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How do I select the correct Genre?

Myr

By Myr

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Gay Authors has General Primary Genres (such as General Fiction, Romance and Fantasy) and dozens of sub-genres.  Authors can only assign sub-genres to their stories.  The primary genres are listed based on sub-genres selected.

A list of all genres/sub-genres with their descriptions can be found here: https://gayauthors.org/stories/browse/genre-tag/

To select a genre for your story:

  1. identify the most prominent part of your story.
    • Example: If you are writing a Romance, where you are focused on the Romance, then go to the Romance Primary Genre and select an appropriate Sub-genre. If your romance occurs in the modern day select Contemporary Romance as your sub-genre
    • Example 2: If you are writing a Romance that happens to be set in the Old West, you can select Romantic Western but if you happen to be writing a Western that as romantic elements you can select Western - Western Romance.  The difference is about what is primary.  Is it a Western that happens to have romantic elements or is a Romance that happens to be set in a Western?
    • Example 3: If you are writing a Drama, Coming of Age, or Rich Boy type story that is very common in our corner of the internet, then the Primary Genre is "General Fiction" and there are sub-genres for each of the examples above.
  2.  Select 1-4 Sub-genres.  If you are going over that, then it is highly likely your story has one of the following issues:
    • Not focused.  Your story cannot be crossing a dozen genres and have much meaning in most of them.
    • Experimental.  If you are trying to make an epic Western Fantasy Sci-fi Romantic Thriller Drama, I'm happy for you and your editor.  Good luck finding a reader that isn't turned off by one or more of that combination. If you really want to do that much, go to General Fiction and select "Experimental" as the sub-genre.  
    • Probably violating a sub-genre trope.  A fairly large number of the sub-genres are actually defined by their tropes. And if you're not following the trope, you're not appropriately using the sub-genre.
  3. A larger number of sub-genres can be used on longer stories, especially those stories in speculative fiction (such as Fantasy, Science Fiction and Paranormal).  Even then you should not be going above 6-7 sub-genres on an epic.

 

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