Goodreads Authors/Readers discussion

It may have happened to you. You write a story under a certain genre, then market it towards a certain genre. Then you realize (sometimes by reader comments) that your book doesn't really belong in that genre. Even if it started out that way, it kinda morphed into something else. What do you do?

That's happening to me right now with one of my books. I originally wrote it as a mystery, but without realizing it, my book morphed into something else. I feel readers looking for a mystery book to read are usually looking for a "detective" story, and when they see that my book doesn't feature a detective, cop, or investigator of any sort, they tend to hate it. (Technically, there is a detective, but she is not the focus of the story)

Another problem I get is that with mysteries, they are typically plot-driven, fast-paced, and short. My book, while having a story line that involves suicides, is equally character-driven as much as plot-driven, but more importantly, it has a lot of world-building. And it's long. Really long. (100,000 words). Considering it's part 1 of a series, I'm trying to establish the "world" where the series takes place in, often introducing characters and settings that don't directly deal with the main plot in the first book. Even though there are no supernatural elements, it has its own mythology that affects the events that happen later in the series.

But readers looking for a mystery don't seem to want that, based on the reviews I've read. I've noticed the story has traces of Thriller, New Adult, and Contemporary, but I'm stumped as to how to market such a book to the right audience. People who like world-building typically go for supernatural/fantasy books, so I don't know how they would feel about a series grounded in reality. Is this what the "general fiction" category is for? Books that have no defined genre?

And I find it interesting that there's no such thing as a "drama" genre, as there are in movies.

I've been working on a mystery, so I've been reading up on this genre. From what I understand, the heart of a mystery is just that--the mystery. A crime needs to be solved, and the plot centers around that. Readers are given clues and get a chance to figure out for themselves the answer just as the character tried to figure it out. If that's what your book does, it's a mystery. Otherwise, it's not.

Thrillers again, follow their name--they're about thrilling the reader with tense action. There may be a mystery, but you might find out the answer well before the end, and you might even get to see the bad guy's point of view before the main character figures it out, because it's more about the danger to your main character.

So what would you say is your main plot? That's your genre.

Interesting Roland. I would say go over your book and take in what type of themes and genres usually come up. Go over the characters and plot and make a chart if you have to and file each one and whatever you have the most of in a certain genre go with that. If its not truly Mystery consider that as a sub genre as for how to market it maybe until you establish what type it is consider what you said a general fiction or thriller genre book. Not much but hope that helps.

I think you should just name it what it is once you're finished. Isn't it okay that your book is not a mystery?

I wrote a mystery and there are no detectives or cops or anything. Something happened and it needs to be figured out. That's the mystery.

And, it's okay to have more than one genre. Don't get too hung up on the genre, work on making it good. I would say I'd read it and help you figure out where it fits, but when you put the part in there about it being long, very long, I got scared.

lol. Abby

Abby wrote: "I think you should just name it what it is once you're finished. Isn't it okay that your book is not a mystery?

I wrote a mystery and there are no detectives or cops or anything. Something happen..."


Haha, about that long part, I was just having some fun with a review that described my book that way. The book itself is about 100,000 words, which is on the longer side of the typical mystery novel. Not Lord of the Rings long, but not a light read either. I was just tickled when I read the review with it phrased that way.

Lots of good tips everyone, thanks!