Stories don’t always fall neatly under one genre’s umbrella. Romances can include suspense, mysteries can include love interests. Fantasies can include love interests and sleuthing…So what’s an author who likes to write across genres to do?
In his blog post last week, Chet Williamson described how self-publishing his novel as an eBook allowed him to reach new audiences by cross-categorizing his book, Second Chance.
What can you do to reach fans in multiple genres?
1. Choose categories that make the cross-genre appeal clear: Romance and Mystery? If you believe your book is a true mix of genres, don’t be afraid to choose both! In NOOK Press you can select five categories. If your romance features a suspenseful story line, check off the mystery category, too.
An important tip on category selection: When choosing categories, select from within Nonfiction or Fiction, but do not cross over between the two. If you do, you may find yourself with too much genre-crossing. Your family relationships-driven romance novel probably isn’t going to find many readers on the self-help page!
2. Make your sub-title “hard working”: After the title some authors include a description of their genre-crossing story in parentheses. Check out Michael Sullivan’s Hollow World (a time-travel sci-fi thriller). The parenthetical description makes it easy for readers to grasp all the themes and genres that this book covers.
3. Develop your own subgenre: If you write across genres consistently, consider creating a branded way of describing your genre-crossing. We like CJ Lyons “Thrillers with Heart” to describe her subgenre of thrillers. See CJ describe how she came up with this description in a video interview with JF Penn.
Thank you for this post. I write mainly women’s fiction, but it has a foot in the chick lit genre with a dabble of romance. I like being a hybrid author, but it certainly makes marketing a bit more challenging (as if it were not challenging enough!).
Excellent post, thanks! I write “whodunit” mysteries without explicit violence, sex, or coarse language, but they’re not your typical lighthearted “cozy” mystery. I describe them as “cozies with an edge.”