What Genre Is My Novel?

I've been vacillating since I began writing this book. I knew I wanted a love interest, but did it turn into more? Is my Historical Fiction a Romance or not?
Why it matters: Books need to be categorized in order to be found--whether it's put on a shelf by a librarian or bookstore staff, or searched online. A second but more personal reason concerns my title.
Backstory: I first called my novel The Seventh City. While I love that for a title, it doesn't clue us in to what it's about. Two of my suggestions to a marketing team were The Seventh City of Believers and The Seventh City: A Book of Mormon Novel. When the team came back with Secrets of the King's Daughter: A Book of Mormon Romance, I liked the descriptive first part quite well. Then I thought, "Oh, I guess it is a romance."
What is Romance? This description from findmeanauthor.com summed it up well: "The genre of Romantic Fiction has two strict criteria: The first is that the story must focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people. Secondly, the end of the story must be positive, leaving the reader believing that the protagonists' love relationship will endure for the rest of their lives."
Criteria 1 -- This only fits for the second half of the book. My MC, Karlinah, is required to marry. In the first part of the story, she has little or no say in whom she marries. That changes, but new complications prevent a suitable match. It isn't until later in the story that she finds one worthy enough to build a relationship. The first half of the story focuses more on Karlinah's self-discovery journey and why she puts off religious conversion.
Criteria 2 -- Definitely a happy ending!
Okay, so maybe that's close enough. 
Why I Care: I don't want to narrow the audience. I want male readers as well as female. My young adult son loved the manuscript but said he never would have picked it out on his own. The book contains kidnapping scenes, Ammon chopping off arms of the enemy, and a wonderful villain. On the other hand, the Romance genre is huge and females are the largest group of readers.
End Result: What it boils down to is that my book needs to be a great book, regardless of the title or genre. That is what I aim to do. Word-of-mouth stories are what people want to read. 
Did you have a favorite title? Please let me know. OR wait until next Monday and you can vote!

The new-to-me blog of the week is an author/editor with a new pen name and a revitalized blog to match. Visit Jenn Adams at http://www.authorjennadams.blogspot.com/ and give her some bloggy love.  

Boundaries

Boundaries. They need to become visible, definable at times. A librarian, stocker, or customer needs to know where to shelve or find what book they want. Publishers label in genres to fit our expectations. Marketers use genre to advertise to their target audience. Boundaries make good reference points but can become muddy or inconsistent in the book world. Writers need to guard awareness of their intended genre as they write. Perhaps that is why there were so many genre questions at the writeoncon workshop. Agents and editors answered many questions to define the differences between Middle Grade (MG) and Young Adult (YA). A few mentioned New Adult (NA), a bridge between YA and Adult books. You can read all the great articles, but, since you’re here, enjoy my summary on the topic.

1. The agents were especially asking to see more manuscripts in MG.

2. Basic Differences between MG and YA are seen in both the voice and sentence structure. The voice of the MG story shows kids discovering, learning how they fit in their own world, being part of a group, growing up is the main experience. The YA voice shows youths who are learning to stand out in their world, learning to fit in a world that it bigger than themselves, they can look back on growing up experiences because they’ve already lived them.

Author Claire Legrand gave us a list of things to consider in MG vs YA:

  Age: Tweens or Teens? Avoid that between age of 13. Another boundaries problem.

  Romance: Kissy-Kissy or Kissy-Kissy? Innocent discovery of romantic feelings, no lust vs undertones of     sexual awakening.

  Swearing: Darn or Damn? Swearing doesn’t fit the MG voice, even if real life might. Don’t insert just to be edgy, needs a purpose like fitting the tone, setting, or emotion. Remember, schools and libraries buy books too.

  Violence: PG or PG-13?

  Experience: Internal or External? How they experience or perceive the world.

  Journey: Only just begun or Finally getting somewhere?

  Awareness: Observing or Analyzing?

  Language: Simple or Complex? Both in dialogue and sentence structure.

  Voice: 3^rd Person or 1^st Person (Or Does it really matter)? Do what works best for the story.

3. New Adult generally contains college-age or post-high school characters for high school and beyond readers. NA isn’t big enough yet for its own category, causing the headache of where to place it—YA or Adult? Yeah, that’s a Catch 22 situation.

4. When querying or pitching, an author needs to give her book’s genre. Pick the biggest one that fills the bucket. Don’t name it a YA futuristic paranormal romance with a western flare. Which one dominates? Who is the core audience? Let the other elements come out in the story without mention.

5. Don’t write specifically for the new trend you see. Chances are agents have searched through hundreds of manuscripts in that genre’s theme to find one or two they love enough to take on. By the time a book is sold and published, the trend will be worn out. Just write a great book! Strong voice, strong characters, emotion, high stakes—all that good stuff. Yeah, no one said it would be easy.

Genres—deciding where to fit

  I used to think my historical novel, The Seventh City, targeted the adult audience. Hardly any sixteen-year-old young adult stories included widows dealing with mature themes. Then I got some feedback that the voice of my story felt YA. My next project, Perception, stars a high school senior. Maybe I am a YA author. I’m setting out to ascertain what young adult includes. Obviously it means more than wizards, vampires, and high school crushes. It’s time to start reading younger, learn the YA secret language, and figure out the guidelines.

  Whatever the genre, people read for entertainment and escapism. Readers want to be taken away from their own life or world. This doesn’t necessarily mean fantasy or sci-fi, but could be why they are so popular. Genres and subgenres have evolved with time and we are seeing the product of creative imagination.

  What do you like to read and why? And if you write YA, maybe you could leave a guideline or tip for me. I'd love to read your comments.