Why can’t choosing the right genre for your books be easier? I wouldn’t have any trouble with this if there was a Blonde-Run-Amuck genre.
“Mystery is a genre of fiction in which a detective, either an amateur or a professional, solves a crime or a series of crimes.” – Susan doesn’t solve crimes. She simply ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time, or she does something resulting in unexpected consequences. There is usually some element of mystery in the story, so I call them mysteries, but the books don’t fully fit the description.
“An adventure is an event or series of events that happens outside the course of the protagonist’s ordinary life, usually accompanied by danger, often by physical action.” – Susan definitely has adventure, but it’s usually the adventure of trying to stay alive because her own actions put her life in danger. This is probably closest to the description, but the books would look silly sitting on a shelf next to A Game of Thrones or a book by Clive Cussler.
The definition for chick-lit seems to be changing. “Chick-lit started out being about women typically who were single, in their twenties, often living the big city life and dealing with issues related to dating and careers.” –or- “Chick-lit is fluffy, light-hearted, brain candy.” – Susan has a career, and she dates, but that’s not the main focus of the books. They are a lighter, breezy read, but there is danger and adventure as well. I wouldn’t mind if the books were categorized as chick-lit, but I’m not really sure this is where they belong either.
Romance – There is romance in the books, but it’s definitely secondary. There are no sex scenes, and the books are pretty squeaky clean. There are happily-ever-after endings, but I’m positive they shouldn’t be categorized as romance.
Humor – There is a humorous element, but there aren’t any jokes, and they’re not that funny.
My books are literally a mix of all five genres. And they’re pink. And I’m blonde. I give up.
Why can’t there simply be a pink genre?
Breezy Books 
I vote for a pink genre!
Mine tend to be a blend as well
The trick is to choose the closest to what you have. And if you find a publisher that handles all three genres –if you are like three– just might make a great match!
Thank you for the vote. My books are 50k-56K words each – fairly quick reads. I self-published them as e-books, so my publisher doesn’t really know what she’s doing a good deal of the time. 😉
Ahhhh… Can you place them in separate categories, or do you have to pick a definitive one?
I chose mystery for my primary category, but I’ve seen my books on one site under romance/contemporary romance, and at another under women sleuths. It might be helpful in the long run that they are under a few categories.
Yes. I agree. The more visibility the better. Good Luck!
The whole genre/label/classification thing is worth a series of posts. You should work on that. ;-P
It might be a project for another day. 🙂 It’s all really confusing to me. By the way, I talked about you here – Surprise! You Can Buy A Review. I don’t see how I can link here, but it was my blog post of June 22.
You did! Too funny. I was fairly pleased with their service, and know others who’ve used it. Still, when you pay money for it, you always wonder. Push on.
In the last paragraph of that post, I noted that I bought your book. I’m reading four books right now and am up to Chapter 5 in The Valley Walker. I’m enjoying it very much! But I’m back to editing for tonight. Thanks for stopping by today!
Get back to work!
Well now that is a pickle isn’t it? What genre is a good question. I might have to think about this one, unless you’ve decided? Personally I think classifying under a couple of genres would work.
I’ve been calling them Chick Lit Mysteries. I finally put a note on my Amazon page under Sunshine Hunter explaining that the books aren’t your typical mystery and Susan isn’t your typical sleuth. I think that helped quite a bit.
Probably did indeed 🙂