Have you even wanted to write or read a book which doesn’t quite fit into the norm of genre?
For the writer
Here’s some useful advice for the writer on current trends, how to go about writing such a novel and how to pitch it or market it once it’s completed.
For the Reader
Following all of this useful advice are places to look out for the ‘best’ genre bending novels available on the market at the moment. Why don’t you check them out?
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Moving on from my last few posts on Themes in novel writing I was planning to write a post devoted to Cross Genre and so I carried out some research, finding some wonderful articles on the subject and so I thought I’d share some of them here instead.
Why reinvent to wheel?
Cross Genre Novels Explained
writing-cross-genre-novels-trends-marketing-insights
An excellent blog which gives:
- an overall picture of what ‘cross genre’ writing is
- the current trends eg science/fantasy and magical/realism
How to Write & Sell a Cross-Genre Novel
Michelle Richmond, author of Year of Fog
as well as explaining how to write and pitch a Cross Genre novel she discusses the need to:
- Recognize your primary genre—and use it as your compass
- Draw on your strengths as a writer, regardless of genre
cross genre writing
is a blog which tells you 3 Rules for Writing Cross-Genre Suspense
Lists of Cross Genre Novels
A good place to start for an up to date list of cross genre novels is
Goodreads
Other sites are:
Mysteryreaders.org
which lists cross genre mysteries collected in different subcategories
Postmodern Mysteries
Is an eclectic mix of ‘off the wall’ alternative mysteries.
Genre Bending Novels
And finally above is a list of 50 top genre bending novels brought out in April 2020!
Where does that put my latest MISSING, Past and Present?
Mystery is a genre of literature whose stories focus on a puzzling crime, situation, or circumstance that needs to be solved. … Many mystery stories involve what is called a “whodunit” scenario, meaning the mystery revolves around the uncovering a culprit or criminal.
Women’s fiction is an umbrella term for women centered books that focus on women’s life experience that are marketed to female readers, and includes many mainstream novels or women’s rights Books. It is distinct from Women’s writing, which refers to literature written by women.
…but it’s not a typical mystery. There are no dead bodies and there maybe no crime committed, just missing people
… but it’s not marketed for women. Many of my readers have been men too.
You see, the thing about Genre bending is that you need to have an open mind when you read the novel and not begin with any preconceived ideas.
Diana Jackson's Muse, Views and Reviews 
The whole concept of genre bending is the bane of my existence, ha ha!
Novels that I gravitate towards often end up being somewhat genre-bending. And when I go to write, I don’t think about genre, so I end up with something that is somewhat genre-bending: fantasy/sci-fi/historical/family saga. When I was trying to get traditionally published, many literary agents said they liked genre-benders, but they still wanted you to query with your novel’s genre so they would know how publishers would market it. Some even had drop-down boxes on their site where you were supposed to select the genre. Maddening!
Now that I’m indie publishing, I have identified my genre: “epic fantasy that is light on magic.” There actually are other books like this out there, and I’m looking to them for guidance as to what readers will expect with cover art.
It’s so tricky isn’t it. It is difficult to stick faithful to a genre because a novel has it’s own life and direction however much you plan it. I look forward to yours!