Genres We Represent

“Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one.” ~ Terry Pratchett Obviously defining Fantasy/Science Fiction is hardly a task that can simply be reduced to a few paragraphs. Whole books have been written on the subject but let’s try, shall we? Fantasy contains elements that depart from realism and how we perceive the world, primarily centering around the magic and mythic. It often contains medieval elements but it doesn’t have to. Fantasy novels are set in imaginary worlds but Fantasy differs from Science Fiction in that it does not have to concern itself with explaining the how’s. However Fantasy does ultimately require an internal consistency within the fictional world the author has created.

Science Fiction in its most root form explores the consequence of science, real or envisioned. It explores the consequences of the scientific within society and the world at large. The science doesn’t have to exist currently but it needs a mooring to reality. While Science Fiction is an extremely broad genre with a plethora of sub genre’s and goals, it does tend to use technology and the relationship characters and or societies have to technology as a vehicle to dig in and examine the human condition. Imagination rests at the genre’s core but is somehow rooted and explained through science.

Science Fiction novels can explore almost anything, from the future to extraterrestrials, space travel to time travel. Any of these vehicles can be used to examine our experience as human beings. Perhaps Rod Serling defined it most efficiently, “Fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science fiction is the improbable made possible.”

Author Examples: Guy Gavriel Kay, Jacqueline Carey, Octavia Butler, Robert Heinlein, Frank Herbert, Ursula Le Guin, Neal Stephenson, Terry Pratchett, James Corey, Joe Abercrombie, Patricia Briggs

In most ways POC Intersectional is less a genre and more of a descriptive term around market, author and voice. We are looking to increase the representation in the world of publishing of people of color and marginalized people in all genres. We actively court works by people of color in a range of genres. We are seeking those who are writing from the margins, those who feature characters from those margins and unabashedly explore where those margins intersect. This “genre” area is for fiction that concerns itself with the exploration of race, gender, sexuality and class intersections in an active way thematically; literary fiction where identity with its varied facets and permutations is the focal point. It should be noted these books can and do exist neatly in other existing genres

Author Examples: James Welch, Daniel Jose Older, Helen Oyeyemi, Paula Gunn Allen, NK Jemisin, Audre Lorde, Atiq Rahimi, Gish Jen, Kai Ashante Wilson, Percival Everett, Judy Scales Trent, Adrian LeBlanc, Alice Walker,

“Young adult, in fact, runs giggling over many many genres.” ~ Chuck Wendig. Yup, he said it best. Strictly speaking, these aren’t really genres as much as they are exactly what their nomenclature implies, the age range to which the writing is targeted. YA targets 14-18. Middle reader targets 8-13. It’s simple as that…except not quite.

So what defines YA and Middle Reader beyond the age range? Middle Readers can be adventure based but don’t have to be. Their themes and language are usually more basic and ultimately tend to be focused on the external. Outside forces will affect the protagonist, plot usually driving the tale, but they tend to be less focused on the internal landscape of the protagonist. If edgy serious situations are depicted in Middle Grade they are almost always handled in ways that avoid overt graphic depictions. That is to say avoid explicit. A Peck on the cheek, maybe a quick kiss on the lips, whereas YA can start delving into more mature situations.

While, YA reaches a far wider and diverse audience than just this age group, ultimately its native language should first and foremost be teen. The young adult novel very much needs to convincingly inhabit the teenage experience in all its range, depth and shallowness. It is absolutely crucial that it be relatable to teen readers of the group. Whether set in space, medieval Europe, or sub-Saharan Africa, there are aspects of the developing teenage mind coming of age that are generally universal.

This needs to be at the fore in order for the YA to work. The protagonists in YA tend to fall into the mid to upper range of the targeted age group. The writing should be more complex than its predecessor, incorporating more sophisticated and mature themes. YA novels tend to be about overcoming one’s difficult situation, the teenage protagonists developing and changing through both internal and external stimuli and struggle. In YA the characters tend to have more definable development and employ their will and individuality on their environment.

Middle Reader Book Examples: Anne of Green Gables , Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Holes, Chronicles of Narnia, Artemis Fowl, Number the Stars. Early Harry Potter books

Young Adult Book Examples: The Giver, Shatter Me, Hunger Games, Monster, Immortal Instruments, The Fault in Our Stars, Zahrah The Windseeker, The Chaos, The Outsiders, Perks of Being a Wallflower, Latter Harry Potter books

“Above all, be the heroine of your own life.” ~ Nora Ephron. Women’s fiction is a broad genre that focuses on the lives of female protagonists and their journeys. Novels in this genre almost always are written by women, are addressed to women, and tell the story of a woman or a group of women. They spotlight the emotions and relationships of the protagonist and explore her hopes, dreams, and fears. The driving force is the motivation of the protagonist to traverse difficulties in her life and triumph in her own way, often with the help of others, but always under her own power. The resulting conclusion should be emotionally satisfying, with the exploration of self leading to a moving closure.

Examples: Virginia Wolf, Zora Neal Hurston, Terry McMillan, Amy Tan, Margaret Atwood, Tracy Chevalier, Sandra Cisneros, Candace Bushnell, Gillian Flynn, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Lionel Shriver, Isabelle Allende, Janet Fitch, Jhumpa Lahiri, Fannie Flag

“There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it” ~ Alfred Hitchcock Hmmmm, something is going to happen but what?” With the suspense genre, mystery can often be part of the story’s conceit but the genre’s primary focus is about apprehension, the building of anxiety and tension through making the outcome uncertain. Often times the reader knows elements of the story around which the protagonist is blissfully unaware. Suspense is about perspiration. Thriller will often add an element of fear and surprise. While Suspense wants the reader on the edge of their seat, Thriller wants the reader jumping out of his or her seat.

Author Suspense/Thriller Examples: Dan Brown, Lee Child, James Rollins, Linda Castillo, Steig Larsson, Paula Hawkins, Roxanne Gay, Stephen King, Pierre Lemaitre, Dean Koontz

“Who, being loved, is poor?”~ Oscar Wilde This genre’s primary focus is about romantic love that consists of a central love story and an emotionally nourishing conclusion. It can range the gamut as far as tone, setting, style and character but ultimately it needs those two elements to be present. Note: emotionally “nourishing” more often than not equates to a happy ending.

Author Examples: Nora Roberts, Nicholas Sparks, Janet Daily, Jude Deveraux, Stephanie Meyer, Danielle Steel, Zane, E.L James, Amanda Quick, Judith McNaught, Nalini Singh

LGBTQ+ FICTION “But if we had not loved each other none of us would have survived ~ James Baldwin This genre isn’t as simply defined as one might think. To tell you the truth one can convincingly make an argument that it is not a genre. Just as there was a danger in separating Women’s Fiction or POC/Intersectional fiction from General or Literary fiction it is true also of LGBTQ+. We list these genres as more of an indicator of the type of work we are specifically seeking. We are searching for ways to help get content out there for and about these marginalized communities.

Often it falls on the publisher to decide how they might want to market a book. Niche could work. Niche could limit. One might define LGBTQ+ by what readership you are attempting reach. Others might simply define the book by the sexuality or gender status of its protagonist. Insufficient.

Having a gay, transgendered, or non-binary protagonist isn’t enough by itself to make a book LGBTQ+, though as I said this particular genre is highly subjective and vulnerable to opinion. Ultimately, what makes a book LGBTQ+ for us is if the book emphasizes the exploration of the many issues facing the LGBTQ+ community and its individuals.

Book Examples: The Virgin of Flames, Giovanni’s Room, Valencia, The City of Devi, Dalghren, Closer, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Funny Boy, Orlando, Confessions of a Mask, The City and the Pillar,

For our purposes we are going to primarily discuss Early Readers and Chapter books. While we will be accepting all Children’s Fiction on a very limited basis, that limited basis will almost exclusively exist within those two categories, perhaps with the very rare, exceptional Picture Book.

Early Readers – “simple to read”. Starter books ages 6-8. 200-1500 word count 2-3 page chapters. Chapter Books – These help kids get ready for full novels, or the more complex. They are not often illustrated. Middle Grade Books – ages 7-10. Page range 45-60. 3-4 page chapters.

“The who done it.” This genre, while having a lot of latitude along lines of style, convention, and theme, ultimately rallies along that previously mentioned time tested question. A mystery is ultimately a narrative in which a detective, professional or otherwise, solves some sort of puzzle. Most often that puzzle is a crime or a series of crimes, but that is not always a given. There are multitudes of sub-genres with which to play and varied focuses to inhabit. While “the who done it” is probably the most common focus, the why or how are often the subject of a mystery’s exploration as well.

Author Examples: Agatha Christie, Ellery Queen, John Grisham, Walter Mosley, Deanna Raybourn, Katherine Neville, Michael Connelly

“What goes bump in the night…” Written with the intent to illicit fear, dread or to unsettle, the Horror genre itself can straddle any number of other established genres. In fact, Dr. Frankenstein, what some view as the first science fiction novel, many others consider strictly horror. While horror can have supernatural elements, it is in no way required. In some ways, this genre is inherently more difficult to define because fear itself, while primordial and universal, is also ever changing.

Author Example : Tananarive Due, H.P Lovecraft, Edgar Allen Poe, Clive Barker, Shirley Jackson, Bram Stroker, R.L Stine, Sarah Langan, Billie Sue Mosiman, Dean Koontz, Stephen King, L.A Banks, Jonathan Maberry

“The worldview implied by literary fiction is complex and ambiguous, trying to be faithful to the complexity and ambiguity of life.” ~ Nancy Kress This is perhaps the most amorphous of the genres. Some folks like to say you know it when you read it. For the purposes of brevity, we’ll rely on an good, but wholly inadequate, definition of LF from Wikipedia, “LF comprises fictional works that hold literary merit; that is, they involve social commentary, or political criticism, or focus on the human condition. Literary fiction is deliberately written in dialogue with existing works, created with the above aims in mind and is focused more on themes than on plot, …” This definition doesn’t quite encompass the genre, but admirably describes a number of its aspects. While the definition does fall prey to the elitist attitudes that are myopic, careless, and frustratingly enduring, perhaps a list of literary fiction might lend some insight to what we mean by the term.

Book Examples: The Kite Runner, The Bell Jar, Americanah, All The Light We Cannot See, The Alchemist, Kitchen, Invisible Man, The Lovely Bones, Left Hand of Darkness, The Bluest Eye, Life of Pi, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Slaughterhouse Five, The Great Gatsby, Crime and Punishment

Many of our editors are published authors themselves who know how challenging the journey can be. This is why writers from across the world contact us to support them with utmost care and empathy!
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