When I started writing, I considered myself a writer of mainstream books for women. But I soon discovered two things: Writing for women is not a one-size-fits-all category. And I was not even writing only for women.

It’s a strange dichotomy that writing fiction requires a profound ability to fantasize in a wishful way, but becoming a writer requires a vast array of skills, not the least of which is discipline. You have to sit down and actually write, preferably every day. And then you have to think about and learn about the reality of the book marketplace.

The Reality of the Marketplace

Writers must determine where their work fits and how the book market will categorize it. These days, agents seem to demand that writers fit into predetermined molds or write in genres that are currently selling best. One agent told me recently: “I really like your manuscript and the first chapter is gripping. I just don’t know an editor I could sell it to.” I have no idea what editors she favors, but obviously not any who would take kindly to a dystopian novel.

Agents and editors tell writers all sorts of things. Some of it is helpful, some hurtful, but the bottom line always comes back to this: where does your book fit into the market? To determine that, anyone who deals with books and writers will tell you to spend some quality time in a few bookstores. Note how the sections and even the shelves are labeled. Think about where your book might find some siblings or at least cousins or other family members.

Finding your BISAC

At some point, you’ll hear the word BISAC.  BISAC is an acronym for Book Industry Standards and Communications.

Click here for a full description and explanation on how to assign correct industry codes to your book because that’s how the industry knows where your book fits. For my dystopian novel I chose these:

FIC055000      FICTION / Dystopian

FIC019000      FICTION / Literary

FIC043000      FICTION / Coming of Age

FIC002000      FICTION / Action & Adventure

FIC037000      FICTION / Political

It’s like shelves or sections in a bookstore. You need to know where your book fits into the book marketing and sales world. I think this was probably always true for writers, but it’s even more apt today. Writing is only the beginning of a long process. Someone, somewhere down the road must sell your book. Even if it’s you.

I found out that men read and enjoy my books, even the ones I thought only women would like. So when I choose my BISACs, I try to select ones that are as broad as possible while still staying true to the themes and storylines of my book. The protagonist may be a woman, but the challenges she faces are universal enough for male readers to get and for book sellers to move into the hands of readers.

Even dystopian fiction, like all other categories of fiction these days, breaks down into subcategories. I could have chosen BISACs that stayed within the dystopian category, but one BISAC in DYSTOPIAN was enough for me. The others describe other aspects of the novel.

Where to Begin?

So where should you start? With the writing. Worry about picking the right BISACs later. If you know you love a good mystery and want to write one, don’t worry about what subgenre of mystery it is until you’re done.