"Only fantasy writers are virtually forced to begin selling at novel length because the market is so much smaller for fantasy."

"The Genre ('knock-knock,' 'a horse walks into a bar,' 'take my wife') sets us up for an expectation. When the payoff is inevitable, but surprising, 'orange you glad I didn't say banana,' 'Why the long face,' 'PLEASE'), we laugh."

"I've been lucky in that my writing's been all over the place since the beginning, so the only pigeonhole I've had to deal with is that of being a literary writer.  While I sometimes wish publishers would recognize the genre elements in certain of my novels and market them accordingly—for their own gain, as well as mine—I'm just happy to get the books between the covers."

"One surprising result of the ghettoizing of speculative fiction, however, is that writers have enormous freedom within its walls. It's as if, having once confined us within our cage, the keepers of the zoo of literature don't much care what we do as long as we stay behind bars. What we've done is make the categories of science fiction and fantasy larger, freer, and more inclusive than any other genre of contemporary literature. We have room for everybody, and we are extraordinarily open to genuine experimentation."

"We turn to writers at times of change. If, as a society, we are future shocked and information overloaded, who better than genre writers to help us navigate through?"

"If there were a manifesto for 21st century fiction writers, I hope it would go like this: Down with high-flown literature! Cast off genre servitude! The revolution is founded in authorial liberty. It regards story and art as equals."

"When I go to literary conferences that are non-genre, if it's just a broad literary conference, and I say I write literary horror, they respond, 'I can't read that stuff.'  I'm supposed to just say, 'I understand.'  I met a writer who does historical British non-fiction, from a specific time period.  If I'd said, 'I don't read anything before 1700,' I would be a jerk."

"The bulk of your writing should focus on genres or niches that you enjoy. Sure, there will be times when you write to pay the bills, but spend most of your days on exciting projects."

"I never read, particularly, a mystery or a romance or a sci-fi.  I just read anything.  When I started out [writing], I don't think I had the concept of 'They must be shelved somewhere.'"

"In the long run, then, whatever is published within the field of science fiction and fantasy is science fiction and fantasy, and if it doesn't resemble what science fiction and fantasy were twenty years ago or even five years ago, some readers and writers will howl, but others will hear the new voice and see the new vision with delight."

"For me, where genre ends and literature begins doesn't matter. What matters is whether a given novel hits me with high impact. If it does, it probably is fulfilling the purpose of fiction."

"All writing is great training for writing.  Of course one learns specific things writing in a specific genre, and some of those skills carry over from one form to another."

"If you're truly worried about sounding too much like a specific author, read outside of your genre when you're writing."

"At genre conventions the debate over genre boundaries is almost a sport. Only two conclusions seem to me certain: Genre writers don't get enough respect, and when they do they don't get much respect from genre writers."

"Life would be perfect if I had hours each day to read for fun.  In truth, most of the books I read are within my own genre.  I need to stay up-to-date on the books being published in children's fiction in order to be able to come up with books my publisher will buy.  That's my first priority.  When I read for fun, usually it's in audiobook format, and I'm almost exclusively listening to books written by those who are much more accomplished than I am." 

"Judgment by genre is just wrong—stupid, wasteful.  Most people know that now."

How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy

"Today, genre bending and blending is more the rule than the exception."

"The biggest [advantage in self-publishing] for me is the freedom to write what I want when I want. I can jump genres and write several novels a year. Traditional publishing is much too restrictive. I don't want to pump out the same book over and over. I want to challenge myself and produce the work that I feel is missing from the marketplace."

"Across genres, for one reason or another, various filmmakers—sometimes even those considered the most visual of directors—have drawn on devices dating back 2,500 years to the days of Hellenic theater because there are limitations to showing; showing can't always get us inside a character, or inside a character's story."

"Fantasy is the most basic and longest-lived genre.  Shakespeare wrote fantasy.  Gilgamesh was fantasy.  The stories so important that they were passed down from mothers to daughters for millennia without being written down were fantasy.  The advantage of fantasy is that a reader can insert themselves and their own issues into the story."

"I am so very tired of all this snobbery surrounding how one chooses to publish their work.  It is now possible to make a lucrative career as a self-published author—sometimes, in fact, more lucrative than being a traditionally published author, especially in genre or other niche markets."

"The things you're not supposed to talk about in films are the same things you're not supposed to talk about at dinner parties: religion, politics and sex."

"They're the stars: the genre authors whose books sell vastly better than most; so much so that they're no longer labeled genre authors. They're brands."

"I had to keep arguing for so long that genre is literature just as much as The Grapes of Wrath is.  Of course, most of it isn't as good—but most realism isn't as good as The Grapes of Wrath either."

"I like high modernism and low genre.  I'm bored by middlebrow literary realism, which seems to be the dominant mode of contemporary American fiction."

"Our job in publishing is to keep creating many different kinds of books and then getting out of the way so that readers can pick their own."

"Readers love the sense of possibilities ... of hypothetical worlds that mimic and mirror our own.  Our actual lives have become fantastical in many respects, and the hybrid story of realism plus fantasy seems to be touching that tender spot."

"Perhaps in part because they have fewer rules to follow, they must rely more on universal techniques and stay truer to their inner compasses. Without genre crutches to lean on they must walk the walk of true novelists. You can call them genre-bending if you like, but I call them genre-transcending. While they may establish a new category, they are genuine fiction masters."

"Commercial fiction can have literary qualities ... genre fiction can include good storytelling, and literary fiction can have a plot."

"We have split in the 20th century between genre fiction, which tends to be about action, and fiction that's about interpersonal relationships and psychology."

"Out-of-category authors have begun a journey that I wish all novelists would take: a journey away from what is comfortable and convention-bound to fiction that is free, courageous, inventive, and influential because it's utterly unique. It's a place where novelists don't obey genre rules, but summon them when they're useful and bend them to their own purposes."

"I had discovered the first kind of boundary that marks the twin genres of fantasy and science fiction: the publishing category."

"I never thought of myself as a horror writer. That's what other people think. And I never said jack shit about it. [My wife] came from nothing, I came from nothing, we were terrified that they would take this thing away from us. So if the people wanted to say 'You're this,' as long as the books sold, that was fine. I thought, I am going to zip my lip and write what I wanted to write."

"Thriller is its own Genre, but it came to be through a mashing up of three primal Genres that came before it: action, horror and crime."

"There is a great demand for novels that can be positioned at the top of the commercial list—thrillers and/or dramas that women will want to read. All of the big publishers (with a contracting list of exceptions) are on the hunt for a female friendly literary/commercial commodity."

"The thriller is the dominant Story form today because it serves the largest segment of society, those overwhelmed by the threats of modern life."

Worlds of Wonder

"Literary/commercial fiction is a forecast of where fiction is heading in the 21st century. It's an approach to novel writing that eschews both snobby pretense and genre dogma. It is personal, impassioned, and even downright quirky, yet through its rebellious refusal to please, it paradoxically achieves universal appeal. It panders to no one. It speaks to everyone."

"I don't like labels.  I don't like it when bookstores have sections labeled 'Women's Fiction' because they don't have sections labeled 'Men's Fiction.'"

"It depends on what you think of when you hear the term 'chick lit.'  If you think it denotes a young fluffy girl in designer heels and handbags looking for Mr. Right, I'd be horrified.  If you think of it as reflective, resonant, real stories that speak to women today, I'd cheer."

"Today, thanks to certain pioneering authors, some great books, and some great movies and TV series, the wall between genre and mainstream fiction has become not a wall, but a river.  It can be forded or bridged."

"What I like the best are books that don't fit neatly into preconceived notions of genre."

"If the setting is a spaceship or a magical land then we'll call it genre fiction, but anyone should be able to get caught up in the lives of such characters."

"I don't think it's necessary to pin your work down to a subgenre.  You're querying agents who specialize in the field.  It might be best to let the pro make the determination as to where your work will best fit."

"Jumping into different genres is what charges me up to do each one."

"The two most important things I've learned about writing are humility and emotional truth.  If you present the emotional truth of a situation, particularly in an essay or a poem, it transcends genre."

"I think it's important for us to write in different genres.  Doing so keeps us flexible, and it gives us powerful ways of describing the world."

"Why not go big? Fuck the rules. Hell with the genres. Experiment. Play around with storytelling. Do something different instead of traipsing the same paths."

"Genre does not have to be restricted by its own defining character, but should, in fact, embrace its multiplicity."

"Dickens used fantasy and no one ever called him a fantastic writer, it was all just writing back then.  Why do we need borders in the middle of a book shop?

"Every great story, regardless of genre, will include a twist.  Why?  Readers want to be both satisfied and surprised.  The more they can decipher exactly where a story is going, the more disappointed they'll be.... Satisfying twists are revelatory in the sense that they add new meaning to all that precedes them."

"The biggest for me [by self-publishing] is the freedom to write what I want when I want.  I can jump genres and write several novels a year. Traditional publishing is much too restrictive. I don't want to pump out the same book over and over. I want to challenge myself and produce the work that I feel is missing from the marketplace."

"Don't write because you think the genre is cool, write because you have a story to tell (and the genre will find you)."

"Know what you're trying to make; know it; practice it.  Just write, and write seriously, and don't worry about genre too much.  Create something brand new."

"I enjoy the challenge. Writing in a new genre is like dating someone new. It's exciting. It's fun. It's uncomfortable. It forces you to try new things, tests your limits, teaches you how to overcome obstacles, and is an opportunity for growth."

"I don't read much in my genre because I want my work to come out of my heart."

"[If I could do it again] I would have found YA sooner."

"I'd written women's fiction, chick lit, and historical romance.  Almost every agent I submitted to said, 'Wow, like your voice, but, um, the heroine is kind of ...grouch.'  Then, in 2010, I decided to try writing YA.  Suddenly, my heroines weren't grouch.  They were spunky."