What’s
in a genre? I could go Shakespearean with the rose thing, but this really is a
serious question. How are they defined? Where do the lines blur? There has been
a rash of genre combinations and crossovers lately. Whole new sections have
risen in bookstores, claiming space from other genres. Other genres subdivide
like cells undergoing meiosis.
Romance spawns off Dark
Romance, or is it Paranormal Romance? Still others lump those in with Urban
Fantasy, itself an offshoot of Fantasy, but now there is Epic Fantasy, which
was originally simply Fantasy. And then Contemporary Fantasy. Does that include
Urban Fantasy? Are the related?
Where’s
a Venn diagram of book genres when you need one?
And
let’s not get started on the young adult versions of all of these.
Is
it any wonder that trying to pick a genre to submit to an agent can become a
headache?