Okay, so what book are you going to write?

When I ask you, 'what are you writing?' what I am really asking is this... what is your genre?

This is the very first thing any agent (like me) or publisher is going to ask you. What genre is your book? This doesn’t mean we want a breakdown of your plot. I want to know what kind of book it is. Now this is a one-concept answer. Like: It’s a crime/self-help guide/children’s book / Young Adult novel / a romance, or a memoir.

Not… "Well it’s a fable but it is written like a fable based on my real-life story. But it spans four generations of my family and their loves, lives and romance" Beep. No. No. No!

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Genre is both complicated and simple. On the most basic level, readers, publishers and booksellers just want to know where to stock a book when it arrives at the store. Does it go on the shelf labelled CRIME, or SCI-FI, or FANTASY, or ROMANCE, or a YOUNG ADULT? Is it going to go on the COOKING shelf of the TRAVEL DIARY shelf? Is it a memoir, a biography? Political or sports? Is it going on the SELF HELP shelf or the ESOTERIC shelf. Or should we stock it with BUSINESS ADVICE?

Booksellers need to know how they are going to sell your book. And they do this because this is how readers buy books. This is the business side of publishing. So you need to know this if you want to get published.

Genre also tells readers what to expect in your book.

You have two big choices first up ....  

FICTION (novels) vs NON FICTION (factual books, memoirs or biographies).

I need to know what you want to write if I am going to help you any further. If you are choosing FICTION, then you are going to have to drill down even deeper. Take a look at Amazon or Kindle and see how they list books into categories. Go take a walk around your local bookstore. Look at your own bookshelf.

Please look at my list of NOVEL genres here and Non Fiction Genres here

So what are you writing? Here's my challenge for you.

I am writing a ................

STAKE IN THE GROUND TIME