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

• Siobhan O'Brien Holmes
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This is part twelve 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.

Already written your manuscript? Why you need to identify the genre now

If you’re already written a novel and still aren’t sure what genre it is, don’t panic – now’s the time to give it some thought! Being clear on your manuscript’s genre once it’s written means you can:

Find suitable beta readers

Remember what I said about finding critique partners who know your genre? The same goes for beta readers! If you can tell people what genre your book is, you’re more likely to find the right people to read it and their feedback is more likely to be relevant and valuable to you because it will take into account the reader expectations associated with your genre. Asking somebody who hates fantasy to tell you what they thought of your magic school story probably won’t result in constructive feedback you can use.

Find the right editor

If you choose to hire a professional editor it can really help to find somebody who’s experienced in your genre. If you hire a developmental editor to feed back on your horror story but they’ve never edited horror before, they might not know what to look out for. And if you’ve written a historical novel, hiring a copyeditor who knows that genre could help them spot anachronisms and things that might annoy fans of the genre.

Write the perfect pitch or blurb

If you know your genre, you can incorporate elements into your pitch or back cover blurb that will entice genre fans (or an agent) to pick up your book. Mystery fans typically enjoy finding clues in the story and trying to solve the case before the protagonist does, so you could show them in your pitch that this is exactly what’s in store for them! Fantasy fans are looking for magical stories so don’t just focus your character’s internal journey in your blurb and forget to mention her superpowers!

Approach the right agents

If you’re going down the traditional publishing route, you’ll want to query agents. If you don’t know your genre it can be hard to find the right agent for your manuscript because different agencies – and different agents within those agencies – are all seeking different sorts of books at any given time. Check out MSWL: you’ll find agents begging for middle grade ghost stories, YA fantasy, science fiction, steampunk, murder mystery… You might have the perfect book for them but you won’t know it if you have no idea of your story’s genre!

Do market research

Finding the right comp titles helps you sell your book to agents and potential readers because you’re telling them that people who loved book X will love your book, too. Knowing your genre will really help you find the most appropriate comp titles because it will narrow down your search.

Attract the perfect readers for your book

If you’re self-publishing, you’ll need to choose categories for your book when you sell it through online retailers like Amazon or add it to review sites like Goodreads. If you really nail your genre and subgenre, your book is more likely to be discovered by your ideal readers because they’ll be actively searching for books in your genre.