One of the first things the publishing business wants to know about a book is its genre. In my experience, marketing departments at publishers are mostly the ones who need genre labels. The genre label seems to drive how books are marketed. While writing Privacy Wars, I didn’t have a genre in mind. Some of my writing group friends suggested it was Science Fiction. But, there is no magic, other worlds, or supernatural heroes. It’s just Earth as it might be 200+ years from now after a society-shattering pandemic. Although I first envisioned this pandemic in 2003, our recent world experience makes my imagined pandemic seem even more plausible. All of the technology in my book is rooted in capabilities and research of our current day technical world. Yes, there’s space travel to colonies on the moon and Mars, but that’s already being planned for the next twenty or so years.
Privacy Wars is a hero’s journey with elements of mystery, thriller, and suspense. Stacy Woodson summarized these genres as: Mystery is about the puzzle. Thriller is the push and pull between the protagonist and the villain. Suspense is about tension and what may happen and can be present in an genre.
In the end, the marketing folks may assign some other genre, but I feel the best tag for this book is ‘futuristic suspense.’ I think it captures the character of the story, even if there’s no label like that on the bookstore shelves. Once you have a chance to read it, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts about its genre.
