How to Market Your Book When It’s Between Genres

If Colleen Hoover’s chart-topping It Ends with Us had been released in 2010, booksellers would have shelved it as a romance and moved on. But ask an industry pro today where that book belongs and you might be in for a monologue on the complexity of trauma narratives, feminist reclamations of the “problem novel,” BookTok’s taste for ugly-cry catharsis, and more. For authors wondering how to market their book when it’s between genres, Hoover’s success raises both hope and questions.

Savannah Cordova

Authors like Hoover, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Jojo Moyes, and Sally Rooney have built blockbuster careers on books that refuse to stay in one lane. They borrow amusing tropes from romance, heart-pounding suspense from thrillers, and existential malaise from literary fiction—then remix them into commercial page-turners that readers love.

Traditional publishing now celebrates this mishmash model, but indie authors continue to hear the opposite: pick a genre, hit the tropes, buy Amazon ads in that category, repeat. The result? “In-between” authors get left in the dust, feeling like they must cosplay as genre authors just to sell books … and fearful of disappointing that genre’s readers.

If your book is too tragic to be a rom-com, too swoony to be a thriller, too cozy to be horror, or what have you, this post is for you. I’ll cover the hidden risks of slapping a false genre label on your own “in-betweener” (tempting as it might be) and give a few solid strategies for building your readership over the long haul. Let’s dive in.

The challenges of a ‘genreless’ book

When your book doesn't fit into an established genre, you face a number of marketing hurdles. This is especially true for indie authors, but even trad-pub authors aren’t immune to criticism when their books don’t align with expectations.

A recent example: Emily Henry’s latest, Great Big Beautiful Life, hit the shelves in April. It’s certainly romantic, but because it focuses as much on its actual plot—an introspective journey into a reclusive celebrity’s past—as on its central couple, some of Henry’s fans balked. Her plotting and prose are as strong as ever, but mismatched reader expectations nonetheless sparked early complaints of “this isn’t a romance.”

Similarly, Cecilia Rabess’s 2023 debut Everything’s Fine was packaged with bright “cartoon-y” cover art and a meet-cute blurb, signaling lighthearted love and easy reading. Instead, readers found a politically charged lit-fic exploration of an interracial relationship under Trump-era tension—and many felt duped.

And to give a non-romance example, Deepa Anappara’s Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line was sold as a lightly atmospheric mystery about a young boy trying to solve his classmate’s disappearance. Given front-cover blurbs like “rich with easy joy”, you can imagine my shock when (spoilers) this book turned out to be much darker than expected—and even (double spoiler!) ends with the main character’s sister being murdered. (I read this one for book club a few years ago, and we all agreed that it had been terribly mismarketed.)

Many indie authors have faced similar dilemmas, of course. Being “between genres” is one reason to choose this path in the first place: you don’t have a publisher forcing you into a box. Yet when so much advice for self-publishing authors remains genre-based, it can feel like that independence is rendered moot.

So, what’s the solution? Should you write strictly to market for now—particularly as a debut author—and save your genre-bending ambitions for later?

Not necessarily. If your creative vision involves blending genres, you should go for it! Just remember the stakes are higher when you're publishing independently, which is why it’s so important to set expectations clearly from the start.

Here’s how to do that while still managing to land new readers and sales.

Four tips to market a book that’s “between genres”

1. Target readers by “similar authors,” not genre

Rather than marketing to an entire genre's audience, focus on readers who enjoy specific authors whose work bears similarities to yours. Your potential audience pool might be narrower, but it will be more relevant.

For example, if your book blends elements of romance and psychological suspense like many of Colleen Hoover’s titles, you can target readers who follow her rather than broadly targeting all romance or thriller readers. You might use Meta or BookBub ads to go after fans of these crossover authors, or mention these comparative titles in your book description.

Trad pub authors may be most useful for those big ad targets, but you can also look at fellow indie authors to get ideas about your ideal audience. With indies, it’s not about mercenary “targeting” so much as collaboration; see if you can cross-promote your books so you both gain readers, and swap tips about how to survive in the genre-obsessed world of publishing.

2. Present your book’s content honestly

As mentioned, you also have to avoid marketing to a genre's audience if your book doesn't truly belong there. Nobody wants to get halfway through a novel only to realize it’s not actually the genre they wanted.

You can circumvent this by just being honest—or at least by not being deceptive—about your book’s contents.

For example:

• Focus on your cover’s “vibes” more than its genre signals. A misleading bit of vector art or a cozy font can easily land you the wrong readers. Instead, spotlight tone: muted palettes for melancholy, bold color + sans-serif for high-concept, etc.
• Use micro-categories as filters, not promises. Place your book in two or three relevant Amazon sub-niches, but craft the subtitle/blurb to warn off trope hunters. “A political coming-of-age story about love and disillusionment” would have been a much better (if less sexy) description for Everything’s Fine than its actual blurb.
• Likewise, use keywords for themes, not tropes. Think: “grief, second chances, morally grey,” rather than “enemies-to-lovers, billionaire romance.” The former is much more open to interpretation, and much less likely to land you in hot water with readers.

Of course, when you’re constantly getting pummeled with genre-based advice, it’s easy to accidentally pigeonhole your book as a single genre. So don’t just pursue these alternative strategies; make sure you’re also vigilant about how your book is being perceived.

If possible, try to have early beta readers also take a look at your cover, book description, and even Amazon categories and keywords. They can let you know whether these elements are setting accurate expectations, so you can adjust as needed.

3. Market yourself as much as your book

For these “genreless” books, author branding becomes all the more crucial. Rather than third-party recommendations, like reviews from genre-based book bloggers, focus on developing a personal connection with your audience.

Social media-averse authors will cringe at this, but the best approach here is to become more active on Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok, etc. The good news is that you won’t be forced to chase genre readers (which usually means adhering to whatever platform they’re already on); instead, you can try a bit of everything and see where you naturally find engagement.

Once you do discover “your people,” here are some ideas to market yourself on social media:

• Post behind-the-scenes content. Drafting breakdowns, playlist inspiration, deleted chapters, etc. You can kill two birds with one stone here — draw in followers with interesting content and get them invested in your next book.
• Lean into the “social-media friendly” aspects of your personality. Again, it might seem cringey to you, but it could be your best chance of gaining readers. What do you genuinely want to share with others—your beloved pet, your crochet projects, your spreadsheet wizardry? Showing how much you love it will make others love it too—and then love you by extension.
• Ask your followers to do duets/stitches. BookTok in particular loves reaction videos. Prompt your followers to “record your face at page 307” or to “finish this sentence: my book boyfriend’s biggest red flag is…”

Remember, “personality marketing” doesn’t mean leaning hard into tropes or trying to shoehorn your book where it doesn’t belong. All it requires is authenticity, regularity… and maybe a dash of spectacle.

4. Play the long game (back catalog is king)

Colleen Hoover wrote several novels before her viral moment. Taylor Jenkins Reid’s breakout (The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo) arrived after several years of solid midlist performance. Countless readers who were gripped by Evelyn then marched through Daisy Jones, Malibu Rising, and Carrie Soto — not to mention Reid’s backlist deep cuts.

Once readers fall in love with your work, they often end up reading your entire backlist. While this obviously happens with genre authors too, “genreless” authors potentially have more points of entry. That is, by not marketing your book as only one genre, you keep yourself open to readers who don’t necessarily identify as fans of that genre. Your book becomes whatever you (and they) want it to be.

So, what’s the lesson? Focus on building a body of work with a distinctive voice rather than trying to score an immediate bestseller. Keep building your platform and mailing list, ensure new readers are aware of all your books, and aim to create a brand that transcends individual titles.

Readers today are omnivorous: they’ll ride an enemies-to-lovers roller coaster on Monday, devour a PTSD-laced thriller on Wednesday, and finish a quiet campus novel by Friday — often in the same author’s catalog. The successes of Hoover, Reid, and others like them prove that “genreless” is less a marketing curse than an opportunity — if you build honest expectations and a personal connection.

Do these things consistently, and your “in-between” book won’t just find its shelf; it will create its own section ready for you to stock.

From ALLi Members

Many ALLi members have shared their own experiences navigating the blurry lines of genre, affirming just how common—and creatively liberating—this challenge can be.

“I wonder if a universal change in publishing could drop the genre labels entirely and simply use keywords in cataloging?” — Elyse Cregar

For Kay M. Weston, her debut collection of magical short stories spans paranormal and magical realism. “It was a fun project,” she said, “that I intend to use as a reader magnet to show my writing style and the types of stories readers can expect from me.”

Librarian and author Elyse Cregar raised a broader concern: “Can [genre categories] sometimes defeat the purpose of open shelves for curious readers?” She questioned whether the publishing world could eventually rely more on keywords and less on rigid labels. “I wonder if a universal change in publishing could drop the genre labels entirely and simply use keywords in cataloging?”

Others pointed out that what looks like a genreless book often still has a market—if you know where to look.

“There really is a genre for every book,” said Kevin McLaughlin. “Knowing which genre that might be requires a deep understanding of publishing categories and the readers who use those to find their next read.”

Jeff Probst embraces the “literary fiction” label, even as his novel dips into sci-fi and speculative fiction. “Howard Jacobson once told me, ‘Just call it fiction. Let other people call it literary if they want.’”

Lynne Pardoe, writing fiction partly based on her work in child protection, straddles memoir and novel, guided more by ethical necessity than by genre convention.

Savannah Cordova is a writer with Reedsy, a marketplace that connects authors with resources and professionals to help them publish a book. In her spare time, Savannah enjoys reading contemporary fiction, writing short stories, and analyzing literary and publishing trends.

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