Pass or Pages #Query Contest Genre Reveal July 2022

 

The genre for the July 2022 Pass or Pages is...

Family Dynamics/Family Saga fiction

Any age audience

Here are the important dates for this round:

June 28: Agent panel announcement

July 4-8: Entry window

July 25-29: Feedback shared on blog

For a recap of the rules and links to previous rounds, click here. Stay tuned for our agent panel reveal next week!

This genre was voted for by 68.4% of voters in April and May.
Thank you to everyone who voted!

Dear O'Abby: Why do I need to read in the genre I write?

 Dear O'Abby,

I've read in a number of places that if you're going to write something, be it science fiction, romance or YA fantasy, you should read in this genre too.

I'm just finishing a YA contemporary novel, but I don't really read YA contemporary. I read mainly thrillers.  To be honest, I didn't even think I had written a YA contemporary, but everyone in my writing group tells me that's what it is.

Do you agree, O'Abby, that it's important to read in the genre you write in, or is this just a myth?

Best,

Confused Reader

Dear Confused Reader,

The fact you didn't even realize you've written a YA contemporary is all the more the reason why you definitely need to read in the genre you write.  Not exclusively, of course, but it is definitely important to read new books in your genre so you can keep abreast of any trends.  If you're in your 40s now, and haven't read YA since high school, you might be surprised at how much the genre has changed in those intervening years.  Things that may only have been hinted at in novels published 30 years ago are no longer taboo and can be writ large across the page. 

But you may not have written a YA novel at all.  It's very easy to tell a new writer that because the protagonist of their book is a teenager, it's YA.  This is not always the case.  All YA novels tend to have teenage protagonists, but I can think of several books with teen protagonists that I would not categorize as YA because the themes, voice and subject matter are definitely adult.

Apart from understanding the genre you're writing, there are numerous other reasons to read the genre you write.  If you are planning to query agents, reading books similar to your own and digging into the acknowledgements may help you to find agents who represent books like yours.  If you're planning to submit to publishers yourself, knowing which imprints and publishers take books like yours will save you time and rejections.

Having good, recent comp titles to the book you've written is important as it can be useful shorthand when trying to describe what it is you're trying to sell.  Agents and publishers often ask for comp titles, and it's important that you have recent ones at your finger-tips.  Even novels from five years ago might not swing it as comp titles, so you need to read recent books.

If you're planning to self-publish, understanding your audience is even more important.  You will need to be able to design (or brief a designer) cover art that is eye-catching and in line with other covers in your genre.  You will need to write back-cover copy that will appeal to your audience and draw them in.  And most importantly, you will need to know where your audience is and how best to reach them. Without reading with this community, you will find it harder to engage with them in an authentic way.

Hopefully this has been helpful and you will discover some wonder YA contemporary novels to devour.  If you need any suggestions, just let me know.  I read a LOT of YA contemporary because that's what I write.

X O'Abby

Dear O'Abby: I don't like fantasy. Can I critique it?

Dear O'Abby,

I recently reached out on Twitter to try and find some new writers to critique my latest book.  I got a few replies and a couple of people wanted to trade manuscripts, which I was happy with.  The thing is, one of the books I've been sent to critique is fantasy.  And I don't write fantasy.  I don't even read it. I actually kind of hate it.

I don't want to let this other writer down when he's offered to read for me, but I also don't know that I can critique fantasy in a helpful way.

What would you do?

Best wishes,

Anti-fan(tasy)

Dear Anti-fan(tasy),

I hear you!

I'm not the biggest fantasy fan on the globe either, and would never pick it as a genre to read on my own.

But I do critique it when asked.  One of my longest-term critique partners is a fantasy writer and I've been critiquing for her over ten years now.  She has been critting my YA contemporary writing for just as long.  In fact, none of my regular critique partners writes in my genre.  They write horror, sci-fi, fantasy and romance, but they all help make my work better.

At the end of the day, a story is a story, and writing is writing.  The genre doesn't matter when you're looking at a book in terms of its story, character and style.  In fact, you may actually be more helpful to this other writer than the fantasy readers she may already have had looking over her MS in that you don't know the tropes of the genre and can point things out that may not make sense.

The most important thing is to read this MS as a story and point out places where it drags or where you don't understand something, or where a character says or does something inconsistent with the way they've behaved previously.  Y'know...  all the stuff you do when you are critiquing a story that is within your usual genre.

You will probably learn something new by doing it.  I certainly learn a lot about pacing and world building each time I read for my fantasy-writing crit-partner because she manages to create amazingly complex societies with their own set of rules and moral codes, yet I never feel like I'm being told about them.  I just find I get to the end of the book with an understanding of how these imagined world work.  That's clever world-building!

I hope you find this trade valuable.  You may have found your next long-term crit-partner.

X O'Abby

What is Genre?

While it may seem simple to discuss the definition of genre and provide examples at this point, I am finding in my research on genres for Q: What Are You Reading? series that even I need a refresher on the basics. Particularly since I have not read many books in several of the categories you will learn about in the coming months on Tuesdays.

Genre is the organization and classification of writing according to The Writer's Dictionary. Here are some videos that explain genre more in depth, available here and here.

I was introduced to Story Grid recently, which is a system for planning and analyzing novels. The scenes that are expected in each genre are a key point in using Story Grid successfully. Check out information about the Five Leaf Genre Clover here, with information about Content, Time, Structure, Reality, and Style.

There are differences between fantasy for young adults and fantasy for adults. There is also a category for middle grade. Overall, genre is a way to organize writing into categories that make it easier to find what you want to read. I'm excited to share some reading suggestions in a variety of genres. Join me on Tuesdays for reading lists and suggestions.

Dear O'Abby: I Don't Know What Genre My Book Is

Dear O'Abby,

I'm getting conflicting advice about what genre I should say my book is, and as I get close to querying, it's beginning to stress me out because I need to start thinking about which agents to target.  I thought I'd written a supernatural horror, but several of my readers tell me they think it's a thriller, an urban fantasy or even magic realism.

How do I know which it is?

Yours,

Jittery

Dear Jittery,

At the end of the day, you're the one who knows your book best and if you believe it's supernatural horror, then it probably is.  Maybe it has thriller and fantasy elements, but is still primarily a horror story.

That's okay.  Most books aren't 100% one genre or another.  The key is to identify its primary genre and call it that.  A good way to do this is to go to a bookstore and look at where books similar to yours sit on the shelf.  If they are mainly in the fantasy or thriller section, then maybe your readers are correct.  If they're in the horror section, then you are on the right track and you should query the book as a horror.

That said, if the thriller elements are a big part of the plot, you could also query agents who specialize in thrillers too, by just tweaking your query a little.  What is really important is that you pick one genre.  Nothing screams unprofessional noob more than someone querying a novel that's a YA historical suspense thriller mystery.

Good luck with the querying.  Do let us know how you get on.

X O'Abby

Dystopian and Post-Apocalyptic Fiction: Life Goes On

It fascinates me when there's an idea in the air that seems to spring up simultaneously from different places. There are writing trends in pop culture, but that's not necessarily what I mean. I mean two people in different places feeling the same vibe from this moment in history who get inspired to write...

Vampires.

Or cowboy space opera.

Or fallen angels.

Or dystopia.

I guess with that last one it's easy to see where the inspiration comes in. A world in financial unease and geo-political unrest. Newspapers sensationalizing every awful thing. It's easy to see where dystopian ideas spring up. In fact, this isn't a modern phenomenon by any means. This genre is as old as oppression and as relevant as pain.

STUNG by Bethany Wiggins (highly recommend, by the way) sprang up from the vaccine craze of the last few decades combined with the mysterious dying off of honey bees.

THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins sprang up from a world at war that is too entertained to realize it is at war.

ENDER'S GAME by OSC sprang up in 1985 inspired by zero population, genetic engineering, and the question of war-time military ethics.

1984 by George Orwell sprang up in the late 1940's in response to the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany.

MEMENTO NORA by Angie Smibert sprang up from uber consumerism and corporate culture.

WITHER by Lauren DeStefano sprang out of science's obsession with immortality.

PITY ISN'T AN OPTION by Jessica Brooks sprang out of economic depression and political disenfranchisement.


The overarching theme in most--not all--of these is that life goes on, however miserable things get, and that there is hope. 

Sometimes that hope resides in one person who holds the cure. Or in teaming up in the face of incredible odds. Or in sacrificing yourself for your family. Or faith in a higher power. 

Have you read something in this genre recently? What did you take away?

Genre, Genre, Genre

There has been a lot of news here in the U.K about horse meat being sold as beef. I'm not going to get all political etc., I know people do eat horse meat. That's not the problem. The problem is that people are being sold something different to what they expected. What was on the label isn't what is inside the package.

Why am I talking about horse meat being sold as beef? I started thinking about writing (I love that pretty much anything can be related to writing *grin*).

The fact is that, when writing, it's important to know what your product/novel is. You know your story. You know your characters. You've spent time on the plot. You might know all these things, but do you know your genre? What will a reader (or agent) expect to get when they pick up the book/query?

We know genre can be tricky. Genre's can be combined. Genre's can be invented. Not sure what genre you are writing in? Spend some time researching. Compare your book with already published novels in that genre and see if your book would sit alongside them on the Sci-Fi/Romance/Fantasy shelf.

There's always the temptation to try to fit your novel into the genre of the moment, but spend the time getting right before putting your completed novel out there. Only then will everyone know what they're getting without compromising your finished novel/product.

What genre are you writing at the moment?

Do the thing that scares you: switching genres

Is there a genre you love to read but won't even try to write?

For me, it's commercial science fiction. I absolutely love a story based in science gone awry. It tickles my brain and makes me feel like my world is much, much bigger than day-to-day life.

But when it comes to writing it, I chicken out. It's the preparation time, the painstaking process of creating an entire alternate reality: world-building. And if you just pants it, it ends up missing a lot of important elements, like a consistent history explaining how the current status quo came to be or a social caste system which there always must be. The idea of writing a science fiction novel is overwhelming to me.

Why?

Because I've been looking at the masters.

In a similar vein, I've always wanted to be an artist and never have been one. It's the details there, too. The shading and lighting, the organic flow of a subject's hair or feathers. My drawings are awkward, my eye completely untrained. I'm no artist. Don't you have to be born with that talent? Despite my American upbringing, I've always kind of believed that there were some things I just couldn't do. Like math. Art. Science Fiction.

Again, too much looking at the masters. 

While drawing with my five-year-old yesterday I decided to do something about it. See, I've been making a point of telling him that he won't be perfect at anything the first time he tries it and that everything takes practice.

"But I'm not good at tennis." 

"Keep trying. Everything takes practice."

"But I'm not good at reading."

"Keep at it. Everything takes practice."

"But I'm not good at writing on the lines."

"Keep going, sweetie. You're doing better than you know. And with practice, you'll get even better."

Suddenly the hypocrisy of my words hit me. (If you're a parent, you know exactly how this feels.) So I picked up my husband's sketch pad and a regular old pencil and, armed with a giant eraser, started sketching. Nothing original, yet. Like fan fiction or formula fiction, copying the art of others makes me better. I took my time, was patient with myself, and accepted that the first several things I draw will be goofy-looking. Sure enough, everything so far has been quite goofy.

But I'm doing it.

My first animal drawing: a crane

And someday, maybe I'll actually draw something I've only seen in my imagination and combine two of my great loves: art and creative writing.

What scares you?

Benjamin Franklin Homework:

Ben Franklin used to go to the library to copy essays from the great writers. When he was done, he'd set aside the copywork and try to duplicate and improve upon the essay from memory. Then he would compare his new essay to the master's essay and spot areas where he was yet lacking. Eventually he was able to improve even upon the masters' work. 

So your homework is to pick up your favorite sample of the genre or style you've always wished you could write, and read the very first chapter. Then, without looking at the original, try to duplicate and improve upon it. If a story springs up in your mind, by all means veer off and write your own thing. 

But above all, keep practicing. 

Scary Books: What's Your Fave?

So. It's October. That means Halloween is right around the corner. 

While some of you may be looking for the perfect costume for either yourselves or your loved ones, others are on the hunt for books that make them go like this:

Image here.

Personally, I love horror. 

But I also hate it. 

I hate how it gives me nightmares, and makes me double check my closet. I hate how I pause whenever I'm about to walk through a dark hallway in my own freakin' house. Yep. I'm a wimp. A big one.

Even so, I still carry on with my love of horror. Sadly, though, I feel like I haven't read enough in this genre. Which leads me to ask y'all for some suggestions for my TBR pile:

What's your favorite horror novel of all time?

Doesn't matter if it's MG/YA/adult, by the way. I'll take on anything as long as it's scary! :)

YA/MG: Genres Or Not?

Last week, the blogosphere was buzzing with great contests (including ours!). Most of them involved sharing a one-line, or 25 word, pitch of a completed manuscript. 

They also involved sharing that manuscript's genre.

I noticed a lot of entries that stated the following:

TITLE: UBER AWESOME MANUSCRIPT MADE OF EPIC WIN

GENRE: YA

or

TITLE: BEST MANUSCRIPT EVER. FOR REAL.

GENRE: MG

Here's the deal--there's a ton of conflicting information regarding what YA and MG fiction are.

There's Team YA/MG Are Not Genres. Then there's Team YA/MG Are Genres.

A few notables on Team #1: This post and this podcast. Both links lead to agent blogs. 

Which got me thinking, if most or some agents think YA/MG are not genres, are writers putting them off when they write 'My manuscript is a young adult novel' on queries or contests?

Maybe. Maybe not.

But just to be sure you're not making anyone cringe or hurl their stapler across the office, always be specific. 

Like this:

TITLE: UBER AWESOME MANUSCRIPT MADE OF EPIC WIN

GENRE: YA SCI-FI ROMANCE

or

TITLE: BEST MANUSCRIPT EVER. FOR REAL.

GENRE: MG FANTASY 

By doing so, you're telling agents/editors you know where your book fits in the market. You might not be published yet, but you have your facts straight. Did your homework. 

Personally, I believe YA/MG are a writer's target audience. The intended readers of your work. That doesn't mean they're the only ones who'll read it, but it was written with them in mind. To me, genre surpasses that target audience--it's a more specific category that tells your readers what elements they should expect to find in your story. 

So yes, please be specific. Agents will love you more for it :)

Now tell me: what do you think about this genre vs. not genre debate? Are YA/MG genres or not?