The topic for #InkRipples this month is genres. Growing up I didn’t think about genres. If a book looked interesting, I read it. To be honest, I can’t even really say when I started to think about genres. Maybe when I worked at Borders? This happened to coincide with the time I started thinking about taking my writing more seriously and attempting to write a novel myself. But what are genres really for?
For me, genres are simply a nice way to find a book to read when I’m looking for something new. I have to admit, my go to genre is fantasy. Are you surprised? I love the elements of magic and being swept away into a new world, with new rules. This is also why I write fantasy.
When I feel like reading something other than fantasy, genres make it easy to pick a book to match my mood. This is even easier now that genres have their own sub-genres. Maybe I’m just more aware of them now, but it seems like genres have multiplied with each year that has passed since I was a child (and that’s a fair number). And I feel like they are still growing. All these genres and sub-genres make it that much easier to find books though, so I can’t complain.
I think genres do different things depending on what side of the publishing industry you’re on though. For readers, as stated above, I think they help them find the book they’re looking for. For booksellers, I think it helps make that next sale. The closer they can get a reader to the types of books they like, the more likely they’ll buy one. For publishers, it helps them determine what the competition is and decide what types of books they should be looking for and publishing depending on what seems to be popular in the marketplace. I think it might even help them weed through their submissions. If an author or agent knows exactly where their book falls, then they show they are knowledgeable with the current market and most likely have done their homework with their manuscript as well and it’s probably worth reading. In reality, I doubt this last part is true, but wouldn’t that be nice for authors if it were. At least that’s what I think.
What’s your take on genres? Do they help you find your next TBR book? Do they have another purpose? Do you stick to one genre or hop around?
#Inkripples is a themed meme hosted by Mary Waibel, Katie L. Carroll, and Kai Strand posting on the first Monday of every month. To participate compose your own post regarding the theme of the month, and link back to the three host blogs. Feel free to post whenever you want during the month, but be sure to include #inkripples when you promote so readers can find you. The idea is that we toss a word or idea into the inkwell and each post is a new ripple. There is no wrong interpretation. Themes and images and more information can be found here.
