How does literary fiction differ from genre fiction? There are several differences, but also a lot of similarities. It’s a type of fiction where people win awards, considered a prestige category. It’s normally the kind that you are assigned to read in school.
Literary fiction’s definition is: a category of novels that emphasize character, theme, and style over plot. Basically, if you have a work that is more concerned with the inner character arc over the plot and moving it forward, that work is a literary work.
There is a lot of crossover between genre fiction and literary fiction. The determining factor is if the work is focused on the plot, or other elements of literature. If you are writing something, and you think it will be awesome to write the entire thing without using the letter c or something, to emphasize your character’s complex emotions around their own cock; that is going to be a literary piece. If, however, said character is going around killing people with a chainsaw that he calls Zip instead of using the word chainsaw (because of the letter c) then, it may be more of a horror novel. However, it does depend on how it’s written more than anything.
Literary novels have a tendency to use words like magical realism (instead of fantasy) and verisimilitude when talking about great world-building. Because this is a ‘prestige’ category, they have a tendency to use different words from other genres when they mean the same thing. The books are normally about the inner journey about one person. Someone said that genre works are about extraordinary events happening to regular people, and literary works are about ordinary events happening to extraordinary people. Basically, plot v. character driven.
Length
The length of the literary novel: anywhere between 40 and 120,000 words, new authors should stick between 70 and 100,000 words. Good advice for any new author to any genre, if you are attempting to get traditionally published, do not submit something over 100,000 words. Also, do not say that it’s the first in a series of 17 or whatever. Although queries are their own thing, their own post.
Thank you for reading!! Let me know if this information is helpful or if you would like me to write about something different.
For the first post on genre, I will go over children’s literature (or kid lit). We’ll talk about the requirements for each category within this varied genre. Without further ado, let’s talk about genre: children’s literature.
This genre is unique, in that children (not even young adults) don’t determine what they read. There are librarians, teachers and parents who look over each book and decide if it’s appropriate for the audience before they get a chance to read it.
The genre is also broken down by age. We have infants, the books in the case of small babies are for parents to read to their children. Then, we have toddlers and young children who are still read to. It’s only after children begin school that they start reading on their own. Once they are in school, books start out easy and then get more difficult as their reading levels increase. I go into detail for each age below:
Board Books
Board books are designed for infants and toddlers, before they can read. The children at this time are called “pre-readers.” The word count is 300 max, some having 10-20 words. They should have no more than 10 pages. Board books are heavy on illustrations and convey early learning objectives such as colors, or numbers.
Picture Books
Picture books are designed for young children. The children who these books are for are around ages 2-7. They word count expectations are no more than 900, with 500 or fewer being best. 32 pages is standard, but there can be a max of 56. Picture books are also designed to be read to the child. It should one plot, one question to the child, and answer the question and resolve the plot at the end. Most of all, it should be very simple.
Easy/Beginning Readers
Easy readers are for children who are just learning how to read on their own. They are for children between 5 and 8 years old. The word count expectations are from 750-1,500 words. They introduce beginning readers to the concept of chapters, they have slightly more words than a picture book. They present one concept, idea, or theme to a beginning reader. Furthermore, they are usually lighthearted in tone.
Chapter books in children’s literature are written for children around 7-10 years old, and are meant for children who are becoming fluent readers. The word count expectations are 4-12,000 words. Chapter books are not typically longer than 100 pages. These books begin to get into the more complex world of story, we begin to see setbacks, possibly a subplot. The sentence structures are more complex, but the paragraphs remain short, at two to four sentences long. There are few to no illustrations. The protagonist is normally 8 to 9, as this is the upper limit for children who read these books, and children typically read about children who are older than they are.
Middle Grade
Middle grade books are for children who haven’t yet started middle school yet, typically children 8-12 years old will read these. The word count expectations are 20-40,000, depending on the publisher. They are over 100 pages. Middle grade books have longer chapters than chapter books (above). Will not have any illustrations. The content categories are similar to adult books (mystery, thriller, etc.) Series are very popular with middle grade readers. Any intense content will push the book up into another category (YA comes next).
Young Adult
Young adult books are for ages 12 to adult. Word count expectations are 40-75,000. Content categories are the same as adult books, they read like adult books. Young adult books are often coming-of-age stories. A lot of identity stuff takes place in the young adult literature world, which makes sense. There are books about first loves, first heartbreaks, finding yourself after loss. These things are fantastic to have in this world, because the kids going through these things need a way to identify what is happening to them isn’t unique, and yet it is unique because they are all unique people who need works of fiction to help them through their time.
So, there are all the kid lit categories, in one place. I decided to make this post because I keep seeing people asking if the query for their 100,000 word YA book is any good. Which, yeah, I’m sure that the query is fine. However, the book is too long. I know that there are probably a million of these. But, I just wanted to add my part. Make sure that I am another place where people can get the information they need. Hopefully one day someone will see this, and they will realize that they can’t have a world count of 300 for a Board book or something. And then, my life will be complete.
Thanks for reading! Let me know if you would like to see more of this, or if you need different stuff.
This post is the first in a series where we discuss each genre in depth, so that you can have an understanding about each genre and the expectations for each. But, before we do that, let’s think about why this information is important? Genres, what are they, and why is it important to know your genre and the expectations that the audience has when you write in it?
Starting with an example. Let’s say you want to write a horror novel, but you decide to subvert those expectations, and make it from the point of view of the killer. Totally fine, seems like a great idea. But, if you don’t understand that the genre has expectations to start the atmosphere of dread early on in the story, that you are supposed to be giving your audience that delicious rush of anxiety and adrenaline as they worry if their favorite character is safe; you may fall into the mistake of creating a happy atmosphere instead of one that stokes the dread in the story. Your killer may be excited about what they are doing, but that isn’t the right tone for a horror novel.
Let’s start with a list of the different genres and a brief summary of what each one is:
Before we dive into the genres, I am going to say that my list is generalized, and I will put as much information into each specific post for each genre, but this is a brief overview of the general genres.
Children’s Fiction
Literary Fiction
Historical
Young Adult
Religious
Western
Thriller
Action-Adventure
Comedy
Crime and Mystery
Fantasy
Sci-Fi
Romance
Horror
There are a lot of sub-genres for each genre. What I will do is go into each genre specifically. I will do an overview of what the genre expectations are for each genre. The general things to know are word count expectations, and then normal plot devices. For example, in a mystery, the readers expect that a person will die within the first chapters of the book, and then that protagonist will be tasked with finding the killer, and they will somehow able to do it when others can’t. A book is not a mystery if there are not several suspects running around with means/opportunity and motive.
Essentially, when looking to publish in any genre, you need to know not only the logistics of what will be acceptable, but you need to know what your readers will enjoy and pick up. There was the brief overview of genres: what are they? Please let me know if you have questions, if you would like to see something else, all of that good stuff. Thanks!
