: Re: Can You Mix Readers of Fantasy and Sci-Fi? In his book How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, Orson Scott Card mentions the differences between fantasy and sci-fi readers, and even says that

@Gail2416123

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The novel I'm writing is actually along this vein, and I had the same thought as you: it appears to be a portion of the market that is yet to be fully recognized and tapped into. Whilst it definitely exists, not a lot of mainstream fiction seems to explore the vast possibilities of combining these two distinct yet similar genres.

Media are generally categorized as "Sci-Fi/Fantasy" because there tends to be a lot of overlap between the people who like the two different types of fiction. Although this isn't always true, it's usually enough of a generalization to assume that if someone is a fan of one, they would also be a fan of the other.

However, a high majority of fans of both Sci-Fi and Fantasy will have an opinion on which they prefer; they will rarely like both types of fiction equally. This means that few people will looking for pieces of work that combine the two 50/50.

So writing books that split the two down the middle will be a niche audience, who are looking to read something that caters to multiple of their interests, whilst readers who prefer one over the other may choose to read it, but are unlikely to be drawn to it naturally. That's not to say that you shouldn't write it, but you would need to understand that it is a niche market that you are writing for.

What you may be looking for, and what I believe is the best solution to the issue, is to not do both entirely equally, but rather have either a Fantasy piece with Sci-Fi elements or a Sci-Fi novel containing aspects of Fantasy.

This way, let's say you choose to write your first example of Fantasy creatures in a post-apocalyptic age on earth, you could write it as a Fantasy novel with swords & sorcery, but also contains things such as radiation, ancient technologies from humans before the apocalypse, and even maybe popular themes of Sci-Fi such as attempting to rebuild civilization.

However, it would need to be made clear to the readers early on what it is they are reading. Within the first 2 or 3 chapters you would need to establish which genre your piece is, but also establish that it will also contain portions of another genre.

That last thing you want to do is write an entirely Fantasy novel, then in the final couple of chapters include a big twist that they were on a spaceship all along, unless you drop clues about it throughout the story.

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