Under the Genres you can find examples of books we believe fit into certain categories that make up the umbrella of speculative fiction. If you are in doubt as to where your work fits, peruse the lists, to spot familiar friends and know you belong here.

"Genre" is simply the French for sort or kind. Some people try to sneer at "genre writing" as inferior to whatever they are doing, but literary fiction has its genres, too. Especially, speculative fiction is not formula fiction: it is the genre without formulas, which constantly reinvents itself. Even so, there are works which have elements in common.

The criteria for a genre should be, not "are there a cluster of books with similar plot, mood, or setting characteristics", but "are there a cluster of books with similar problems and strategies in the writing." This procedural difference is what really matters; one can build all sorts of reader's genres, like Scottish stories or horse stories, but they're not useful to writers.

For these writer's reasons, we are not specifically supporting some genres often tossed in with fantasy and science fiction, not because they don't require imagination, but because their writing strategies and audiences are different.

Genres we do support, and that you will find in our bookstore:

Aliens
Alternate History (see exceptions below)
Alternate Universes
Classics of SF and Fantasy
Cyberpunk
Dark Fantasy
Gentle Fantasy (Magical Worlds)
Gritty Fantasy
Hard SF
Heroic Fantasy
Historical Fantasy
Science Fantasy
SF and Fantasy Romance
Soft SF
Space Opera
Steampunk

Genres we don't support:

HORROR:

This is now frequently being called the supernatural thriller. Set in the contemporary world, more or less, it is structured like a thriller rather than a fantasy novel. Writers of horror will most quickly advance their work by studying the thriller genre and participating in a workshop that includes or emphasizes other thriller genres (like a general workshop, a mixed workshop, or a specialty horror workshop).

EROTICA:

Even if one or more of the participants is a fantastical or alien being, the emphasis on the erotic requires different strategies for a different primary audience (yes, there are SF readers who like erotica; there are SF readers who like British cozy mysteries, too, which is no reason to include them here). If you want the most help in developing out of the crude and simple into greater depths of emotional exploration, not to mention with marketing, you need to join an erotica workshop.

STRAIGHT ALTERNATE HISTORY:

See Time Travel under "Things Between." If your story includes fantasy or SF elements like magic or time-travel as primary rather than peripheral elements, then we can help you. However, if the only change from our world is in history then you are writing an historical novel for a different universe. Publishers who refuse to touch SF but handle historical novels will take these sort of "straight alternate history" novels. So you need a workshop that will help a bent historical novel. Try IWW on our link page.

PARANORMAL ROMANCE:

Including ghost romances, angel romances. These do not use the language strategies of speculative fiction. Rather, they are contemporary or historical romances with secondary fantastical elements introduced. Yes, the magic may be pivotal, but a banana peel can be without being a primary element. Some of these are horror-romances, like werewolf stories. Do check the genres above to see if your story is a science fiction romance, a fantasy romance, or a time-travel romance, or even a dark fantasy. Experience has proven that a romance story line written in the spec fi language strategy baffles regular romance readers (the audience for paranormal romances), who do not know how to follow it. For your best help before we foul you up, we recommend you try the Romance workshop at IWW on our link page (NOT the Novels workshop -- they often openly despise romances), or if you feel you are one step from publication, the special chapter of the Romance Writers of America.