Have you ever turned your TV to the Food Network and found a mystery movie? Or turned to the Hallmark Channel to watch the hockey playoffs?

Of course not!

When it comes to genres, television stations have it dialed in (sorry, I couldn’t resist). They understand their audiences, and they understand their genres. The same, unfortunately, is not always true for authors.

Authors need to know how to properly identify their books because readers expect certain things from different genres. It doesn’t matter if you write medieval, contemporary, or dystopian fiction, if you call it a romance, your readers will expect to meet the love interests early, and they demand a happy ending. Anything less will disappoint or upset your readers.

For the past few years, I’ve judged contests for unpublished authors, and many of them hurt themselves because they submit their entries in the wrong categories. They don’t understand their genres.

Why does it matter?

• Not all agents and publishers represent all genres. You can spend hours researching who represents what, but if you misidentify what you’ve written, you’re researching in vain.
• Your marketing strategy depends on understanding your genre. If you’re trying to sell a romantic suspense novel as a mystery/thriller, you’ll end up targeting the wrong people. When those people read your book, expect bad reviews and disappointed readers, not because your book is bad, but because you sold them something other than what you advertised.

The two most common genre-labeling mistakes generally revolve around romance and speculative fiction novels. Here’s what you need to remember:

• If you can take the romance out of your book without losing the main plot line of your story, it’s not a romance.
• If your story includes any supernatural elements (fairies, ghosts, magic portals), it’s either speculative fiction or a novel with speculative fiction themes; make sure to disclose that.

If you’re not sure which genre you’ve written, ask. Being able to properly identify your genre will improve your chances of getting published and satisfying your readers.