| I've developed this annoying habit lately where I have to find the spot on the shelves where my books will live every time I go into a bookstore. In a Borders the other day, I headed to the fantasy section to admire the tiny space of air between H.G. Wells and Scott Westerfield. But then I turned and saw the horror section. Sitting among the Stephen Kings and other authors of fear fiction were Kim Harrison and Charlaine Harris. Yet, Kelly Armstrong and Lilith Saintcrow were in fantasy. I asked an employee how they decided who goes where. He shrugged and said it was decided by the corporate office. His best guess was that darker books ended up in horror. Yet, that can't be the only factor since several of the UFs in the fantasy section weren't exactly light fare. Maybe the decision depends on the types of creatures involved. Magic is heavily used in the fantasy genre. Vampires and demons traditionally fall under the horror umbrella. Of course, none of this takes into consideration the UFs being shelved in romance. Either way, I think it's about time bookstores give UF its own section. What say you? |
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I think this is a great idea. I've missed a lot of releases at my local B&N simply because I don't think to look in the Romance section, where it seems about half the books I've read in the past six months have turned up.
I can understand the sentiment behind it and how it would make it easier on the shopper... on the same coin, the corporate office wants to expose you to more books so you will possibly check more out and buy more. And expanding genres that a customer is interested in is a great way to do that and make more money.
Besides- the fantasy section tends to hold sci fi, fantasy, sometime horror, urban fantasy... and then you get the cross-genre novels. But I do feel that there are alot of UF books wrongly stacked in with the romance. Like Katie McCallister- her Aisling Gray series. I think that a romance novel should end in one. Having it cross 4 novels and THEN the fact that her romance feels like subplot and not the main plot...
This is such a crazy subject b/c it's so diverse and there are so many abstract opinions.
In fact, why genre so distinctly? Let's put everything in: Fiction, Non-Fiction/History, Children's, Instruction Manuals and other such Educational Books. Then romance, fantasy, sci-fi, and UF will all be mixed together. :)
I used to be a manager in a bookstore. We really have no control over it at all. Publishers tell corporate what the genre is, and then corporate has its little minions put a label on the book telling those in bookstore where it goes. Though recently corporate has been putting books in two sections sometimes. Like Horror will also be found in General Fiction etc, just to promote the book or get customers to look at other books in that area.
What surprised me is that a lot of customers, when asking for UF were referring to African American Fiction... I have no clue what else to say lol.
Don't forget-- Laurell K. Hamilton is shelved in General Fiction.
I completely agree with UF getting it's own shelf. The widespread locations of books in stores was part of why I created Urban Fantasy Land-- to help readers discover more UF authors.
If you want to find UF in a brick & mortar, you've got to hit General Fiction, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Romance. Come to think of it, this probably a deliberate ploy to get us to spend several hours lost in the stacks.
Vmisery, there's a lot of confusion, even among authors, about what constitutes a UF vs a paranormal romance.
Melissa, McCalister is in romance because she already had an established readership in the genre and her fans knew to find her in romance. Besides, the genre definitions seems so fluid now that it usually comes down to a market decision.
Lyda, the whole thing is so confusing.
Lindsay, I've seen her shelved in fantasy, too. It really depends on the store. Another good example is Christopher Moore. For some reason, he's in general fiction, but his books are clearly UF IMHO.
I was just in Borders last night and noticed that the horror section is getting smaller while the Sci-Fi/ Fantasy section is smoldering with tons of UF titles. BTW - I front faced certain books while I was there. Any guesses on the titles?
It wouldn't hurt for stores as big as Borders to catagorize the sub-genres. Epic, Sword & Sorcery, UF, and Space Opera have enough titles to fill entire sections of shelves for ease of location.
An new concept Borders just opened near my house. I was pleased to see they had an extensive Manga section right next to the SF/Fantasy. No horror that I could see.
I was recently talking to someone in power at some place of power, and we were both thinking that a Paranormal Fiction section might be nice... because there is so much stuff that romance readers would read of books that end up in fantasy and horror books that the fantasy peeps have to go all over the store to find.
That said, as one of the people who's day job is to decide where the book goes, there's a nice shaky line as to what section a book ends up in. Some factors are:
1) which buyer do I know will give me the biggest buy?
2) too much sex? off to paranormal romance
3) too much violence? off to horror
4) just the right balance? probably then fantasy section
5) then an editorial board makes the category call in the first place in house, which usually ends up on the spine...
6) which doesn't mean that's where the clerk shelves it at all...
Anton, thanks for weighing in. Obviously, there are a lot of reasons for these decisions. I know, for example, that my spine will have both fantasy and horror on the spine. I tried to get them to just put "Teh Awesome" on the spine, but they balked. Fools!
I think UF should have a section. Iam slowly finding UF authors scattered all over. Then again, I have all of you to tell me what's what and who's who...