Decoding What Genre & Sub-Genre A Book Is In...
The Hard Way
I wish there was a dedicated website that listed all the books and included what genre and sub-genres the books were in accurately. I hate it when I pick up a book in a sub-genre that I know I dislike or simply don't want to read and have to go digging through other peoples book reviews to confirm what I had become suspicious of only after investing a few hours of my life into a book.
I've also found out the hard way that not all authors list what genre their books are in in the synopsis or the first few pages of the novel. Amazon (for the most part) is of no help. Their categories, for the most part, are very general. I've picked up quite a few novels that were in the sub-genre of reverse harem, for example, that weren't mentioned in the title, synopsis or amazon's magical book categories.
Overall, I just hate that I have to invest my money and my time into a book only to find out that I wouldn't have picked it up in the first place had I known what it featured. It's happened so many times by this point that I'm simply bitter about it.
Has this happened to you?
Let me know in the comments below!
I have read so many articles on genre/sub-genre, and they don't all seem to agree. That's why I tend to keep it broad.
ReplyDeleteThat's another frustrating thing about the book industry! Would it kill everyone to agree on what makes for a YA, New Adult, Adult novels etc.? Being broad is completely fine as long as it's being mentioned somewhere in the book title, synopsis or in the novel itself. I don't want to pick up a YA romance novel only to be 3 hours into it and find out the author/publisher never mentioned it's also in the reverse harem sub-genre of romance. I want to know what it features so I don't waste my time on something I know isn't for me in the first place.
DeleteYeah I get frustrated sometimes too when a book turns out to be different than it appears, or if it's just not clear when I buy it or look it up! So true. I would definitely use a website like that!
ReplyDeleteI've flown past frustration at this point. I'm angry and bitter after having this happen multiple times. I don't want to have to go on an exploratory search of reviews to find out what the novel features/its genre and sub-genres. It's such a simple thing to have present in a synopsis :/
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