Often mistaken as mainstream fiction, commercial fiction works are like a good blockbuster movie. According to Agent Query, they are designed to "hook" readers early in the text. Commercial fiction keeps readers interested with well-paced action and a compelling plot. The narrative is the most important property of commercial fiction. Characters, settings and other elements serve to move the plot forward and nothing more.
"The Confession" by John Grisham is an example of commercial fiction, as is "Toys" by James Patterson. Commercial fiction books frequently overlap genre lines. "The Confession," for example, is a thriller with elements of a mystery, while "Toys" falls in the fantasy, thriller and mystery genres.
Mainstream fiction differs from commercial fiction in that the text is created using a central theme and targets a specific audience, according to the article "Exploring the Different Types of Fiction" by Sarah Parsons Zackheim and Adrian Zackheim. Commercial fiction may be written to grab and hold the reader, but mainstream fiction is written to jump on the current writing fad. It is meant to be an easy read to satisfy the casual reader. Mainstream fiction is actually called genre fiction in some circles. These types of books are easy reads that focus on theme over the plot, character, setting and other elements. In fact, the elements of fiction are used to promote the theme within the book.
The "Twilight" series of books by Stephanie Meyer and the "Harry Potter" series by J.K. Rowling are mainstream fiction books written toward specific audiences, with central themes. These books tend to follow genre lines in order to attract readers.
A type of fiction that tends to elevate itself above others is literary fiction. This fiction category consists of books that are of a more artistic quality. The focus is the way in which words, concepts, themes and components of the text come together to create a compelling story. The books are sometimes considered the abstract paintings of fiction texts, as some literary works require interpretation beyond simply reading the story. Agent Query identifies one telling characteristic of a literary fiction novel is its ability to make its readers "marvel at the quality of writing [in the text] above all else."
Literary fiction works include "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the story "Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka and "The Edible Woman" by Margaret Atwood. All of these books are centered on the actual text used to create the story, while carefully crafting the other elements to let the story flow as it may.