We’re very excited with our decision to self-publish, but because we didn’t know we had other options when we started this process, we thought we had to try and find any agent and go the traditional publishing route. Because of this, some could say that we’ve wasted time and lost money by not publishing our first book sooner. By the time we’ve completed everything and published our book, it’ll be over two years since we started this endeavor. And while we endured a lot of heartache and struggles, we wouldn’t trade our experience for an earlier publication date, because we have learned so much during this process. So, this is for all you aspiring authors out there.  Learn from our mistakes, so you don’t have to waste time trying to find an agent or publishing house and you can move on to self-publishing your book right away. This is just our advice to you. In no way do we know everything.

Part III-Knowing your genre

When you decide to try traditional publishing, you must first find an agent. And, to find an agent, you have to query many of them. But, before you query, you have to make sure you query agents interested in your genre (and sometimes sub-genre), otherwise you’re wasting your time.
So, what is your genre?
Seems simple, right? Maybe for someone like us. Romance about vampires equals paranormal romance. Done. However, not everyone is that easy. And if you publish your book and don’t know what category to put it in, how are you going to market it?
How are you going to find readers who are interested in reading an advanced reader copy? How are you going to find book bloggers to blog about it? How are you going to sell it if you can’t tell the reader if it’s in a genre they read? And if you ask for reviews from book bloggers and readers interested in an ARC and they don’t read your genre, you’re probably not going to get the results you want or need.
Yes, you’re going to have a synopsis, but sometimes those can be misleading. (I recently bought a book that I thought was contemporary, but was actually paranormal. It wasn’t until I read some of the reviews that I discovered what sub-genre the book was in. As you can probably guess, I haven’t read it yet.) Just because a reader thinks a book is in one genre, doesn’t mean it is. Especially when you have two genres that are similar like paranormal romance and urban fantasy.* Also, you need to consider sub-genre. Because those can vary, too. Historical romance and paranormal romance are very different, and some people don’t read one or the other (as some agents done represent one or the other).
Genre matters. So, before you publish (or query), make sure you know what genre your book is in. Because if you don’t know, how will the reader?

*If interested in the difference, Heros and Heartbreakers.com has a wonderful explanation here.