll know how to sell it, which matters more than trying to shove it into a category that it doesn't exactly fit just to post about it in the right spot.
