Upmarket vs. Literary vs. Commercial Fiction

Everyone Loves This Genre. But No One Is Writing It.

I thought this video was interesting. Alyssa Matesic primarily serves the trad market, but her take on the distinction between these genres, and their potential for publishing success, may be useful. She approaches it from noting what genres agents are requesting most, but which aren’t represented in the list of what manuscripts are being submitted. Her data is from QueryTracker.

It strikes me that Thomas’s approach to success could be described as get your foothold in Commercial, then branch out later to Upmarket or even Literary once you’re established.* Of course, I’m just spitballin’ here. Of note also, besides Upmarket, other underserved markets she identified were Horror and Speculative. Her definition of Speculative as being a specific ‘what-if?’ rather than general I also found useful.

[*Edit for clarity: I’m reacting to Thomas’s frequent remark that young or inexperienced writers often desire to do the thing ‘that’s never been done before’, whom he admonishes to get established first, then write your avant-garde stuff later, when you have a solid fan base. But that’s not to suggest a change in genre, only to establish yourself with the “normal kind” first.]