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Q&A My book doesn't seem to fall into a clear genre

Genres are literary ghettos. They are places where people with particular and highly specific tastes (cosy mysteries, sword and sorcery, horse stories) can be assure that they get what they paid fo...

posted 8y ago by Mark Baker‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2020-01-03T20:41:51Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25348
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:45:54Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25348
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:45:54Z (almost 5 years ago)
Genres are literary ghettos. They are places where people with particular and highly specific tastes (cosy mysteries, sword and sorcery, horse stories) can be assure that they get what they paid for and just what they paid for. Not all fiction belongs in these ghettos. Much of it serves an audience with more catholic tastes who are willing to try different things (which does not exclude them visiting the genre ghettos from time to time). They do not demand that every book they read must contain one wizard and at least 15 elves, 6 dwarves, a magic sword, and one plucky heroine.

If a book does not fall into an obvious genre ghetto, that simply means it is mainstream in its appeal, or at least is meant to be. The term for that (unsurprisingly) is "mainstream".

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2016-11-24T14:58:21Z (almost 8 years ago)
Original score: 1