Are your stories Literary or Commercial fiction?

[BobbyBrandt]

You might not think this question relevant if you don't market any of your stories, but here goes...

If you were to categorize one or more of your stories, either here or in mainstream publication, would you position it as literary fiction or commercial fiction?

For the first time ever, I had a literary agent claim that one of my mainstream novels was "too commercial" for them. Now, as it was always explained to me, literary fiction stories are typically ones that need hand-selling so they rely on critical reception, book clubs, and prize listings to persuade booksellers to stock copies and coax readers to want to buy and read them. Commercial fiction is a story that has a strong pitch and is looking to be placed on the best-seller lists, so it will typically command a more prominent presence in the bookshop upon publication and will be recommended through bookstore promotions and word of mouth, etc.

I know that there are several reasons why a particular literary agent would gravitate toward literary fiction, and I don't begrudge them for doing so. I was just curious whether any of you have ever given any thought to how your story(ies) would be categorized.

 

[nice90sguy]

Is "juvenile smut" a category?

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Pure filth. If I ever wanted to sell any, I'd have to go round various fetish fairs and conventions and suchlike.

It's certainly not commercial even by Lit standards! If you say non-commercial equals 'literary', I'd love to believe you but I don't think it stands up.

 

[JGittes]

The authorial planet you inhabit shares nothing with mine. I assume you are speaking of a mainstream agent, and that world is so far away from here that I can't begin to see it.

I think you mentioned something on another thread a few weeks ago that on a site called 'My Wishlist' (or some such thing) that featured wishlists from mainstream agents, seven pages of agents were listed when you searched for Erotica.' I googled that site and searched for erotica and received seven pages of agents. The problem was that when you looked at the actual listing, erotica was listed as something they didn't want in every case.

Literary, commercial, and erotica. Non-overlapping Venn diagrams.

 

[gunhilltrain]

You might not think this question relevant if you don't market any of your stories, but here goes...

If you were to categorize one or more of your stories, either here or in mainstream publication, would you position it as literary fiction or commercial fiction?

For the first time ever, I had a literary agent claim that one of my mainstream novels was "too commercial" for them. Now, as it was always explained to me, literary fiction stories are typically ones that need hand-selling so they rely on critical reception, book clubs, and prize listings to persuade booksellers to stock copies and coax readers to want to buy and read them. Commercial fiction is a story that has a strong pitch and is looking to be placed on the best-seller lists, so it will typically command a more prominent presence in the bookshop upon publication and will be recommended through bookstore promotions and word of mouth, etc.

I know that there are several reasons why a particular literary agent would gravitate toward literary fiction, and I don't begrudge them for doing so. I was just curious whether any of you have ever given any thought to how your story(ies) would be categorized.

Probably neither of them. They are just Lit stories.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Literary, commercial, and erotica. Non-overlapping Venn diagrams.

I disagree.

As I mentioned in a previous thread, erotica is alive and well in mainstream publishing as demonstrated by many of the authors working with Bloom Books. In that thread, I specifically mentioned a book by Lucy Score, titled "Forever Never", which my wife had just bought from a Target store. Its content is as graphically erotic as much of what you would find on Lit, but not "smut" as some here categorize their work.

I just did a quick search on Query Tracker for agents that list "erotica" as a genre that they represent and found 27 hits.

 

[Djmac1031]

Well, since I don't make any money on them, my stories certainly aren't commercial lol.

Literary? Such a subjective term, I suppose it's how one defines it.

I write words that form sentences. Those sentences make up paragraphs that eventually form a story. A story populated by characters in which things happen.

So...I guess?

 

[SeraphNocturne]

Mm. All I’ve done on-site classifies as degenerate filth on most fronts, but some day I’ll put effort into penning posh classy Commerical styled work that pulls rave reviews. Someday. Probably not today. But definitely someday.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

 

[TadOverdon]

100% commercial.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Ok, tongue firmly in cheek, I’ve often felt that ‘commercial fiction’ is that body of tales which actually sell outside of university bookstores, ones which real people want to read, to the point where they queue in library waiting lists or actually and happily spend money, whereas ‘literary fiction’ is composed of those tales which people are compelled to read, generally by teachers, professors and some singularly sadistic book club presidents - anything by Milton, The Brothers Karamazov, Moby Dick, etc.

 

[Ian_Snow]

Most my work is erotic romance. I started writing erotica because I liked doing open door bedroom scenes and wanted to explore that. Also in part I wanted to write romances I would want to read - quirky, character driven stuff that doesn't fall into traditional romance lines. That's primarily my favorite stuff to write. Usually it does pretty well for me, here and on Amazon, though my more fetish-focused erotica like teacher-student smu, typically does better sales, so I try to write a balance. The erotic romances for me, the kinkier stuff for my audience. Plus, it's just plain fun to write the smutty silly stuff sometimes. Had I been smarter when I started this pen name, I would have separated those out into a cuple separate names, but I'm learning, even years into this.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Are your stories Literary or Commercial fiction?​

They are mostly stroke stories, occasionally punctuated by bits of philosophy, science and whimsy. Plus lots of people orgasming an infeasible number of times.

Em

 

[gunhilltrain]

Mm. All I’ve done on-site classifies as degenerate filth on most fronts, but some day I’ll put effort into penning posh classy Commerical styled work that pulls rave reviews. Someday. Probably not today. But definitely someday.

I've mentioned this before, but it never gets old. In Take the Money and Run, the Woody Allen character is asked by his girlfriend (I believe she is played by Janet Margolin), "Do you think sex is dirty?" And he replies, "Only if it's done right."

 

[ElectricBlue]

I'm an "erotica" versus "porn" guy, aka "wanker" (in the Australian sense) , therefore "literary"...

 

[SimonDoom]

So far, I haven't made a dime off of any of my fiction, so I can't call myself "commercial," although I hope to change that at some point.

As to whether my stuff is "literary," I do what I do and others can put whatever label they want onto it. It doesn't affect me.

 

[SeraphNocturne]

I've mentioned this before, but it never gets old. In Take the Money and Run, the Woody Allen character is asked by his girlfriend (I believe she is played by Janet Margolin), "Do you think sex is dirty?" And he replies, "Only if it's done right."

An eloquent way to put it, I’m inclined to agree.

All the same, I swear there’s a classy broad in here somewhere, under all of this filth!

 

[ExploringSoul]

Not sure about commercial or literary. Therapeutic, definitely.

 

[Auden James]

This dichotomy, to my mind, is pretty much emblematic of the American Way of Thinking ®. (Which, naturally, is merely the epitome of Anglo-Saxon thought.)