Help with genre definition

[Daphnesmate]

Please could anyone tell me what defines literary fiction and what defines mainstream fiction? I know I should understand this but I am a bit confused.

It's so hard to define. If you are a writer I'd just focus on writing the best book you can, whilst also thinking where it might be placed - think of Amazon and the way they say, "The person who bought X also bought Y" - which book would a reader buy alongside yours?

Thanks Hollow, a local competition asks for mainstream entries, I'm not sure if my verges on literary, though isn't literary entirely - it spans genres: you couldn't describe it completely as a historical novel, nor fantasy though it has an element of this in it, it would primarily interest women.

I always think of the Booker Prize when I think of literary fiction - those huge novels that are far more than a story and a plot. Think of something like Midnight's Children or The Tin Drum, that sort of thing.

I think often people mistake literary for well-written; there's a kind of value attached to literary fiction that people want for their own books, but of course genre novels can be well-written, too!

I would enter the competition anyway and wouldn't worry about it at all. I'd call it women's fiction if it will primarily interest women.

Thanks Hollow, my novel certainly isn't long and I don't think I would categorise it as literary more women's fiction I think but not romcom, it is quite serious and a tad gloomy: not a light read.

I've not given it too much thought but it's one of those things that I'd recognise when I saw it (like the clice about art).

Even when a literary writer takes a genre subject, to me the difference is that true genre fiction feels a little more driven by the plot whereas literary tends to be more driven by character and feelings and relationships. At the extreme end, literary fiction can function without much of a plot and be more about relationships and feelings. What a genre novel might touch on in a paragraph, a literary novel could take a chapter or a book.

There is a pressure to identify genre and what best sellers your novel would sit next to, partly to help marketing and partly to assess if it should be taken on at all. A bit difficult if it is a relatively new genre or combination or in a tired genre and agents and publishers are not interested though I suppose it's their money and there are still some breakouts.

Good luck.

I'm not sure literary fiction for new writers is as attractive to agents and publishers as commercial fiction. Would yours be commercial women's fiction?

There seems to be a full spectrum within the women’s fiction genre, and different agents are looking for different types. If you have a gander on some agents’ pages, you’ll see that there’s an appetite for everything from the very commercial right up to the upmarket, bordering on literary.

I wouldn’t let the fact that it’s not the next Bridget Jones put you off calling it women’s fiction

I didn't mean 'huge' in terms of physical size (though often literary novels are) but in terms of what they are dealing with.

I would just be concerned with making it the very best book you can, and send it off to agents whose job it is to decide where it'll fit. If it's good but not for them, they will recommend someone else, either within their agency or another agency.