How Do You Classify Your Work?
by klparry
First of all, I’d like to tip my hat to author Ray Bradbury who has shed his mortal coil at the age of 91. Three of his works, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man and Fahrenheit 451 are among the list of books I devoured when I first became a serious reader at the tender age of 16. I’d also like to thank Mr. Bradbury for “Something Wicked This Way Comes“. Though I never read the novel, I am still a huge fan of the film for which he also adapted the screenplay. Your gifts to us were undeniably brilliant. Bravo, Mr. Bradbury!
As many of you know, the work of a writer doesn’t end with the completion of your novel. In fact, the hardest part for the creative individual can come when we are set to the task of marketing our work. So when it comes to categorizing your novel, placing it in that niche, where do you go? For most writers, their works seem pretty straight forward. Horror, Romance, Science Fiction and such. Maybe it takes place in a dystopian society or during the turn of the century. And usually the target audience you have written for was determined the day you set down to write it. But in the realm of marketing that novel, is the obvious category the best choice?
Today I’d like to pose the question. Or questions.
How do you classify your novel once you’ve completed it?
Let me expand on that. Should you market your work as Y.A. even though it appeals to older readers? And for that matter, where should you place it in the subcategories? Just because you did a lot of historical reasearch for your adventure novel does that mean you should categorize it as historical fiction?
These are questions that I have asked myself on more than one occasion.
What are your thoughts?
Write on my friends.
~ K.L. Parry ~ Author of The Pirate’s Daughter and a King’s Ransom.
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Some of his short stories reverberate still — and my first, nascent work was an adaptation of one story for the stage at the wizened age of 16. For an author’s work to inspire such brazen foolhardiness is testament to its power.
Vis-a-vis “How do you classify your novel once it’s finished”: My thoughts are very pedestrian. (Assuming you the writer have not aimed for a particular classification from the beginning. ) Go to the library, pull down half a dozen books “sort of like” your own new work, and whether you like it or not, that’s your classification.
The YA category is a bit dicey, of course, because some of the most popular general reader books, genre especially, may have started as Young Adult, but found their audience in the wider public. But I think the authors knew that from the beginning, choosing to classify their works as YA was a wedge into the market, the foot in the door of a more receptive public whose enthusiasms are not yet hard bound by formal critical opinion.
Robert C. Fleet, author, SALT CITY (mystery), HEART OF STONE (literary thriller) and WHITE HORSE, DARK DRAGON (fantasy).
Robert, wonderful to have your voice here and learn of the impact Bradbury’s writing had on you. I also love your “pedestrian” idea. Thank you for your input. 🙂
Well my first published book is going to be a childrens bedtime storybook which I have decided to make into a series, so obviously it will be in the childrens genre. My novel will be YA, horror and fiction
Jim, you have it too easy..lol.
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