Once you've completed your book and you're ready to publish, you'll need to figure out where it fits into the book world.
What genre does your work fall under?
It can become difficult at times to figure out where your book falls. There are a lot of genres and even more sub-genres. If you're writing in the fantasy genre you'll discover it contains a multitude of sub-genres. Is your book urban fantasy or high-fantasy? Paranormal fantasy ... maybe it's contemporary fantasy? It can leave you scratching your head. The same gores for the romance genre. It covers a lot of subjects and your book could fall into any number of them and sometimes several of them.
There are some genres that don't usually contain sub-genres, though they can be described with the addition of another genre to clarify a book's place in the world. Dystopian for example. You usually don't hear an author call their book dystopian fantasy or dystopian sci-fi. Dystopian is limited in its description. The most often added descriptors would be teen fiction which is a genre all its own. The same would go for YA fiction. New adult is still hanging around, though most authors have abandoned it as a description because it confused a lot of readers. If the world is screwed up and the opposite of a utopian society where things are perfect, it's dystopian. There's little need for sub-genres in this category.
If you're having some difficulty figuring out where your book falls here are a couple of tips to help
You can ask beta readers what genre they feel the book might be
Take a trip to Google and find definitions for the genres you're considering
Other authors are also a big help, especially if they currently write in the genres you're considering. They may be able to clarify things for you
Amazon let's you choose your main category, there's a varied list of genres your book can fall under. Once you pick your main category, they allow you to choose a sub-category, and then choose up to three placement categories. An example would be Romance (main category) > Paranormal (secondary category) > witches - ghosts - vampires (three placement categories).
Finding the niche your book fits into can be a seemingly daunting task but it is an important one to find the right readers for your work. So take the time to make certain you're connecting with the readers who will enjoy your book the most!
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