Blog Post: Differences between commercial, upmarket, and literary fiction

Wherefore?

For my Irish friends...

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The infographics are useful, but the third for Commercial Fiction blithely falls into the common practice of suggesting that any novel that fits into a genre can't be upmarket or literary.

Just think of Charles Dickens, who most would say wrote literary fiction, but whose novels are precursors of the crime genre with detectives, murderers and graphic descriptions of the criminal underworld in Oliver Twist, Bleak House and The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit. What of Tolkien's entire catalogue, which would be shoved into the fantasy genre—whatever you think of his stories, they're certainly not fast-paced and I bet that any film goers who enjoyed the movie adaptations were bored witless by the depth and slowness of the source material, if they tried reading the books.

It's been said rather cynically, that literary fiction wins prizes given by the publishing industry who hope to popularise the intellectualism of their highfalutin authors' novels which don't sell well, whereas commercial fiction rarely gets any prizes but sells in the millions. There are plenty of authors who are highly respected, having won awards, but who are struggling to make a living, including one of my favourite writers Rupert Thomson:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/02/bestseller-novel-to-bust-author-life

At the other extreme, there's Harold Robbins who wrote tawdry novels with lots of sex and corruption in them, that were turned into Hollywood films and have sold 750,000,000 copies. His own life was one of excess, and he admitted that he wrote only for money and cared nothing for style or the contempt of the critics. He was as vulgar a man as the characters in his trashy books, and he died penniless with few mourners.

My own crime novels aim to be literary in scope, and they fit the parameters given in Carly Watters' infographics. As further proof of my literary ambition I'm as poor as a church mouse!

Perhaps I should sell out, and get jiggy with some commercial fiction...

picsay-1361976705.jpg
 
God... I can't positively say I'm in genre fiction. I thought I was well and solidly tucked into genre fantasy fiction, but I think I'm actually lost somewhere in the moorish borderlands. You know my pace is slow and careful, the story more open-ended... it's character-driven... and you know I'm always trying to talk about issues...

I don't know. I think I'm still safe calling it genre fiction. What do you all think, who've read bits (or all) of it?
 
Well it's all a bit vague. Honestly mine (well the Ceridwen series anyway), is a touch of fantasy, historical fiction, that can fall into the YA arena and is commercial fiction. Maybe, Fanhistoyamercial ??? :D
 
God... I can't positively say I'm in genre fiction. I thought I was well and solidly tucked into genre fantasy fiction, but I think I'm actually lost somewhere in the moorish borderlands. You know my pace is slow and careful, the story more open-ended... it's character-driven... and you know I'm always trying to talk about issues...

I don't know. I think I'm still safe calling it genre fiction. What do you all think, who've read bits (or all) of it?
I think it still classifies as commercial fiction. As I was reading that picture, I disagree that commercial fiction is all plot-based. In fact, the only genre I know in commercial fiction that's plot based is thriller. All the rest are character based.
 
Personally, I think the major difference between literary and commercial is whether or not the goal of your book is to tell a message. Are you trying to say slavery is bad? Literary. Are you simply telling the story of a crime and the investigation? Commercial.
 
I think it still classifies as commercial fiction. As I was reading that picture, I disagree that commercial fiction is all plot-based. In fact, the only genre I know in commercial fiction that's plot based is thriller. All the rest are character based.
Personally, I think the major difference between literary and commercial is whether or not the goal of your book is to tell a message. Are you trying to say slavery is bad? Literary. Are you simply telling the story of a crime and the investigation? Commercial.
That's a really good way of putting it. It allows for writing smart genre fiction.
 
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Wherefore?

For my Irish friends...

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