Entertaining blog post, will check in for more.

-Chris

“…so naturally anything that’s got kissing and super-para-preternatural expialidocious characters is bound to be tarred with the Twilight brush that’s currently uppermost in lots of readers’ minds just at the moment.”

You made me fall out of my chair, David!

Yay, Damian votes with me on those three! [happy dance]

My opinions were set in stone when I was probably about 11 or so, concerning paranormal and supernatural. I usually thought of vampires/werewolves as horror or fantasy, depending on the amount of gore in their stories.

I’d actually never noticed the word ‘preternatural’ until about, oh…15 years ago? Maybe? And it ‘fits’ werewolves, vampires, etc. to me.

Guess it keeps boiling down to what each person thinks they mean, and like David said, what readers are hearing at the time they’re reading certain stories.

But I’m sticking with Shadow Connor as a preternatural fantasy series, by gum! >:)

Categories of writing used for marketing purposes seem pretty disconnected from the words’ real meanings to me sometimes. I would agree that I’d categorise it as dark urban fantasy over paranormal romance. Because the internet doesn’t have shelf space, I think that’s OK, where in a real bookstore you wouldn’t have room to do that, most likely. To a large extent I think people categorise according to whatever they’re hearing and reading about at the time, so naturally anything that’s got kissing and super-para-preternatural expialidocious characters is bound to be tarred with the Twilight brush that’s currently uppermost in lots of readers’ minds just at the moment. With Twilight itself that category is fine, because (from what I can gather) the story is primarily a teen romance, with fantastic elements there to carry the plot. Where the reverse is true, the categorisation doesn’t seem to sit right.

I think largely I agree with Jo’s list (plus Damian’s additions) but I’d use Translation and Anthology as descriptors under other categories — since I’d never buy something just (or primarily) because it was translated or an anthology.

We must all break things up more and more depending on our affection or interest in an area.

Jo’s 12 sound good, but I’d include the big headings of horror and fantasy, both with their multitudes of sub-categories (and magical realism would then be a sub cat of fantasy). Well, that’s how I’d feel about it, but I like to read within horror/sci-fi/fantasy.

Then there’s ‘adventure’, which seems to be what you get if you swap out romance for action.

Heh, I can too so start my own niche genre!

“Paranormal romance is a sub-genre of the romance novel.

A type of speculative fiction, paranormal romance focuses on romance and includes elements beyond the range of scientific explanation, blending together themes from the genres of traditional fantasy, science fiction, or horror.

Paranormal romance may range from traditional category romances, such as those published by Harlequin Mills & Boon, with a paranormal setting to stories where the main emphasis is on a science fiction or fantasy based plot with a romantic subplot included.

Common hallmarks are romantic relationships between humans and vampires, shapeshifters, ghosts, and other entities of a fantastic or otherworldly nature.

Beyond the more prevalent themes involving vampires, shapeshifters, ghosts, or time travel, paranormal romances can also include books featuring characters with psychic abilities, like telekinesis or telepathy.

Paranormal romance has its roots in Gothic fiction. Its most recent revival has been spurred by turn of the century technology, e.g. the internet and electronic publishing. Paranormal romances are one of the fastest growing trends in the romance genre.”

There was a link to a PDF file at the bottom of the Wikipedia article for it.

Click here if interested.

I’m too finicky. Sticking with my feeling that Dark Cravings isn’t paranormal romance.

For one, there’s no guarantee the characters are going to have their happily ever after, and that’s a requirement of romance!

[evil grin] Not any time soon, that is.

But I guess those who read and tagged it that felt Chelsea, Rance & Will were going to live happily ever after.

Wonder if they’ll buy the second novella to find out?

But you visit small presses, you’ll find that paranormal romance is the leading category for such stories.

Or Shapeshifters, Vampires, Werewolves.

It’s very irking.

We had a similar conversation what? Two years ago about genres?

I researched my butt off trying to figure out which my Shadow Connor series fit into.

It’s fiction, it’s fantasy. It’s set in modern time, so it’s contemporary fantasy.

It’s not urban fantasy, but alternate history, because my non-human characters are living openly among humans and have been since the early 1900s.

So Fiction/Fantasy/Contemporary Fantasy/Alternate History.

But then you have to utilize the categories readers have become familiar with whenever possible.

So I tag them with werewolves, vampires, dark fantasy and shapeshifters (since Wolven aren’t the only shapeshifters).

Obviously don’t want to tag them with anything they aren’t, but to make sure readers who like such stories can find them, I think you need to keyword & tag whatever elements a story contains.

I seriously never thought of tagging Dark Cravings as a paranormal romance. I’m not complaining that some of those who’ve purchased and read it have (it’s probably contributed to sales).

It is interesting to see what tags readers put on stories (at least at Amazon, I don’t know if they can at other sites).

I guess it comes down to readers being familiar with certain subgenres and paying attention to which they think a story belongs to.

Or I could head on over to the boards there and see about starting a discussion to see what readers think.

Now I understand what some readers go through when looking for a book, especially if it is science fiction, romance, or what you mention in this post.

There are much too many sub-genres now (IMO)due to those wanting their own “niche” on the shelf. Some way to be separated, set apart as it were.

Me? I decided on about 12 and stick with them. Or at least I try. If the story seems to fall in between, I will select the more prevalent theme. If I still can’t decide I revert to the most simplistic of them all: Fiction.

Those 12 I go by – and you will note that a few could be considered more a category than a genre.

Anthology
Fiction
Historical Fiction
Magical Realism
Memoir/Biography/Autobiography
Mystery
Non-Fiction (such as History books and documentaries)
Romance
Science Fiction
Translation
Young Adult

So where does your definitions above fit.

I don’t care who, or what, the protagonists are. What is the *theme* of the story.

In other words, I go by the what, not the who.

It is all fiction to me unless it has strong elements of romance, mystery, suspense, science fiction, etc.

Again, just because the characters happen to be creatures instead of humans or a hybrid thereof, I see no need to delve much deeper into the murky genre pool.

It’s just too confusing for this poor reader/reviewer to deal with.

However, again, for marketing purposes, publishers and/or authors may hold a completely differnt point of view.
.-= J.C. Montgomery´s last blog ..Sunday Salon: Down But Not Out =-.