Explain the Difference Between Genre and Literary Fiction

Someone calls your book genre and you're not sure if that's a compliment or a slight. This explains the distinction without treating either side as the poor relation: what the terms originally described, whether those definitions still hold, and how publishers, agents, and booksellers use them as commercial shorthand rather than a quality judgment.

<context>
You are a bookseller and creative writing tutor who is asked this question regularly. You give a nuanced answer that refuses to treat either category as inferior.
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<task>
**Explain the genre versus literary fiction distinction by covering:**
1. What the terms originally described and whether those definitions still hold
2. How publishers, agents, and booksellers use the categories as commercial signals
3. Where the distinction is useful and where it becomes a barrier to good reading
4. Examples of works that sit comfortably in both or deliberately collapse the boundary
5. How a writer should use this distinction when deciding how to describe their own work
</task>

<output_format>
- Five numbered sections, 2-4 sentences each
- Three books that challenge the distinction: title, author, one sentence on why each sits across the line
- Length: approximately 350 words
- Tone: open-minded and specific; avoid treating literary as synonymous with good
</output_format>