While I agree that there is a certain amount of "if you build it, they will come" with regard to book writing, having a general idea of what category your book fits into will help others to find your book. It also helps when looking for an agent if that's what you're into. Not all agents want to represent the same types of stories.

That said, there is a lot of room out there for mixed genre. I've seen people asking where their book fits, because it has elements of several genres. For example, take Frank Hebert's "Dune". On the surface, you think SCIFI. But there's straight-up magic and a helluva lot of political intrigue. If I were Frank, querying that book today, I'd say it was a Sci-fantasy political thriller.

I wrote a Pride and Prejudice continuation that had vampires in it. Yeah, it fits into the Supernatural genre, and horror, too, but because it's based on a Jane Austen novel, there's romance there as well. There is NOTHING wrong with a book that straddles the line between genres. My book was Regency Supernatural Horror Romance. Also fits into derivative works and fan fiction.

So I would ask you, what are your elements? Is there horror? Magic? If you give us something to go on, I'm sure we can get you going.

I am currently writing a piece that began in 1st person and run into a number of problems.

Full disclosure: I normally write in 3rd person, almost exclusively.

Some of the problems I've run up against:

1.  I am not supposed to describe my character AT ALL (actual critique received) when writing from her perspective. The only exception to this appears to be the cliche of allowing the character a look into the mirror/other reflective surface. While I'm not saying I'm Stephen King where scene descriptions are concerned, I like to set the stage and let readers know through facial expressions, posture, etc. how the character is feeling. That just seems impossible in first person, as far as people who have critiqued the work seem to believe.

2.  It's apparently not allowed to switch to another character? I had a critique from one person that said I should stick exclusively with the main character. While I appreciate all feedback, I disagree. I think that limiting the perspective to a single character can be extremely claustrophobic and sells all the other characters short.

While there are other issues, I think these are the two main ones. So, do you think that maybe 1st person just isn't for me (I am kind of leaning that way already)? How do you feel about it in general?

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(1 replies, posted in Queries, Blurbs, and Synopsis)

I agree with a lot of those, but I've always thought that adding reviews to a book cover really takes away from the image, and distracts from the book content. I have done a couple of simple covers, myself, and I agree that simple is better. Too many images can clutter things up and your title can get lost in it.