Children’s book genres: Why you need to know your genre BEFORE you write your book

• Siobhan O'Brien Holmes
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This is part eleven of my serialisation of my kidilt genre course Space opera, steampunk and slashers, oh my! I’ll be sharing the content here every week over the coming months but you can grab the full course now if you just can’t wait! Read on for lessons with videos and transcripts.

Why should you pick a genre before you start plotting?

It might sound strange to think about your genre’s categorisation and how you’ll market it before you’ve even started writing. Where’s the fun in that? You can worry about labels later! But thinking about genre upfront can be a really great way to make sure you’re not straying too far from reader expectations when you write, plus it can help you stay on track with your story: does that wild subplot about the next-door neighbour turning into a dragon fit this cyberpunk fantasy? Will supernatural horror fans love it if the creepy monster in the closet turns out to have been a cute little mouse all along? Will YA romance readers feel satisfied when your protagonist’s love interest gets eaten by zombies just before they have their first kiss?

The answer to all of those questions is ‘probably not’. But those ideas absolutely could work brilliantly in a different genre!

Writing a book and then trying to retrofit it into a genre category can be hard work. Say you’ve written a story about a killer stalking a small town, picking off kids one by one, and now you’re trying to decide where it should sit on the shelf. You think the premise sounds like horror but you didn’t actually make it scary. So you call it a murder mystery, instead, except you revealed the killer right at the start. Now what?

By nailing your genre and subgenre early on, you can:

Choose whether to incorporate the genre tropes and conventions that readers expect

If you know which genre you’re writing in, you can make informed choices about which tropes, devices and common themes to include in your manuscript. Maybe you’re writing a cosy mystery and you know fans will expect an amateur detective to solve the case and save the day: it’s your choice whether you align with that expectation or not but at least you won’t be surprised if readers question your choice! You might decide to subvert expectations and put a twist on that ‘amateur detective’ trope (like Alasdair Beckett-King’s Montgomery Bonbon, the ten-year-old amateur sleuth who dresses as a middle-aged detective and tricks the police into inviting her onto cases), deliberately building a fresh approach into your manuscript and then making a feature of it in your agent queries or marketing materials, rather than trying to retrospectively cover up the fact that you didn’t know the genre very well to start with.

Identify if it’s middle grade or YA

It can be tricky figuring out the right audience for your novel but nailing your genre can help. If you know you definitely want to write a slasher horror, it’s probably going to be YA rather than middle grade. If you’re itching to write an animal fantasy, it’s likely to be aimed at a younger readership.

Let the genre inform the tone and mood of your manuscript

If you know you’re writing a gothic romance, you can introduce a dark, moody vibe and foreboding setting from the first page while a lighter, contemporary romance might be funnier and more upbeat in tone.

Picture your ideal reader

Often when we write a children’s book we’re imagining those readers clutching the paperback to their chest and telling all their friends they just have to read it. If you know what genre you’re writing, you’ll get a much clearer picture of that future reader: are they a steampunk fan? A gamer who loves LitRPG? That can help you stay true to your vision of the book, writing a story you know that your reader’s going to fall in love with.

Keep your word count in check

Middle grade and YA come with typical word counts and anything radically longer or shorter in length is likely to get passed over by agents and, even worse, readers. But certain genres, particularly science fiction and fantasy, often come with longer word counts to allow for all the rich world building and exposition that other genres might not need. So being aware of your genre upfront means you’ll have a better idea of your manuscript’s ideal length.

Find the right writing group or critique partner to support you

You might decide to join a writing group or seek out a writing partner to work with while you write, getting ongoing support and feedback on your drafts. By being clear on your genre with those people you’ll be more likely to find the perfect partner to critique your work, rather than sharing your contemporary romance draft with somebody who only reads westerns.

Study the market and get a feel for what’s already out there

Lots of authors don’t feel comfortable reading within their genre while they write a draft in case other writers influence their work. Personally, I think it’s a great thing to be influenced by other people’s work – particularly modern work that’s being published today! You absolutely shouldn’t pander to the market and write for specific trends but it is important to understand what children are reading right now and what’s being published within your genre. On one hand, you won’t be reinventing the wheel by writing stories that have already been done to death, and on the other hand you’ll become familiar with the themes, styles, perspectives and approaches that publishers are looking for and that children want to read right now.