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Genres

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Rowan
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Genres

Post by Rowan » Thu August 27th, 2009, 3:05 am

I know this may be a HUGE stretch to ask, but is there any sort of site anyone knows of which will tell you what genre a book is supposed to be "filed" under? Thought Amazon might, nope. Nor Barnes & Noble.

annis
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Post by annis » Thu August 27th, 2009, 3:58 am

Some websites, like Readers' Advice give useful listings of titles by genre, but I'm not quite sure if this is what you mean. Are you maybe wanting to know what the particular elements are in a story which would categorize it as belonging to a certain specific genre? Good old Wikipedia provides a list of genres and mentions the elements which might help you fit a particular book into a genre.

If you're publishing a book what you might need is something like the Book Industry Subject Headings List
Last edited by annis on Thu August 27th, 2009, 4:24 am, edited 5 times in total.

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Rowan
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Interest in HF: I love history, but it's boring in school. Historical fiction brings it alive for me.
Preferred HF: Iron-Age Britain, Roman Britain, Medieval Britain
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Post by Rowan » Thu August 27th, 2009, 12:39 pm

Thanks for your reply Annis. :) What I'm looking for is a way to look up a book's title and be able to find out what genre it was published as. I have a general book blog with a friend of mine and decided yesterday to move it from Blogger to WordPress. In the process of transferring the posts we have, I have discovered 42 uncategorised reviews. We're categorising by genre and rather than asking her to do it, I figured I'd just do it myself, but I have no clue what genre they all are.

Ash
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Post by Ash » Thu August 27th, 2009, 1:00 pm

I'd check with your nearest chain bookstore. They should be able to get into their computer and tell you how a book is marketed and where it is shelved.

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Rowan
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Post by Rowan » Thu August 27th, 2009, 1:53 pm

If that were the case, Ash, shouldn't their website offer the same info?

Chatterbox
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Post by Chatterbox » Thu August 27th, 2009, 2:53 pm

I think publishers like leaving it open to debate. For instance, a Danielle Steel novel might belong in romance fiction, but no publisher (or bookstore) will confine it to the romance section; they'll want it in general fiction as well.

I'd pay more attention to the publishers. There are some, for instance, who are specifically sci-fi or romance or YA divisions. And then the rest of the time, you get to make the decision yourself. A lot of titles cross genres. Michelle's new books is being explicitly cross-marketed. I may read a book and think it's primarily a novel novel; others may see it primarily as a thriller. (I'm thinking Stieg Larsson here.)

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LoveHistory
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Post by LoveHistory » Thu August 27th, 2009, 8:58 pm

Another method (although it would definitely take longer) is to look them up on a site like Amazon and see what comes up as related products. Not a guarantee, but it could be a starting point.

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Post by Ash » Fri August 28th, 2009, 12:16 am

[quote=""Rowan""]If that were the case, Ash, shouldn't their website offer the same info?[/quote]

In a perfect world, yes (see my comments in another thread about my school district being unable to order online and require catalogues. What should be isn't always the case)

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