But I like being a genre fiction writer. I like writing and reading F/SF/H, and I enjoy it. Yes, I read non genre fiction, quite a surprising bit of it (I think it’s about split about 40/60, with 60 being genre fiction) and most of that non-USA’n. But my point is, I don’t want to be recognized by the “literary” market. Why would I? What would that accomplish? I don’t see why some writers and publishers feel that we need to smash the walls and have genre listed in literary. What would that accomplish? Other than confusing me when I want to go buy something in my local Borders store.
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Dude, I just care about being read. Period. I guess I’m small scope & on your side.
I don’t see why some writers and publishers feel that we need to smash the walls and have genre listed in literary.
Here’s two I can think of right off the top of my head –
1) Mainstream novels generally (or so I understand) make more money for advances than F/SF. Bigger audience, bigger paycheck.
2) It’s not particularly easy to get a large audience for literary SF, especially when it’s socked away next to Warhammer novelizations and the latest offerings from Buffy-ville. Media tie-ins likely won’t profit from appeal to readers of literary fiction, but literary SF just might.
I think a couple of things are at work for people:
1) The usual “Please validate me” that screams in one form or another at the bottom of everyone’s soul.
2) Perhaps the urge for a larger audience? Particularly given the annual READING IS DYING OUT alarms.
It’s weird to me to see this genre/literary dichotomy keep coming up, because everyone is so firmly on one side or the other. It seems to be a core, class-related issue for many folks.
What does “recognized by the literary market” mean, though? Good reviews in places like the Atlantic? Awards? Encyclopedia entries? Having a literary movement named after you? Your books being used in a college class? Your books shelved in the literary section rather than the f&sf? Or more readers?
I just want a Saturday morning cartoon based off one of my stories. Then I’ll have fulfilled a promise to my childhood self and can perish with a clean conscience.
J.T. Glover-
Both are fallacies, though. Literary SF has a bigger market than Literary fiction. Most people cite one or two examples of literary fiction (usually with SF tendencies) that pull in a huge crowd. But these are exceptions to the rule, not the rule as far as sales are actually concerned.
Cat-
Actually, I agree with everything you said. I’m still unsure what “recognized by the literary market” means, but I keep hearing it. Most recently with the latest SF Mind Meld.
I used to express a desire to be a hack. Not just a genre writer, but a full-blown hack. Work-for-hire, write anything as long as it’s solidly entertaining, etc.
Hacks have a lot of freedom. Just look at Takashi Miike.
You know what’s great about Takashi Miike? He’s taken hackery and made it into an artform.
I have no particular evidence to offer, but in my semi-hazy recollection of… a dozen? many, anyway, discussions by agents & publishers of typical advances, the SF advance seems to average $5-10K per book (for mainstream publishers, at any rate), as opposed to a much broader range for mainstream/literary novels. Having never published a book, I can’t speak to that personally, of course, only go off what I’ve read.
As to the audience size, I would submit that the most popular of SF authors are hardly its most literary practitioners. Not naming names, but I was in B&N the other day, and only 1/4 literary spec fic authors I looked for had anything on the shelf. Needless to say, Ham-handed SF Authors X, Y, Z, and Q all were very well represented. There’s a dedicated audience, sure, but it’s an order of magnitude of difference from Big Name SF.
And I’m with Cat on the Saturday morning cartoon thang. Though what exactly the children would turn out like after they were done watching “my” cartoon, I hesitate to imagine…