This paper discusses a variety of translation problems which are often attributed to genre effects. These effects are analyzed and shown to reveal that genre is a diverse notion which can function in various ways in comprehension processes. To explain these, an account of genre based on relevance theory is proposed. The central claim of this account is that genre information can crucially contribute to the fine tuning of relevance expectations in complex stimuli. On the theoretical side, this account refines our view of the management of expectations of relevance. On the practical side, it is shown that this account of genre is powerful enough to identify the sources of translation problems attributed to genre effects, and, together with Gutt's (1991; 2000a) explanatory account of translation, to guide the translator in a principled way to adequate solutions in given situations.