I am a Developmental and Line Editor specializing in Equestrian Fiction, but what does that really mean? I have already made an overview blog post of each level of editing as well as a blog post explaining Developmental and Line Editing in more specifics. The last part of that statement to explore is Equestrian Fiction. That is the main genre I work in, but it’s not the only one. Before I explain much more, let’s look at what genre and subgenre are.
What is genre?
Genre is how books are categorized so readers know what the main storyline is about.
Example: Romance. It’s a love story.
What is subgenre?
Subgenres are categories within a genre to help narrow down exactly what a book is about or who the exact target audience is.
In my mind, there are two types of subgenres, one gives more detail about what the story is about.
Example: Historical Romance. It’s a love story set in the past.
The other type of subgenre describes the target age of readers.
Example: Young Adult Romance. It’s a love story written for readers ages 12-18.
One potentially confusing thing is that each genre can be a subgenre for other genres. Let me explain: Above I listed Romance as an example of a fiction genre, but Historical Fiction is also a genre of its own. A Romance story is a love story. A Historical Fiction story is a story set in the past. A Historical Romance is a love story set in the past. A Romantic Historical Fiction is a story set in the past with a love story subplot. Confused yet? (Don’t worry, that’s what I’m here for!)
Now I think I can answer: What genres do I work with?
This is an easy, and not-so-easy, question to answer.
I say that because I specialize in Equestrian Fiction, but it is not a “formal” genre. By that I mean, it is not a section you will find in a brick-and-mortar bookstore, and book sellers and librarians may not know what you are talking about when you say it. Even on Amazon, I had to go three or four subcategories deep to find any of their horse-themed book categories.
Equestrian Fiction author Natalie Keller Reinert talks more about the genre of Equestrian Fiction in her blog post \”So You Want To Write A Horse Book: Part One.”
Now, just because I specialize in Equestrian Fiction doesn’t mean it\’s the only genre I work with. Below is a list of the main other genres and subgenres I work with.
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Young Adult
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Contemporary
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Magical Realism
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Fantasy
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Low Fantasy
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Fairy Tales
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Mythic
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Urban
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Paranormal
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Romance
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New Adult
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Science Fiction
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Soft Science Fiction
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Dystopian
There are so many subgenres it’s hard to put them all in a list. If you have written a story that doesn’t fall into one of these categories, send me an email at bloemker.joyce@gmail.com and I would be happy to talk to you about your book. There are a few genres and categories I do not work with as a general rule, but there can be exceptions at times.