What's in a Name? Marketing, Duh!
My father, who thinks he's funny, says, "Call me anything, but late to dinner."
I've been thinking about that lately with the ongoing discussions of book genres and my own efforts to get my book seen as a comic novel. Since women don't get categorized as funny novelists, my book in arbitrarily categorized as paranormal, chick lit, romance, whatever.
There's a gender issue, here, because, generally speaking, men writers are simply seen as fiction writers. I'm not screaming sexism, because, guess what, women authors outsell the men authors. Maybe the categories help sales by directing customers to what they want. Perhaps male authors should be demanding sub-categories to boost sales.
I know that sometimes I want to read a hysterical, urban gay comedy of manners and I wish there was a category for this. Usually just I check to see if
Joe Keenan has written another book. Sometimes I want to read a dark mystery by some Brit chick and then I see if
Ruth Rendell's got a new novel. Sometimes I want complexly plotted sci-fi/fantasy, so I'll check the sci-fi/fantasy shelves for
Connie Willis or
Neil Gaiman.What sub-categories does anybody like?