When you’ve been writing and publishing for over a decade, you have a lot of time to make a lot of mistakes. And a lot of time to learn from them. One thing I’ve learnt is that it is very hard to market a genre mashup. I’ve also learnt that I love writing genre mashups.
So I’ve been thinking of a way to write cross-genre books, while somehow staying true to one genre. Hitting the tropes, meeting reader expectations, but still writing something that makes me happy.
I’m currently writing book one of a cosy fantasy series set in a post-apocalyptic setting. It shouldn’t work. I’m going to make sure it does. And here’s how.
Genre Is About Experience
When we think about genre, we often think about the bones. The setting, the characters, the plot points. But genre is mostly about the feeling it gives your reader.
Epic fantasy readers expect to feel part of something vast. Romantasy readers expect intensity. And cosy fantasy readers expect to feel comfort, warmth, and connection.
If you give your readers all the feelings they expect from your primary genre, the things you borrow from other genres won’t muddy and confuse that. It will feel true to your main genre by the way your readers experience it.
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