Book Genres And Predictability

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Book or product?

Relaxing with a good work of fiction is not relaxing in the true sense of the word, because of anticipation. 

Readers don’t know whether the story will stay in the north or gravitate towards the south.  They have a jaundiced view of certain characters to the extent of treating them like humans, by either loving or hating them.

That is why publishers’ propensity to cubby hole books into genres: romance, thriller, sci-fi, chic lit etc. militates against that anticipation, because readers can predict the DNA of characters.  Authors tweak characters’ make-up from time to time for example, making the FBI or CIA agent a woman. 

For example, in Duplicity, the suspense thriller jointly written by Newt Gingrich and Pete Early, the fictitious U.S. President is a woman, Captain Brooke Grant is African American, her uncle is the Joint Chief of Staff and the terrorist an American of Somali descent, seduced by online religious fanaticism.

Sliding fiction in appropriate drawers dampens the creative side, if the genre demands that there must be a murder, a car chase and men in a van staking a joint.  Authors try to resist the required script, but agents and publishers convince them that it is the only Autobahn to book sales.  After all, they write to be read. They can only be read if they are published.

Declining Book Sales

Where does that leave readers?  Empty handed after a visit to the bookstore or online browsing.  Fiction is the result of imagination, which ends up being typed in a computer, printed and bound, then shipped to bookstores.

Potential buyers in bookstores test the waters by reading the back cover, the big seduction.  Unfortunately, it is one of the reasons for declining book sales because back covers reveal the story. 

Take chic lit for example. This genre has its generic plot, something similar to the movie The Devil Wears Prada.  The poor heroine will have an egomaniac boss that works her to the bone, making her chaotic and a fashion disaster. 

The consolation for the poor heroine is that she will meet a British guy and they will live happily ever after.  I’ve read three books where the guy is British.

Genres are not the only reason for declining book sales.  It is the printed word itself that is facing an uncertain future.  What happened to newspapers and magazines might also happen to books especially if readers can predict them. 

What’s the point of buying books if anticipation is gone and they know what will happen?  And, do readers really want happily ever after?

By:  Nonqaba waka Msimang.

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