Categorization - Queer?

[All_2_human]

Hi everyone, I’m new here, first post! I’m waiting for my first story to go live, but I wanted to throw this out before that happens, so it doesn’t look like self-promotion.

I’m planning a big saga: first-person, multiple POVs, male and female perspectives. It revolves around a married couple and a young guy, a small-scale Instagram celebrity, full of thirst-trap posts, provocative poses, etc. The focus is on him, so I could technically classify it as “gay,” but the first sex scene is male/female, followed by a photoshoot, then a threesome. So labeling it “gay (men loving men)” feels misleading.

I considered “Novels and Novellas,” but that seems too generic. And there’s no “bi” category to cover mixed sexual dynamics.

The first chapter is actually from the married guy’s POV—obsessing over the young Instagram star, scrolling through his posts, trailing him around Dubrovnik. I submitted it under voyeur/exhibition, but that still doesn’t feel quite right.

How about a “queer” category? Something broad enough to encompass fluidity, obsession, and multiple dynamics? Not just gay or straight.

 

[EmilyMiller]

The categories are kinda weird and bisexual men don’t fit so well - everyone loves bisexual women of course, but homophobia (in the literal sense of - OMG I’m so not a gay man, not even a little bit, except my friend at college, but that never happened) is rife. But they are what they are and there has just been a - very mild - readjustment of them - splitting transgender and cross-dressing and reversing the order of T/I and R/NC, so it will be another decade before the next change.

 

[TheLobster]

I don't think "queer" would fit this kind of multiple dynamics story, even if the category existed. Same for "bi", really, since the presence of one or two bi encounters in 100k+ words novel isn't weighty enough to sway the entire category choice.

I considered “Novels and Novellas,” but that seems too generic.

It is generic, but it is precisely for this kind of more complex and longer stories.

You say that you've got multiple different PoVs and thus presumably multiple threads, and that's pretty much a hallmark of a novel. N&N seems like a natural choice to me; the only other one would be to switch categories for each chapter which is a practice that people report mixed results about.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Basically the number of readers for actual bisexuality in a man is very small. The Gay Male readership won't complain, but there's not many of them and they give little feedback. Ditto Group Sex, where a large proportion will reject or downvote anything gay in the grouping.

You might as well go for N&N where readers are willing to look at something more complicated. But E/V (possibly with some tags or header warning of content, if you like) could work as well as anything. Use all the relevant tags and readers will find it eventually.

 

[MelissaBaby]

In my opinion, it is better to place a story that crosses over several categories in Novels &Novellas, and perhaps get a somewhat smaller readership, than it is to pick a category where you may offend readers who don’t like aspects of the story. More readers aren’t worth while if they are disgruntled readers.

 

[All_2_human]

The categories are kinda weird and bisexual men don’t fit so well - everyone loves bisexual women of course, but homophobia (in the literal sense of - OMG I’m so not a gay man, not even a little bit, except my friend at college, but that never happened) is rife.

True! Thanks for the reply

 

[All_2_human]

I don't think "queer" would fit this kind of multiple dynamics story, even if the category existed. Same for "bi", really, since the presence of one or two bi encounters in 100k+ words novel isn't weighty enough to sway the entire category choice.


It is generic, but it is precisely for this kind of more complex and longer stories.

You say that you've got multiple different PoVs and thus presumably multiple threads, and that's pretty much a hallmark of a novel. N&N seems like a natural choice to me; the only other one would be to switch categories for each chapter which is a practice that people report mixed results about.

N&N was my first thought but the ones I went through all seemed too long, too romantic, too light. I'm planning for a dark, obsessive, super-loaded thing. I plan on doing a toned down, more literary version and post it as a real novel if I manage to complete it in its original format. Thanks for the reply.

 

[All_2_human]

Basically the number of readers for actual bisexuality in a man is very small. The Gay Male readership won't complain, but there's not many of them and they give little feedback. Ditto Group Sex, where a large proportion will reject or downvote anything gay in the grouping.

You might as well go for N&N where readers are willing to look at something more complicated. But E/V (possibly with some tags or header warning of content, if you like) could work as well as anything. Use all the relevant tags and readers will find it eventually.

Will do that thx

 

[All_2_human]

In my opinion, it is better to place a story that crosses over several categories in Novels &Novellas, and perhaps get a somewhat smaller readership, than it is to pick a category where you may offend readers who don’t like aspects of the story. More readers aren’t worth while if they are disgruntled readers.

Yeah. You re probably right. We'll see how it goes. Thanks

 

[MelissaBaby]

N&N was my first thought but the ones I went through all seemed too long, too romantic, too light. I'm planning for a dark, obsessive, super-loaded thing. I plan on doing a toned down, more literary version and post it as a real novel if I manage to complete it in its original format. Thanks for the reply.

Well, I published a series in N&N dealing with addiction, drug dealing, murder and imprisonment, so maybe you need a bigger sample size!