Book categories and book genres matter because they help agents, publishers, booksellers and readers understand what kind of book you’ve written, and who it’s for. They help authors find suitable literary agents and comparable titles, help publishers position and market books, and help readers discover the books they’re likely to enjoy.
I talk about book categories and book genres all the time, especially to urge writers to know well the categories in which they write. That’s because, in order to allow readers to find your work, it’s essential to know where in the publishing landscape your book fits.
But, from time to time, I come across a writer who seems puzzled when asked which category they’re writing in and doesn’t seem to believe it matters. They are sometimes the writers who think their book’s audience is ‘everyone’, but not always.
Sometimes writers seem confused about the whole concept and purpose of book categories and book genres, and they don’t get why they’re being exhorted to pay so much attention to this aspect of publishing and bookselling.
What’s the difference between a book category and a book genre?
The terms category and genre are often used almost interchangeably in publishing, and they can overlap when describing a book.
Category is a broad term referring to general aspects of a book’s content and audience, such as fiction, non-fiction, adult, children’s or YA.
Genre tells us more precisely what kind of book it is: crime, romance, science fiction, fantasy, history, memoir and so on. Within genres are subgenres, such as cosy mystery, police procedural, historical romance or psychological thriller.
The terminology isn’t always used with absolute consistency. What matters is being able to describe your book accurately enough that an agent, publisher, bookseller or reader understands what kind of book it is and who is likely to want to read it.
I was thinking about this topic recently because, not for the first time, a self-published author told me that all the advice he’d been given about category and genre was ‘complete rubbish’ and he’d ignored all of it.
When I looked up his book I found that, far from divorcing itself from the concept of category and/or genre, his book clearly inhabited a definite, well-defined (if somewhat narrow) subgenre. What’s more, it had been explicitly placed within its category and that subgenre. He hadn’t categorised it as a fiction book and left it at that. He’d followed the sub-categories down to the book’s niche, so its category string was quite lengthy. However, he’d only placed it in that one sub-category.
Book categories help readers find your book
So, the metadata was sparse. Maybe this was the real point of confusion – the M word!
Book metadata is the information used to describe and identify a book, including its title, author, format, subject categories and other information. If the term feels a bit technical, think of metadata as a digital version of a card index: its purpose is to link categories, descriptions and keywords so that a reader can find a relevant book even when they don’t already know its title or author.
My self-published author hadn’t made full use of the metadata possibilities offered by the retail platform, but instead stuck to that one sub-category that probably described the book best.
The problem with this approach is that it makes it so hard for a potential reader to come across one’s book via general searches: the only way for them to come upon the book is to search for the book’s title or author, or be sent to the purchase page by the author’s own marketing efforts. So, based merely on the well-written and evocative description, I would have suggested some additions to his sub-categories, because at present that book is certainly not reaching all of its potential audience.
I think the source of this and other authors’ confusion about book categories is a misunderstanding of the purpose of book categorisation and how it works in practice to help the algorithm (or bookseller, or librarian) throw up relevant possibilities. There’s a reason why publishers and agents are always talking about it, and maybe that reason doesn’t always filter through, especially to the self-publishers trying to make use of the metadata options offered by retail platforms.
Book categories and book genres matter for traditionally published authors too
Authors seeking traditional publication need to know their book’s category and genre because literary agents and publishers specialise. An author needs to identify agents who represent books like theirs, while an agent needs to understand where a manuscript sits in the market before deciding whether they might be able to sell it.
Agents and publishers don’t represent or publish all fiction or all non-fiction, and trying to do so would be a complete non-starter. They tend to work with the categories and genres they know well and like best.
When I worked for a small indie publisher, one of the perennial questions at an acquisition meeting or when discussing a submission was ‘where in the bookshop does it go?’ An alternative question was often ‘who is the audience for this book?’ Both questions sought to accurately describe the book under discussion.
Accurate categorisation is important so the publisher can label the book accurately in its metadata. Categorisation is for the readers, so the book can be put in front of the people who will buy and read it, but it’s also for the wholesaler and for booksellers. When the copies finally show up at a bookshop, they can be shelved correctly – that is, with other books of a similar type.
So, these matters of categorisation are absolutely real questions that agents and publishers ask, and if the author hasn’t given them a clue or they think the author might not be quite right, the agent or publisher themselves will need to figure out the answer – that is, if they decide it is worth representing or publishing the book.
Authors – whether they seek traditional publishing or an independent route – who can clearly and accurately explain which categories and genres their work falls into are therefore already able to distinguish themselves from the pack.
Of course, there may be debate in some cases, such as where the publisher believes the author has missed a trick by going for a less successful subgenre than the book could realistically be placed in, or the publisher wants the book to be revised to more accurately fit a sub-category the publisher believes it could do well in.
That is, book categories and book genres can be mutable and subject to judgement, but they are always highly relevant to the business of publishing a book.
How do book genres help readers choose books?
Books, even in the same genre, can be wildly different, and so are their audiences. Book categorisation is about describing an individual book and differentiating it from other books.
This is particularly apparent in big genres like crime or romance, where the many subgenres mean that the potential audiences for two different books may not overlap much, or even at all.
Let’s use an example: one book is a graphic police procedural about a detective pursuing a serial killer who hunts for his victims online and operates on the east coast of the United States, and another is a cosy mystery featuring a glamorous middle-aged spinster and her pet ferret who are solving the theft of an opal necklace, rumoured to be cursed, in 1960s London.
Both these books are fiction, and both are in the crime genre, but they inhabit radically different subgenres. Chances are, there aren’t many readers of either book who will also be interested in the other.
This is why knowing that you’ve written ‘crime fiction’ isn’t necessarily enough. A cosy mystery and a graphic police procedural offer very different reading experiences and are marketed to different audiences.
Furthermore, those two books and their authors are likely to be represented by different agents and published by different houses. In a physical bookshop, they will be on different shelves, possibly in different sections of the shop, and on a digital retail platform they will not be served up as possibilities to the same readers.
You’ll notice that my brief description of those two books includes references to subgenres and keywords that readers could use to look for a new police procedural or cosy mystery to read. A properly categorised book would show up in response to their search. Without that categorisation, they would need to sort through thousands of irrelevant books to get to something they might want.
How can I work out what genre my book is?
If you’re not sure which genre or category your book belongs to, start with the reader rather than the label.
Imagine your book in a large bookshop. Which shelf would it be on, and which books would be sitting beside it? Those neighbouring books should appeal broadly to the same audience as yours.
Look at recently published books that resemble yours in subject, tone, structure and reading experience. How are publishers, booksellers and reviewers describing them? Which categories do online retailers place them in? Which literary agents represent their authors?
You don’t need to find one perfect label that describes every aspect of your book. Many books cross genres. But you should be able to identify its primary category, its likely audience and the other books with which it will compete for that audience.
Can a book belong to more than one genre?
Yes, plenty of books combine genres or sit between established categories. A novel might be both historical fiction and romance, say, or combine crime with speculative fiction.
But a book that crosses genres doesn’t mean categorisation no longer matters. It makes accurate positioning more important, because you still need to communicate what kind of reading experience the book offers and identify the readers most likely to want it.
Why book categories and book genres matter
It’s not possible, or wise, for any modern author to ignore book categories and book genres. All that advice about thinking about where the book goes in a bookshop is still highly relevant, and ignoring it is, in most cases, a sure way to tell publishing professionals and readers that you don’t know what you’ve written, or who should read it.
You don’t need to become a publishing metadata expert. But if you’re serious about publishing a book, you should be able to answer some basic questions:
- What kind of book is it?
- Who is it for?
- What other books are like it?
- Where would it sit in a bookshop?
If you can’t answer those questions, you’re going to have difficulty persuading an agent, publisher or reader to answer the most important one: why should I choose this book?
Frequently asked questions about book categories and genres
Why do book genres matter?
Book genres help agents, publishers, booksellers and readers understand what kind of book you’ve written and who it is for. They affect how books are submitted, marketed, categorised, shelved and discovered.
Do I need to know my book’s genre before querying literary agents?
Yes. Literary agents specialise in particular types of books, so authors need to identify agents who represent their category and genre. An inaccurate genre description may mean querying agents who were never suitable for the manuscript.
Can a book have more than one genre?
Yes. Many books cross or combine genres, but authors should still understand their primary category, likely audience and the expectations their book creates for that audience.
Do book categories matter if I’m self-publishing?
Yes. Categories, subcategories and other metadata help retailers place a book in front of readers searching or browsing for that type of book. Poor categorisation can make a book unnecessarily difficult to discover.
I have written an article, exclusively for my newsletter subscribers, about how self-publishers should go about choosing their book categories, sub-categories and keywords when setting their book up on Amazon. It’s not just relevant for self-publishers, though, because the purpose and method of accurate book categorisation is essential information for any writer in the 21st century.
You can access that subscriber exclusive article by signing up to the Inbox Edition, and if you feel a bit lost when talking about book categories, sub-categories or book genres, I highly recommend you do.
This article was first posted on 17th July 2022, and has been updated.
