(originally posted: September 20, 2004)

Today I was going to begin with definitions of genre.

Instead, I will take a moment to address several readers' comments wherein the notion of "poor perception of genre" is something they don’t see as a particular issue in the current publishing climate.

The sense I get from some of you is that here at Publishers Marketplace I am preaching to the choir, that genre does not need defending, that genre makes up a healthy chunk of industry acquisitions, and that topnotch quality genre works are making a huge splash, rising above the genre ghetto and "breaking out."

Yes, yes, and a thousand Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings times yes.

I agree. And yet, at the same time it quietly illustrates my point that genre as an entity still requires qualifiers, justifications, excuses, and token exemplary works, no matter how casual or open-minded most of us are.

Genre prejudice is still out there, and, as any other form of prejudice, it is a difficult-to-eradicate, subtle beast of the literary deep. And it resides in all of us.

Here's a pop quiz.

Do you think that, in general, a work of literary fiction or general mainstream fiction is superior to a category romance, a police procedural, or a space opera novel?

Answer quickly, with your natural first impulse.

If you respond with a reasonable "yes" to the statement above, then you are my audience.

Next up, definitions of genre.