I hate genres. To me, asking an author to pick a genre is like saying “Put yourself in this box.” No one wants to be in a box. Least of all me.

Go ahead. Get in.

This came up again recently for two reasons. First, I was thinking of promoting my first book through a service, and tried to decide what genre it belonged in. They did not offer a ‘humor’ genre, so the best fits were Teen or Literary Fiction. Neither seems quite right. Teens might love my book (I have no idea what age my readers are), and it might be literary (though that usually appears to be code for ‘pretentious.’ Maybe that works.).

Second, I’ve been working on my second, third, fourth, and fifth books. Only one could be considered humor. Of the others, one is definitely pretentious – sorry, literary. One is science fiction. One is somewhat humorous teen science fiction. Maybe.

I know getting in the box would be better from a marketing perspective. The problem is, these are the stories I got. I’m not sure they fit in the box. I might have to make do without one.