Women's Fiction, Chick Lit, and the Dilemma of Genres

By Shelley Burbank

A Little Handmade 'Zine

After a successful launch of Strawberry Moon Mystery--and by "successful" I mean the book uploads fine to readers' Kindles, I've had a few sales, and the two reviews written so far have been very encouraging--I became quite obsessed with the dreaded marketing imperative. 

I imagine there are writers out there who actually enjoy marketing and thinking about marketing and planning marketing campaigns, but I am not one of them. I do it because I feel I need to give my work its best shot. What did my launch week entail? Let's see how many actions I can remember. 

• Seven days of Substack newsletters sent to my mailing list, each one touching on some inspiration or process for the writing of the novella, including the short story that started it all on the summer solstice in 2024. One day was about 1980s 'zine culture. I shared the above photo. 
• Multiple Facebook and Instagram posts, reels, and stories sharing Canva graphics and photos and whatever else I could think up at the time. 
• A Facebook ad campaign that actually did quite well--turned into a few sales but not as many as I'd like considering the number of "clicks" it generated. 
• Changed the description on KDP to hopefully help with conversion. 
• Thanked people who shared their thoughts, pics of the book, or my graphics on their socials 
• Researched Goodreads giveaways (and decided to wait until I had a few more reviews)

It doesn't seem like so much, listed out like this, but Dear Reader, I'm exhausted in spirit. For one thing, much of this involves staring at a screen, going on socials and looking to see how the posts are doing, checking for engagement, and experiencing an unusual number of dopamine hits which leads to burnout, fatigue, and addiction. 

But it's worth it. My book deserves my best efforts. I keep telling myself this. 

One good thing: I got so tired of promotion, I started working on Liv Book 3. I've known what the mystery would be for a long time, but some of my recent "obsessions" are falling into the book in a delightful way. Also, I think Liv is gonna end up flying to Guam in pursuit of her quarry, so I'll be able to share some of my current home base with my readers. 

Meanwhile, I've been looking beyond the Lively series (only two more books to go) to what I want to do after Liv's arc is complete. My mysteries lean towards Women's Fiction, and other manuscripts I have tucked away definitely fall into this genre. 

Problem is, there are some objections to the label "Women's Fic" just as there were objections to "Chick Lit" back in the day. 

"Men's work doesn't get labeled 'Men's Fiction'," people argue. 

True. True. Very true. But there is something specific about these books that range from light, humorous tales to dark, "themey" tomes, from stories about personal growth with a lot of romance thrown in to stories about family relationships and sisterhood with no romance whatsoever that bears highlighting. These books don't fall neatly into a genre category. They aren't all literary fiction, either. They are concerned with women's lives and problems and concerns, often written in commerical styles. 

When we take a look at fiction written by men, much of the time their stories fall either into 1) a defined commercial genre or 2) they are considered literary.  

You could call books that don't fall into a particular genre (mystery, thriller, Western, historical, etc.) simply commercial fiction, but it behooves authors, agents, and editors to give defining labels to commercial fiction in order to facilitate the sales and marketing process. 

There is also the cold hard truth that while many women buy and read commercial and literary fiction written by men, men do not AS OFTEN buy and read commercial and literary fiction written by women. Don't believe me? Well, okay, but take a gander at this Lit Hub piece. https://lithub.com/why-are-so-many-men-still-resistant-to-reading-women/

So what's a girl to do? When it's time to market a book about a female main character who is engaged in a personal struggle for autonomy, self-knowledge, place in the family (community, organization, etc.) pecking order, respect, and growth, it makes sense to call this kind of book SOMETHING, especially if it isn't a literary work, if it is commercial but doesn't follow any particular genre's rules. 

Romance, for example, has conventions that must be met, namely the plot revolves around a romantic relationship and there is a happy ending. Mystery revolves around some kind of injustice or crime and a need to discover who-dunnit or why-dunnit.

Women's Fiction, on the other hand, might have romance IN it, but the plot revolves around the personal growth of the main character, and a happy ever after isn't necessary. If it were written in a literary style, it could just be called Lit Fic, but otherwise its commercial style begs for its own category. 

Just as with the Chick Lit of old, people keep trying to come up with alternative wording that isn't  gendered. I see the point. I also object. Are we really still saying that labeling something as "female" degrades that thing? Do we object to the WNBA even though the male version is simple NBA?

Like all genre labels, the purpose is to give the potential reader the information she needs to make sure the book she's picking up is what she's seeking. The cover signals this. The description helps, too. The label helps the retailer put the book in the right space for those readers to find it. And it helps authors attract potential readers to become fans, too. 

This is the spot I'm in now. I want to rebrand myself in a couple of years, or rather I want to BE rebranded by then, so I'm starting now. Do I call myself a Women's Fiction author and risk the ire of some so-called feminists or not? 

I think I do. 

My mystery covers scream Chick Lit (light Women's Fiction before Women's Fiction was a label). For awhile Emily Henry's books were marketed as Rom-Com, but this was deceptive. Some of her stories aren't romance. They don't all have happy endings. They deal equally as much or more with the main female character's internal struggles and search for meaning, but with a few laughs and some kissing. They are actually light Women's Fiction. 

Heaven forbid we call them Chick Lit, though, even though every reader, of any gender, who ever fell in love with Bridget Jones or the Shopaholic would know precisely what kind of story they'd be getting if we did.

I, for one, want to find the readers who want exactly the kind of stories I'm writing, and the best way to do that is to tell them as specifically as possible what I'm offering--through cover design, description, and category labels. Thank you for listening. 

Sincerely,

Shelley Burbank

Writer of Female Detective Mystery and Personal Reinvention Women's Fiction 

Well Shut My Mouth

 by Charlotte Hinger

Years ago, a lady I think the world of--a dear, dear friend, a native Kansan like me, scolded me after a talk I had given. She said "You really don't like Kansas, much, do you." I was dumbfounded and stricken with remorse. What had I said that gave her that impression?

Anyone who knows me and reads my books knows I'm plumb silly about my native state. I've always loved Kansas.

 In fact, when I was in the fourth grade and a little girl moved to town from Oklahoma, I greeted her with infinite compassion because she would never be quite right. She would never be a little sunflower. She had not been born in Kansas! The poor little thing.

After my talk when I was so obviously distressed, another friend told me "Charlotte, not everyone gets your sense of humor."

A light bulb went off. I changed. My correcting friend was right. Humor can easily be misunderstood. 

I became much more circumspect about my presentations. Talks are a two-way interchange. Individuals attending can easily be distracted. All it takes is fumbling for a dropped program, a waitperson coming around with the coffee pot, a delayed urge to use the rest room and phoof! There goes the wittiest punch line since the Marx brothers made their debut. 

For that matter, late arrivals often miss the whole point of a carefully structured lecture. Cell phones ring at the most opportune times. 

I've also become aware of how lines taken out of context can be miscontrued. Is there anyone today who is not conscious of the importance of political correctness? Woe to the naive speaker who uses the wrong word when referring to an ethnic group. 

And while I have your attention:

What does a Kansan do when he wins the lottery?

He buys a second tractor.

That's all folks!