For this week’s You Tell Me there is a poll included! Yes, we’re getting fancy. It also means that all of you reading the blog via e-mail or through an RSS reader may need to click through to cast your vote and see the results.
I thought it might be fun to get a snapshot of what people are working on out there. So, for all you writers out there: what’s your genre?
I know genre distinctions are blurry, so just pick one in case there’s overlap. And remember, when in doubt: go with the section of the bookstore your book would be stocked in. I added “paranormal” to the categories even though it’s not typically a bookstore section simply because there seems to be so many people writing about vampires, werewolves, etc.
And, of course, feel free to discuss the results (or your WIP) in the comment section.
CapitolClio says
I picked historical, but mine is one part historical, one part suspense.
Nathan, would it be possible for you to tell us how the poll results stack up against books published?
Mira says
Oh whoops.
I misunderstood the instructions. You meant the WIP, not all genres we write.
Well I have about 6 WIPs so……
Guess my main WIP is humor right now.
Okay, I'll stop posting. 🙂
Marilyn Peake says
Thanks for such a wonderful "You Tell Me". It will be fascinating to see the poll results and to read about other WIPs.
My current WIP, almost finished, is Science Fiction. Bare-bones summary: In the year 2032, the first of twelve space hotels is set in geosynchronous orbit with Earth. All building contracts are held by the same U.S.-based global company, Space Construction, Inc., a proprietary privilege generously allowed by the United States government in cooperation with the United Nations. As the government launches experiments into the psychological power of holograms, green alien-like creatures arrive in the Galaxy Garden Space Hotel. On an important mission, they are not the creatures the government thinks they are.
Dara says
Not sure where mine falls…historical fiction or paranormal. I just voted as historical since that's what it is for the most part with some paranormal elements. It's set in feudal Japan about the mythical snow woman, but I'm examining what turned her into that from a normal human.
The research aspect is driving me crazy though! LOL, I have a knack for choosing obscure times and cultures 😛
JES says
I've got those old "mainstream is not literary if I know what's good for me" blues, like a couple other commenters.
Remus says
Science Fiction.
My previous work was YA science fiction / space opera. The current WIP is a bit harder science and a lot more adult. Before that, my few publishing credits are all sci-fi.
Kaa says
Mine's a combination of genres. I picked "paranormal," but it's also a mystery.
I would have picked "urban fantasy" if that were an option. 🙂
Josin L. McQuein says
Trying out a few new YA muscles with a WIP. It's not my fault – the characters refused to be any older than 17.
Right now it looks like it's going to fit nicely in the paranormal genre, but it might stray over the line to sci-fi before I'm done.
T. Anne says
Love the poll. I'm doing YA general/other/ series. My 'other' is the Christian market with a cross over appeal to secular markets.
b.mousli says
I am a bit surprised that the result for my "genre" history/biography" had a 0%… I voted for it, but I guess my vote was not enough to make the needle bulge..
Is it really a declining genre? or are most readers of Nathan's blog fiction writers (a general category for many genres, I understand).
Also, to give a better picture of what I do I write literary biographies.
Thanks for the window in the world (and the work)
Rick Daley says
I had to clear my cache a couple times so I could vote for all three works in progress.
1- Suspense / Thriller. Currently involved in a complete re-write, 40,000 words out of target 80,000. This is my early morning project.
2- Early Reader. Just submitted a 4,000 word chapter book manuscript to an agent who expressed interest earlier this summer (when it was a 500-word picture book) but suggested some changes.
3- Humor. 12,000 words in, I really think I can keep it going for at least 60,000. This is my evening project. I'm not sure if it would be a humor novel or a humorous work of literary fiction.
Any advice regarding teh funny?
WORD VERIFICATION: wardshi. Mr. Cleaver in drag.
jbchicoine says
I thought there was such a thing as General Fiction/Comercial Fiction. Is that considered 'Other'?
Malia says
What about the 'tween years? The 11-14 category? I'm working on a fantasy series for late middle grade to early young adult. Can't forget about those in-betweens, can we?
Helena Halme says
My WIP is a literary spy novel set in London at the BBC Monitoring service at the end of the cold war, but I ticked suspense…a bit William Boyd, a bit Charlie Wilson's War.
Dan Holloway says
Well, this is the first time I've ever been "on trend", with my new women's fiction WIP. Which is a bad thing, of course, because by the time it's ready it'll be a long way OFF trend.
What we'd REALLY like to know, Nathan, is what your clients are writing now – beacsue that, presumably, is what'll be on trend in 2-3 years' time
kathrynjankowski says
My WIP is YA fantasy.
Interesting that Fantasy and Literary Fiction percentages are so close, in light of Pimp My Novel's recent posts on genre-specific sales (good for Fantasy, not so good for Literary Fiction).
I say, follow your passion, write the best book you can, and hope it finds an audience.
Or, as the mantra goes, "Leap and the net will appear!"
Kristin Miller says
Hard to narrow my vote down to just one WIP. I'm working on a YA dystopian, a MG magical realism, a MG/YA sibing saga and a YA literary.
I can't work on just one WIP at a time. 😀
Keith Schroeder says
My WIP is SF and will be ready to query agents in early September.
I see a lot of YA in the poll. My gut feel is that YA is at a peak, especially the paranormal/fantasy.
Fingers crossed SF is strong for my novel.
Reesha says
This is fun. Though I found it hard to resist the temptation of clicking on the section of bookstore I would LIKE my book to be in as opposed to the what it will most likely get categorized as. I'm already seeing it as misunderstood. It's Sci-fi Fantasy but written in a literary way for young adults with religious undertones and didactic conclusions.
Ok, ew. Now that I've classified it that way, it sounds like the worst book ever. But it really is quite clever, you know.
Word verification: hargend = a hard bargain
Kristin Tubb says
0% for middle grade historical fiction? Guess I'm really filling a niche, then! 🙂
Mark Brockman says
It causes me pain to classify my post-apocalyptic YA romance as science fiction.
Karla Doyle says
Again I waffle – is it Women's Fiction or is it Romance? The MC is introspective and deals with internal and extenal conflict, so it's women's fiction. Since I gave her a happily ever after, for now – it's romance. Damn categories, anyway!
Rick Chesler says
Currently rewriting /revising action-thriller #2.
My first was Wired Kingdom, coming May 2010 from Variance.
Facebookers, please join my brand new fan page:
https://www.facebook.com/WiredKingdom
Mahalo!
Rose says
I'm shopping around a completed YA supernatural novel with undertones of romance, betrayal and mystery.
I'm also working on a middle grade book focusing on 3 boys and their neighborhood shenanigans. It's loosely based on my son and his cul-de-sac friends. I'm laughing out loud as I write it, especially since it's all mostly true.
Anonymous says
No just plain old fiction-fiction? No "mainstream commercial"?
Yikes. That leaves me out.
Sharon aka Sapphire says
My WIP is a MG Historical Fiction based on the extraordinary things that regular people did and went though in the English countryside during WWII. The more I research, interview and write the more I am falling in love with my story.
Linda Godfrey says
Although I clicked plain old nonfiction, I actually have four WIPs: two paranormal nonfiction with contracts and looming deadlines, a completed-but-can't-stop-revising-it YA fantasy, and an adult fantasy too early to know if it is a full novel. Also another nonfiction, an offbeat and slightly gruesome — ok, horribly gruesome — history that is sold but barely started. Some day I do need to find an agent.
Nathan Bransford says
I tend to think that "general" or "mainstream" fiction doesn't really exist. What are some currently published books that you'd place in that category?
Scribblar says
I voted fantasy.
I'm writing steampunk and I'll probably be murdered for this but… I added magic.
And monsters, semi-divine beings, angels, demons, curses, sorcerers, clockwork robots, astral travel… and it's not Victorian, it's Edwardian… with several scenes set in the 1980s. And a climactic battle onboard the Titanic.
Actually, it's probably better than it sounds. I just really wanted to mix my two favourite genres and see where I went… so I merged steampunk with sword and sorcery.
I call it steam and sorcery, because it sounds better than swordpunk.
mardott says
The "where does steampunk go?" question resonates with me. I'd put it in science fiction – unless it's something like Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy. THAT's fantasy.
My first novel was time travel to the past. So it fits quite well as historical fiction. Except for all the SF elements…
I'm still not sure what to do with it.
Drgnwrtr says
I have 2 wip's both paranormal but only one a romance, it didn't start out the way but um yeah it sure got that way fast. It's in it's final editing stage hence the second wip.
Of course that doesn't account for the third, fourth and fifth wip's…
word ver:moatina (a baby moat?)
Douglas L. Perry says
Mine is a thrilling mystery, or a mystery thriller. I haven't decided yet.
Robena Grant says
I'm writing a murder mystery with a strong romance so don't know if I should call it contemporary romance with mystery elements, or mystery with romantic elements.
I get around it by saying I'm writing a book. Ha ha.
Weronika says
General YA with potential literary overlap. 🙂
Good poll.
Anonymous says
IMHO, mainstream fiction is work not specifically targeting one gender or the other. Men won't read (or at least shy away from) anything labeled or seeming to be women's fiction. Women stay away from the action-adventure stuff. If it's not a mystery, not SF, not literary, and neither historical nor romance, then what's left but mainstream commercial?
Calliopenjo says
My genre is typically fantasy with female leads and relationships. Urban fantasy, high fantasy. . . I'm not sure.
On occasion I'll tackle sci-fi. Not the hard core sci-fi though. I wouldn't be able to write the detailed technical aspect of that.
Some say my stories are YA because they don't involve sex scenes. Personally, I don't always find it necessary to include it.
That's about as close as I can break down the categories where my stories belong.
JuLo says
Am I crazy? I mean crazier than normal. I'm not seeing any poll. Was it taken down? Hope I'm not being a complete idiot here, but chances are good…
Nathan Bransford says
anon-
But specifically which recently published books fall in that category?
Julia says
I always though of my WIP as YA fantasy, but lately, having read most of the popular YA books, I think no agent will take mine as YA. Simply put, my novel is not dumb enough. It actually has a plot and my protagonist female is not beautiful and does not have any super power to compensate for it, plus I am not avoiding using 3 and 4 syllable words just out of fear that kids don't get it… I might, when the time comes, send it out as simply "fantasy" even though I always imagined my target audience to be my son's age – from 12 to 18 or so.
L. T. Host says
JuLo– I was just wondering the same thing.
Where's the poll??? (said in old Wendy's ad lady voice, nudging the blog with a gloved hand).
At any rate, my WIP is fantasy. Plain ol' gods and world-changing- fates-at-stake fantasy.
Susan at Stony River says
I hit "YA Historical Fiction" and it STILL reads 0% — oh, poor not-loved genre!
LOL
Jenna says
Nathan, I agree with you on the whole mainstream/general category.
But that said, there are a few books I'm curious about. How would you classify Garth Stein's The Art of Racing in the Rain? How about The Time Traveler's Wife–women's fiction?
I know these aren't super recent but what about The Kite Runner and Water for Elephants?
MeganRebekah says
Thanks for the clarification Ink! That actually does make sense.
Come time to query, I will probably just stick to "Young Adult novel" to keep it more straightforward.
Mercy Loomis says
Had to go with paranormal, because most of my stuff involves paranormal. But it's really paranormal historical, and no, NOT romance, thank you very much. (I save the romance for the short fiction.)
Of course, that leaves out the cyberpunk piece, which would be sci-fi, and the YA paranormal I haven't actually started yet, and the historical women's fiction I may get around to one of these days…
Nathan Bransford says
jenna-
Literary fiction, science fiction/literary fiction, literary fiction and literary fiction.
Although I'd characterize all of those as more along the lines of my invented category of "book club fiction," which is literary fiction that is more accessible and commercial.
And btw, that opinion is my own, no one quite agrees on genre distinctions.
terryd says
I think it's very cool to see this empirical, genre, shotgun pattern, Nathan. Inspiring, it is.
Mine is a post-apocalyptic, family saga thriller with SF elements (artificial intelligence) and speculation regarding future machine/gov't repression (it's for our own good?), set in the mid-future Sierra Nevada.
Whatever it is, it's due to my editor at Orbit Books on 1 May.
Best success, people!
Hayden Thorne says
Mine's a GLBT YA superhero novel. Really a sequel to a previous trilogy that was published by a small press. 🙂 Hope to get it done soon.
Laura Martone says
Wow, Nathan, I step away from your blog for a little while, and my whole world falls apart.
Right now, I'm struggling with what to categorize my novel – "literary" seems like a dirty word nowadays and "women's fiction" is too limiting, which is why "mainstream" is so apt.
Hence, I vehemently disagree with your opinion that mainstream fiction does not exist. Where would Michael Chabon or John Irving or Anita Shreve be placed then? They're certainly not literary in the way that Woolf and Faulkner would be.
Michelle says
Middle grade, with a small supernatural element. Kind of A Year Down Yonder meets James and the Giant Peach.
M. K. Clarke says
A YA, mystery/other.
An MG, other/spec fic.
An outline for an MG narr. NF, also classed as other.
Wow, talk about not pigeon-holing myself :).
Sweet poll, Nathan, thank you.
Damn, can't break this top 50. Y'all don't have lives, do ya? :p
~M