Okay, I’m closer to releasing Hearts of Evil. I fixed some issues and made some decisions. But I’m still waffling on something else, and I need your help. I have no idea what genre to put this book in. I originally thought it had to be horror. My two main beta readers thought it could go in that genre. One also suggested romantic suspense, because there IS a romance in it. It could be a supernatural thriller, but I’m not sure that’s even a genre. Here’s a few facts about the story, and maybe you all can help categorize it.
There have been murders for the last ten years.
The murders were brutal…however, I don’t go into really graphic detail.
The murders were committed by a supernatural element.
The supernatural element is extremely evil.
Many of the townsfolk are evil and are in cahoots with the supernatural evil.
There is a strong good vs. evil thread in this story.
There is a romance that’s secondary to the story, but still a pretty strong element. (I don’t want to call it a paranormal romance because the romance isn’t the main thread.)
There is a dragon who came from somewhere else, so there’s also an element of fantasy and sci-fi.
See, this is what happens when a writer crosses genres and steps “out of the box”. LOL
Those of you who beta read for me, can you think of anything else I should add?
lauralynnelliott.com 
Where will you publish your story?
I haven’t read your story so this might not help a lot but if you yourself are aware that romance, though playing a vital part, is merely secondary then I think you already know the answer you seek.
It will be on Amazon, B & N, Smashwords, Apple, etc.
I’m just not sure it’s “horrible” enough to be horror. I need to check on other categories on Amazon and other retailers to see if there’s a Supernatural Thriller category.
Thanks for stopping by!
No problem! š
I’ll be publishing my first book on Amazon in a couple of days and your post calmed me down a bit knowing that there are others out there who are also unsure of what to do next regarding this self-publishing thing.
I’ve published a dozen or so books, and I still get nervous every single time. I’m not sure that ever goes away. I think it gets a little easier, but there’s still that anxiety. Kind of like stage fright, I guess. But we just have to jump in and do it!
Wow! A dozen books is no easy feat. Nice job.
If its okay, may I ask how you promoted your books?
I didn’t really promote a lot. Sometimes I did giveaways on my blog. For this release, I’m going to do a FB release party and see how that works. When I first started publishing, you just had to write a good book and you would usually get found. Now that there are so many people publishing, you have to do more. We’ll see how this release party goes and that will determine how effective something like that is. I think it’s really important to interact with other people who can help spread the word, and Facebook is probably the easiest way to do that.
Thanks and good luck to the both of us.
Hey, you didn’t pass along the time frame of when this takes place. At first blush, I’d agree it’s not a paranormal romance but maybe an Urban Fantasy, if the time frame is relatively modern day.
It is modern day. But the story seems just a little too supernatural and evil to be urban fantasy. It takes place in a really tiny town on the coast of Florida. This has been SO hard to categorize for me. There are no vampires, werewolves, etc. Just an evil spirit and some evil humans.
If you are going to label if a romantic suspense (which you could given how much the romance plays a part in the story), then I would put a man and woman on the cover to state “romance”. I am not going to do a romantic suspense (after trying to work on one of my ideas and realizing I had no interest at all in finishing it). I’ll email you the base cover image and you can use it if you want. That is the kind of cover I would use if I was categorizing it as a romance of any kind. And you could label it Romantic Suspense.
I don’t think it’s paranormal, though. I would say horror if you pick an alternate category. I don’t know if you could pick romantic horror (not sure if such a thing exists).
The sci-fi part is irrelevant because it’s so minor.
So I’d cross paranormal and sci-fi off the list.
Just my two cents. I’m off to shoot you an email. š
I think the romance is too secondary. I still wonder if there’s a “supernatural thriller” category. I think its too edgy to be romantic suspense. I really thought horror was where I was going to put it (and still might), but Anya suggested it might be too mild for that because I didn’t go into gory detail. But horror is often more psychological than bloody, and I think this fits the bill in that area.
Wow, dragons as well. I’d still suggest horror first, then paranormal.
I originally was going to categorize it as horror. Just because there’s not blood and guts doesn’t mean it’s not horror. I think if an evil spirit was after me, wanting to make me this year’s sacrifice, it would be horror. LOL
Oh how I do hate labeling things, but from the jist of it, I’d say Horror. Good luck on your release.
I’m leaning that way.
I think paranormal, because the evil is supernatural and the dragon.
It’s paranormal, it’s horror, it’s a little bit romantic…it fits several categories. I know it’s not a paranormal romance because the romance is secondary to the horror. I have less than a week to decide.