Trying to find the right genre.

[Baitball Blogger]

So I'm going through the list of literary agents and publishing houses looking for the right wordage to describe my book. Obviously, it needs to fall within their desired genres. I think my book is part thriller and adventure, but it would be helpful if I understood the full range of meaning behind those genres. Anyone have good internet links to a website that clearly defines the available genres and subcategories? Thanks.

[bluedigger]

1. You could start here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_literary_genres

[Baitball Blogger]

2. So basically obvious, I leave redfaced.

Thank you!

[bluedigger]

3. We're just here to help!

[valerief]

4. Here's another writer site with a lot of essays on all types of subjects, including genres.

http://suite101.com/search.cfm?q=fiction+genres&Submit.x=0&Submit.y=0

[SheilaT]

5. And of course your very question brings up the entire

issue of genres themselves.

My local library has a librarian who sometimes labels books in the most random ways. I'm a reader of science fiction, and I'm trying to remember which s-f author that librarian has in the mainstream fiction. I've also found books that could only be called s-f if you operate on the assumption that all fiction is some how science fiction, in the s-f section.

Or, if an author is considered "mainstream", her books will never be in a genre section. No matter what. If he's an s-f author primarily, everything he writes will be presumed to be s-f.

You can expand this to cover all genres.

My essential point is that you might want to consider your book to be mainstream by default, and start from there. Let the agent or publishing house label it, if they must. Unless you can call it a romance novel, and it's my understanding that romance sells incredibly well for the most part.

[Baitball Blogger]

6. I've decided on psychological thriller.

Though thriller suggests a roller coaster ride physically, the psychological part puts most of that ride in the characters' motivations. That's my loose interpretation of what I read.

That would cover it better.

BTW, I cannot believe how many agents want exclusive reads. I wish they would word that better in the Writer's Market. I would understand an exclusive read AFTER the query stage, but it doesn't make sense to send just one query to an agent and wait two weeks for an answer. Do I have that right?

[pnwmom]

7. I'm wondering if maybe you're misinterpreting. My experience is that most agents

only expect exclusive reads on partial or full manuscripts; not on queries.

But the advantage of not sending a mass query is that you haven't exhausted all your possibilities if you find your query isn't working. If you send it out to only a handful at a time, you can make adjustments as you go along.

[Baitball Blogger]

8. Just by circumstances, things are working out that way.

I have four queries out, and ten more agents picked out that might work. I have to wait on the other ten because my copyeditor and a relative who knows about planes and is going to give me background info, have yet to return the draft. When they do, I'm going to give the draft one last shake up before I'll send it to the other ten because they requested pages with their query.

Also, I'm still working on another project, which is important that I get it right.

Thanks for dropping in.