Let me state first off that I am not a fan of the nitpicky divisions of literary genres. Seems so artificial and subjective to me. That being said, I am unsure how to classify my current WIP. I am open to ideas here. The novel is historical fiction, set in the early 1930s. It is the story of a girl who gets kidnapped and white trafficked. When I looked online for clarification, I got all sorts of mixed messages. The best ideas were "realistic historical fiction" or something called "literary historical fiction." Like I said, I don't feel the need to be overly specific, but somewhere along the line, if I go looking for a publisher and not go the self-published route, I probably should know how to classify my WIP.
How do you find books you want to read, then? Go to "browse all" of Amazon's 2,000,000 books and read blurbs until one strikes you as interesting? Seems very inefficient, but hey ho! There you go. Why do you think you have to classify it further than that?
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that with the exception of maybe Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter historical fiction should be mostly 'realistic' to begin with. You're right, though, that genre classifications can be somewhat fluid, so if you're trying to sell to a publisher or agent that's looking for 'realistic historical fiction,' advertise it to them as that. If they're looking for 'literary historical fiction,' then maybe that's what you should put in your query letter. As long as you're not misrepresenting what you're actually trying to send them, fudging a couple of genre lines trying to tailor a letter to someone isn't the worst thing in the world. But asking someone who's read or critiqued your WIP might be a good way to see what public opinion says about what genre it's in.
AH! I loved that book, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. The movie was dreadful, but the book is well worth reading. A great, imaginative story really well written.
Good point. When people ask me what I am writing about, I end up giving them a brief run-down on the plot. But I guess that's OK too.
I'm with you on this. I think the ever-growing types of 'genre' is getting silly. Historical fiction sounds fine to me.
Well, for a query or cover letter you do need to name your genre as well as giving a run-down of the plot. But "historical fiction" is fine - you definitely don't need to narrow it down to a three- or four-word genre. In fact, you're advised against that in queries.
If the OP says in their query letter that their novel is set in the 1930s, do they really need to state it's historical fiction? Wouldn't that be implied enough through the synopsis? I don't know for sure. That's just what I would think since it would seem somewhat redundant, no?
A query (for a novel, not sure about short stories) should always state the title, word count, and genre, preferably in the same line. I could have a romance set in the 1930s, or a fantasy set in the 1930s, or a horror set in the 1930s. That's different to a historical novel.
I was talking about novels when I asked this question. And I see what you mean. I just kind of think the synopsis would make it clear what genre a book was. When I queried agents in the past, I did not state a genre in my query when I was submitting a novel. I did use a mention a genre for a nonfiction book and it got a lot more attention. I don't know if this made any difference in my case, but it could have made me seem more professional or legit or like I had some clue what was going on. Is this just to make it crystal clear and easier for the agent? When you say all this info should be on the same line, do you mean like in a header? Thanks for your insight, @Tenderiser .
IMO the best way to start a query is some form of "I'm seeking representation for TITLE, a XX-word GENRE." Others say you should dive straight into the blurb and put that line at the end. Makes no sense to me because I would want to know the genre first, to put the query in perspective. But either way, yes, you really need to mention the genre. When the agent reads the blurb you want them to be drawn in, not be trying to work out what kind of story it is. Like... In 1930s London [Agent: oh okay, historical novel], Anne Black meets a mysterious and handsome stranger [Agent: Oh. Historical romance?] When news of the dreaded Jack the Ripper murders reach her, there are troubling similarities in his description and that of her new friend [Agent: Er? Horror? Mystery? What?] I think, with agents receiving 30ish queries a day, you want to make things as easy for them as possible. And, as you said, following query conventions shows that you've done some research into the industry.
But you told the OP 'Historical fiction' would be fine. That seems totally contradictory to your last post.
So, if a novel is literary (and we take that to mean without genre) would you classify it at all? I would hate to say "my literary novel." That just sounds stupid to me. If an agent only represents work in your genre (or no genre), would you need to say anything about genre?
I don't think there are many agents who only rep one genre, but I would still list it - they get plenty of queries for genres they don't represent, so they want to know upfront that you've actually read their guidelines. And yes, I would say "literary novel." Why do you think it sounds stupid?
But 'historical fiction' is a genre. Where's the contradiction? Edited to add: I suppose that to some extent it's a genre by virtue of elimination--not historical romance, mystery, thriller, horror. But it's still a genre.
I'm actually seeing the OP as being a mystery/thriller set in the 1930s, rather than a historical novel; the distinction being that a historical novel would be more based upon actual events of the time (like somebody smuggling Jews out of Germany), rather than merely being set in the general ambience of the era (like a love story about two athletes - one black American, one white German - set at the Berlin Olympics).
Karen's book could well be a historical thriller etc but I'm not sure about your reasoning - plenty of straight up historicals focus only on fictional events. Ken Follett's famous Cathedral books, for example, don't revolve around actual events, though a few are featured. The entire setting and main plot of the book - the Kingsbridge cathedral - are entirely fictional.
Heh heh, so what happens when a contemporary book becomes historical decades or centuries after the fact? I'm thinking about Moby Dick, which (I think) was a relatively contemporary tutorial about the whaling industry at the time it was written, only to reinterpreted two hundred years later as a historical account of a time that no longer exists. Does that still count as historical fiction? (really, I have no idea if Moby Dick is even considered historical fiction or not, but it certainly looks, smells, and tastes like it)
What about a zombie novel set in 2005. Is that historical horror? No, let's call that 'near-past contemporary speculative apocalyptic fiction'
Genre always seems "artificial and subjective" to the person creating the art. Songwriters and filmmakers struggle with this, too. As creative people, the rebel in us wants to say, "Fuck you, commercial world, I'll do what I want, and it defies categorization!!!" I have to fight this, too. However...as @Tenderiser so aptly points out, if we're putting that art into the world, people have to be able to actually find it. The competition for readers' eyes, and for their time, is fiercer than ever. From the agent's point of view, in a nutshell, agenting is casting for a role. An agent's job is to fill an open slot on a roster. So, yes, you want to make it crystal clear up front what it is, because chances are, when they're (or more likely, their assistant is) going through the slush pile, they're skimming query letters for key words to see if what you're offering can fill an open slot. Having said all that, I am having a hell of a time deciding what the hell the genre of my current WIP is. Fortunately, I'm still in First Draft Hell, so I don't have to worry about it yet, because it will likely change and evolve and, if I'm really lucky, may resolve itself in later drafts.
Yeah, I was making up that distinction on the fly, so it's a bit patchy...but...The novel is historical fiction, set in the early 1930s. It is the story of a girl who gets kidnapped and white trafficked...It seems to be more about the kidnapping and trafficking than about the early 1930s. I can't speak to Ken Follett's Cathedral books, but I'd suspect they're (puts on his Richard Burton voice) DRAMATIC HAPPENINGS IN A TIME NONE OF US CAN REALLY IMAGINE, so hard to categorise as zombie detective noir. Any literature (even 50 Shades) is a historical document for the historian after the event; it gives a clue to how people lived then. The Tale of Genji, for instance, is one of the prime historical sources for life in Heian Japan, a millennium ago. So Moby Dick isn't historical fiction, but a historical document. Besides, genre only matters when you're pitching it to a publisher; Melville's got past that stage.