Genre Expectations

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

This is another one of those posts that comes with a proviso…as a writer, you’re in control of your book and no one else makes the rules.  The advice I’m about to give isn’t for everybody and it isn’t for every book.   It’s directed more to writers who are looking for a leg-up in their commercial fiction category and who are primarily writing to a specific audience.

It’s also a post that goes hand-in-hand with others I’ve written on how much easier it is to write in a particular genre (if you have a mind to).  That’s because there are specific reader expectations per genre.

I know a lot of traditionally-published books are rejected by agents and editors because they don’t follow genre expectations.  An agent knows that makes a story tough to pitch to an editor…who knows it’s tough to market to an audience.

I’ve also been asked to read books by some indie authors who asked why their cozy-ish book was having a tough time making it in the market.  Of course, I looked at the usual problem-area suspects first (cover, book description), but what it really boiled down to was the focus of the story.  A cozy is (again, this is broad) typically focused on the mystery.  The other aspects of the story (a romance, supporting character hijinks, the culinary/crafty/pet-related hook itself) come in second place.   When it’s the other way around, it’s typically a really amazing author who is skilled in developing an audience for his or her characters.

I don’t like to rock the boat myself, so I tend to follow the genre guidelines very, very closely. In fact, I go farther with it.  If I’ve gotten feedback from readers on anything that they find objectionable, I make a note and take a tally.  That’s why, in my books published in the last 8 years, you’ll find zero profanity.  No one was writing to compliment me on my profanity in the earlier books, but I was getting some negative feedback on something that wasn’t important to me one way or the other…and so it was eliminated.

I’ve also received emails from readers asking me to give them spoilers when I’ve had missing pets in my books.  And I’ve emailed them back to say that (as per genre guidelines) there will never be an animal killed off in my books.  People?  Most certainly.  :)   Don’t get too attached to the humans in my books.  But I know enough about my readers that I wouldn’t imperil animals or kids in my mysteries.

That’s also where it’s important to know a lot about your specific subgenre.  Mystery is a wide-ranging field.  In thrillers, you’d definitely have imperilled animals or children…in fact, the more the merrier.  In police procedurals or noir, the same.  But cozies are different.

Using cozies as an example of a subgenre with well-defined conventions, reader expectations include an amateur sleuth, little if any profanity, no gore, and a puzzle solution that’s academic and not forensics-based.

Some writers will, understandably, find this limiting…and there are ‘limits’ or parameters in every genre.   For me, though, I find the parameters more of a challenge: how can I deliver something unique with every book that still works within the confines of the genre?

Do you write for a specific genre or subgenre?  What conventions are in your chosen genre?

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