# Genre Hell



## felix (Nov 6, 2011)

I'm in need of help. I've been sending my first novel off to a few agent over the last month or so, got a few rejections, as expected. My problem is that despite my efforts, I simply cannot confidently pigeon-hole the manuscript into a single genre. I feel that it's literary fiction, but elements of the book could potentially drag it into fantasy or commercial fiction. 

Now, I'm not a fantasy fan, or writer. I'm not one for wizards or goblins, so I don't mean that vampires appear in the MS. To set it out straight, my novel follows a small community coping with famine, many years after a worldwide cataclysm, in which most of the world's population simply vanishes. The nature of the disaster is intentionally ambiguous and is a source of conflict throughout; some believe that they are living in the times of Tribulation after the 'Rapture', whilst others merely see it as a horrible event. 

"Ah," you say, "It's a post-apocalyptic piece?"

I thought that perhaps it was, but it's not. The focus of the novel is on the characters, following what is most definitely not a fantasy plot line, and the 'end of the world' environment was simply the most convenient way to tell the story. 

My problem is that I feel that setting up the apocalyptic environment skews the genre placement and I'm just not confident with making a real, honest pitch to an agent with it as things are. 

I know that making a pitch with it placed as fantasy would go without trouble, but I don't want to write fantasy and I didn't; I wrote literary fiction. 


If you could give me a hand here, I'd be your personal man-slave for a week.


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## Leyline (Nov 6, 2011)

You wrote speculative fiction. Much speculative fiction is literary in style -- makes it no less speculative fiction. That's an acceptable umbrella term to use in a query/pitch.

For example, Kelly Link's work is a literary as it comes _and_ as speculative as it comes -- to the point where literary style informs the speculation and vice versa, creating something quite unique.

She calls it fantasy, though.


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## TWErvin2 (Nov 6, 2011)

The semi post-apocalyptic story probably would fall more closely to science fiction than fantasy if you were seeking agents that represented the offshoot genre, other than literary. Or as Leyline indicated, speculative fiction.If you "don't want to write fantasy and I didn't" then continue to send it to agents that represent literary fiction and indicate the story takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting.


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## felix (Nov 7, 2011)

I must say that I feel incredibly stupid and that speculative fiction never occurred to me. I'll certainly look into that, it's a big help. 

Thanks guys.


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## helium (Nov 12, 2011)

I think it would be a survival story since its about the characters interactions with this event


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## Leyline (Nov 12, 2011)

felix said:


> I must say that I feel incredibly stupid and that speculative fiction never occurred to me. I'll certainly look into that, it's a big help.
> 
> Thanks guys.



Nah, don't be so hard on yourself. When you're really close to a work, it tends to blow fuses in your brain, I think.  And I understand why you'd want to distance yourself from the 'fantasy' label, especially since -- in the current market -- fantasy is almost synonymous with YA literature (not that there's anything wrong with YA, it's just that you don't want prospective agents to get the wrong idea from the get-go!).

"Literary speculative fiction" would probably be your best bet -- it describes the tone and direction of the work, and 'sounds' like something crafted for an adult audience.


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## felix (Nov 13, 2011)

Yeah, it was just frazzling to try and stamp it into a single genre. As you've said, there's nothing wrong with the fantasy genre, but I believe that the story focuses on the characters, and that the 'end of the world' environment is merely one which has lost most of its inhabitants, and is inconsequential to the story for the most part.  

I think that literary speculative is probably my best bet, that's very encapsulating. I shall report back!


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