I've completed a novel that I would describe as fitting into the genre of "women's contemporary novel", However, I think the best description for it is "book club fiction." Is it okay for me to describe my manuscript as book club fiction? For example, "One of your clients INSERT NAME suggested I contact you regarding AWESOME TITLE, my 76,000 word work of book club fiction."?
Well, since there's no genre called "women's contemporary novel" you should call it almost anything else up to and including cowgirl haiku. Book Club fiction seems as good as any.
Genre and category are often used interchangeably but they're not.
Genre generally means either (1) western, (2) crime, (3)science fiction/fantasy or (4)romance.
Categories are things that can be in any genre: erotica for example. You can have an erotic Western, and/or erotic crime.
YA is a category rather than a genre because you can have YA mysteries, YA SF/F, and YA anything else you want.
Book Club fiction is a category, but it's most often used to describe novels that are women's fiction-- character driven with plots propelled by relationships more than plots propelled by events. More of The Feelings and less of The Fisticuffs.
I think you're better off calling this women's fiction. You always want to use the designation that includes more readers rather than fewer.
