- Tristina Wright's "Another 'That's Not a Genre' Rant" - As the title implies, this is a full-on rant, but she makes some excellent points.
- L.G. Kelso's "NA is a Category, Not a Genre" - Another rant, driving the same point home.
- Lynley Stace's "Category v. Genre" - This one isn't a rant, but it supports the same notion.
Where do you stand on the category debate?
P.S. I've got a homemade infographic on the topic scheduled for May 20th at NA Alley. ;) Speaking of which, our blogiversary week starts today!
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| www.naalley.com |
Monday: Agents on NA
Tuesday: Editors on NA
Wednesday: Authors on NA
Thursday: #NAParty Twitter Party (with Prizes)
Friday: Rafflecopter Giveaway Day
34 comments:
I agree. NA is a category. NA contemporary romance is a genre. That doesn't mean I don't sometimes call NA a genre. Same deal with YA. Everyone knows what you're talking about when you say genre. Less so when you say category.
The confusing part comes with subgenres. We can't really use the term in YA, MG, and NA, because our subgenres are really genres.
Can't wait for the blogiversary!
Yes, it makes sense to define YA as an age range instead of genre. I've had the mistake pointed out to me before.
Category works for me. I just never know how many subgenres existed until I wrote a book that fit in one.
I don't *get* this whole genre/category argument. If MG, YA, and Adult are categories, and Romance, Horror, and Fantasy are genres, then it would seem only logical to say NA is a category. It defines a target age group, and within it can be included novels of all genres, so long as they meet New Adult guidelines.
Woot for NA Alley! :D
Of course it's a category. You wouldn't call adult a genre. It's just a differentiation, to separate the age groups: children, young adult, new adult, adult.
This discussion pops up every so often--tempest in a teapot, but I'd come down on the side of category. That's logical.
I say category, but am surprised by how livid some people get when people call it genre. Chill out, we know what they mean. It's not like I haven't literally misused a word before. (See what I did there, lol)
For me, category and genre are the same thing. I never got the difference.
www.modernworld4.blogspot.com
I think 'category' and 'genre' are just simple ways to classify certain types of stories and shouldn't be all encompassing.
Great links, as usual :)
Either way you rocked with the links this month Carrie. YA and NA forever!
I'm not really a fan of pigeonholing books into categories based on the protagonist's age, but I understand the general reasoning for it. Sometimes a book might have a character in any given age-based category, but the voice/theme/subject matter is more in tune with an older or younger category. I remember reading books like that all the time growing up, like adult books with teenage characters, or books marketed to teenagers in spite of having preteen characters.
The problem, of course, comes when agents and/or editors start referring to it like it's a genre. The same thing happens with literary fiction, which is not really a genre, but gets treated like it is.
I come down on the category side. With the recent Amazon Breakthrough Novel competition it was slightly frustrating because they had different "areas" to submit: Romance, Mystery/Thriller, Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror, General Fiction, and Young Adult. And while I'm grateful they pulled out YA as its own area, I almost submitted to the Mystery/Thriller one because my book has more in common with books that would be submitted there than it does to the melting pot of everything that could be submitted to YA just because the protagonists are teens. A YA mystery has as much in common (or different) with a YA romance as an adult mystery and an adult romance.
I have a rant on the same topic on my blog but my opinion will not be popular:
http://www.inkshard.com/on-the-stupidity-of-book-genres
Soon, it'll be like ordering a drink at Starbucks. "Yeah, I'll have a skinny, grande caramel macchiato..." *grins*
Same here. It was like discovering a whole new world!
You, my friend, get a gold star! ☆
It seems like most people are on the same page today. That's always a good thing. :)
The devil is here!
Oops. I mean, the devil's advocate. *grins* Welcome, Eric!
Thanks.
The Devil, huh?... Okay. I'll run with that. After all, who is a bigger "bad boy" than the Prince of Darkness himself? ;)
And it makes things so much easier to find. :D
I can appreciate your logic, Lee. :)
Haha! Oh, Ilima, you troublemaker... :P
As long as you're finding what you want to read, I guess it doesn't matter. :)
Thank you, Mark! :)
Thank you, Sheena-kay! :D
Yeah, there are elements besides age to take into consideration--kind of like how we count some historicals as NA. :)
Mmm... nothing like conflicting industry information. ;)
Whew! I bet. Hopefully, Amazon will revamp their categorization options--especially now that they've acquired Goodreads. :)
What? A girl can dream!
Well, they say there is no negative publicity... :P
I also think age range is more category than genre. When many people think of genre, they think of mystery, fantasy, romance, etc. The idea is about the type of plot and events they might expect, not the age of the characters.
Exactly! :)
Genre just boggles my mind. A story is a story and if it's good, it shouldn't matter how it's categorized. Sighhhh.
Things have a tendency to get complicated in this industry, don't they? It can certainly be overwhelming!
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