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20th May 2026. If not your current genre, what genre would you write?
This is your daily scheduled reminder that genres are just marketing labels.
I write SF/F, and I had a breakout success in 2007 with a novel about crime inside MMOs. In the UK, it hit its fourth hardcover reprint within 2 weeks of publication and my subsequent book advances quadrupled!
Turns out it went gold because Waterstones systematically misfiled it under "crime", not SF/F …
@cstross Since most book stores hide erotica from shoppers, whenever I can get away with it I would put mine in the romance category. It makes a huge difference in discoverability. And as @rubyjones said, the only difference between some of our stories and Game of Thrones is the label...
*takes notes on that whole mixed genres thing*
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Footnote (b/c I didn't actually answer the question): there's an alternate universe where I'm primarily known as an author of twisted crime/technothrillers set in our actual world. Which is not so far removed from the SF I was reading in the 20s …
@cstross There's this author, YouTuber and stage combattante who wrote a book about a romantasy author and her lead character, who turns out to be in her 40s who has no patience for her author. When pitching the book to publishers they went "what is this? It's not fantasy, because there's a plot in the here and now, it's not romance it's not this nor that..."
Categories are difficult.
Jill Bearup, "Just stab me now"
@cstross Techbro-Noir?
Install bonfire.cafe
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