Why is genre important? Readers use genre to find a book because it gives them an idea of what will be in it. Defining genre has been a challenge for me. My main character is eighteen years old and in college, so my novel doesn’t fit into the young adult category. I have some suspense, some romance and some psychological thriller AKA horror elements. Here are some of the things I’ve learned about defining genre.

1) Learn Genre.

Go to a bookstore. Spend time familiarizing yourself with the various mainstream novel genres that exist and which authors write in each category. What sections are you drawn to?

• Mystery and Thriller can seem similar but there is a difference in the set up. A mystery is a mental exercise about discovering who the villain is. Agatha Christie was a favorite author in the mystery category. With Thriller, the bad guy is evident. There is a time clock set for when he will cause great harm. There’s lots of life threatening action involving the the main character in order to prevent that harm. Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code contains the elements key to a thriller.
• Romance novels are happy ending stories about relationships and the love between to people. Some noted authors are Nora Roberts and Nicholas Sparks, author of The Notebook.
• Horror has the intent of scaring the reader by inducing feelings of terror. The primary danger can sometimes be disguised as a metaphor for the larger fears of society. Stephen King is the master of horror with his exploits of the dark side of human nature. King’s novel The Shining has often been the dubbed the scariest book ever.
• Young Adult books feature a main character who is under eighteen years of age and still in high school. Middle Grade novels have characters that are usually age eight to thirteen.
• Sci-Fi writing combines science and fiction in imaginative concepts often involving the futuristic worlds of technology, space or time travel. Frank Herbert’s, Dune is a prime example of science fiction.
• Literary Fiction has a form or style that has been accepted as literature. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s,  The Great Gatsby and Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol are considered classic literary fiction.

2) Assess the sub-genre of your manuscript.

Each of the mainstream genres has multiple subsets. Here’s where the process can get confusing. A Writer’s Digest article shows thrillers can be categorized as suspenseful, psychological, technical and supernatural, even horror or romantic thrillers.  Does your story have elements that fall into another category? Ask yourself what percentage of the novel’s plot applies.

3) Write down your main plot points.

What happens at your inciting incident? What’s your binding point where your protagonist can no longer return to his world as it was? What’s the low point of your story? What’s the crisis at the turning point that leads to your climax? These key parts of your plot should help indicate which of the mainstream genre categories your book fits into.

4) Who is your screaming super-fan? 

What else would he or she want to read? Find half a dozen other novels that you think your super-fan would have on their bookshelf. Are they books that interest you? Do they fall in the same genre you feel your novel fits into?

Choosing the right genre improves the odds of selling your book. Give your readers everything you can to make it easy to find your book.