Genre and audience…

Are important to figure out early.

So here I am drafting query letters and researching agents and it’s making me think harder about genre and audience than ever before.

I write fantasy novels, but what about subgenre? Seeds of Power is mostly aligned with epic fantasy while Dreamcatcher is contemporary fantasy. There are romantic storylines but I don’t think my books would be considered fantasy romance.

Then there’s audience…

I had in my mind while writing Seeds of Power that it could fit for a YA or adult audience—and I need to decide which is best before doing anything more! Over the past couple years of drafting and redrafting this first novel of mine, I’ve gone back and forth on what age I want Mae to be. Her age is not really an important detail for the plot of the book, but it is critical for audience and marketing.

I always saw Seeds of Power as a coming-of-age/coming-into-power kind of story, but it’s not actively about growing up or “teen” life. It’s really about an independent young female finding purpose, confidence, love—and, you know, saving the world!

As I tried to think about a (hopefully) long-term writing career, I had to consider that my Dreamcatcher series is definitely for an adult audience. That meant I at least needed to query agents that did both YA and adult, and not go for a YA-only agent for Seeds of Power. The other novel I have partially written could be marketed as New Adult or Adult too, I realized… Ah! How to market my books and find the right agent partnership?

After a lot of introspection about myself and my writing, I decided I’m not a YA author and don’t want to try to be. I realized I’m not really trying to engage with that audience and write to their perspective—despite how many YA books I read and enjoy!

My stories seem to be more coming-into-power tales than coming-of-age stories. My books may have first love or first true love romances, but that doesn’t mean my audience is young adult. The ages of my younger heroines are aligned with New Adult fantasy so that’s my new focus to market those books while I market Dreamcatcher as Adult fantasy.

So hello again! I am Beth Green, New Adult/Adult Fantasy author seeking publication.

(Phew! Glad that’s settled!)