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General fiction and literary fiction have to stand on the merits of the actual book. Every book is its own genre of 1, so can't benefit from group promotion. Genre fiction is bought by the yard.
Genre fiction by unknown authors is a commodity, in a way that literary fiction cannot really be, I think.
I read literary fiction, occasionally, but I'm reading specific works that I've been put onto by recommendations or reviews or prizes or whatever. I will stick to my chosen genres if I'm just looking for a random read.
I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. The good stuff will still rise to the top, on average. If a lot of SF fans like a piece of SF, that's probably more useful to me than a lot of lit-fic fans (is there even such a thing?) liking a piece of lit-fic, because I know where the SF fans are coming from; I'm better able to judge whether I'll like the book.
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