Support for Indie Authors discussion

Hello all...I've been working on a novella, but I'm having difficulty determining what kind of genre it'll fall into.

Brief rundown...first half of the story is in a male's POV, power figure. Second half of book picks up where the male lead left off, but as the female's POV. The main characters' relationship blooms over the course of the storyline. There's no explicit sex scenes, although, there is a lot of testosterone in the first half. It is implied. The second half is more emotional and shows her life, which up until then was a mystery...has some dark moments. Their budding friendship evolves into more. As it stands now, it has a happy, but also not so happy ending. Some violence, but not gory.

Any ideas on what genre this would fall under? To me, it's not a gushy romance novel, but could be a love story of sorts, even with the darkness. Please help!!

Literary Fiction?

Phillip wrote: "Literary Fiction?"

That would be my guess, too. Stefanie, can you give a little more detail about the plot, the setting, etc.? As it is, it sounds like general or literary fiction.

Dwayne wrote: "Phillip wrote: "Literary Fiction?"

That would be my guess, too. Stefanie, can you give a little more detail about the plot, the setting, etc.? As it is, it sounds like general or literary fiction."

First off, thank you both for responding. I appreciate the feedback.

Takes place modern day. Both of the main characters are in their late 20's. Demanding boss (cocky behavior, man-whore outside of the office), prefers beautiful assistants until he's pair with a new assistant, one that doesn't meet his physical standards. No matter how hard he tries to get her to quit, she's doesn't crack under the pressure. Slowly, his outlook changes, and takes a liking to her despite her being closed off. When he finds out something about her, then the story shifts to her POV, picking up where his left off. Now, you see the world from her eyes, feeling her emotions. Her home life is bad, giving the reader an idea to why she's the way she is. You see her interactions with the boss and how she truly feels working for him while dealing with emotional and physical abuse at home.

Again, there's the love story aspect of it, but it's gradual and subtle until the end.

Another genre that covers a lot of territory is Contemporary Fiction. It sounds like you can make a case for putting it in the Romance category, but fans of that genre might not think it fits the formula very well.

Coming back to this thread because now I've been through some of the same "genre identity crisis" and I can relate.

I would have agreed that "contemporary fiction" sounds like the best fit except that it isn't a fit. It's a very wide genre, which means, for advertising purposes, you are going to be getting a lot of clicks from people who think they like contemporary fiction but not *that* kind of contemporary fiction. Near as I can figure, the only common denominator in CF is that it happens in modern times.

I'm beginning to realize that there are certain "breakout" genres that either the masses are more likely to click on or the algorithms are more likely to recommend to the masses. Romance is obviously one of those "breakout" keywords but I wonder if there are others. And obviously within Romance there are a lot of sub-genres that help readers hone in on their tastes.

The question is which genre and subtype is going to get you more readers. From what I've seen in way of advice, it is probably advantageous to dabble in as many as possible.

When I wrote my novella in 2018, I was unsure how to categorize it. I consulted the library of my local library.

Romance and thrillers are two big categories. You'll need to break it down a lot more. Look at the romance subcategories. There is dark romance, supernatural, mystery, suspense, historical, etc. There are tons of them. Start off with maybe dark romance and see what it brings up. Look at the titles and see if they are close to what you wrote. You can put it in several categories, so check several of them out. Look were the books stand in the store to get a general idea of how well that category is selling. It's all about playing with keywords and seeing where they take you and if your book fits in there.

Or do like Wanjiru...toddle off to the local library and ask the librarian where it would fit on their shelf.

I find this genre problem - I write ...well, non-specific fiction that gets labelled 'contemporary' - although I set my novels in the recent past from early 1980s onwards (that's recent past to me!) The label 'book group' fiction has been used of it - also literary/commercial crossover - but I agree it's not easy to find a good fit. I do write about love - how can one not if there are human beings in the story! - but it is definitely not romance .