Where Would You Shelve Your Book?

Photo courtesy of the Morgue Files (Much of this article is a repost by request. It was originally published March 24, 2013, as a guest post by this author on The Dan O'Brien Project blog. As of this date, that post can still be accessed.)

                             Where Can I Find...?

Every day somebody asks me what kind of books I write, and I always hesitate over the answer. It isn't that I don't know my stories or that I haven't thought about an answer. It simply isn't that easy to give them a label. Sometimes, if people have heard anything about my books, they rattle off a list of choices: urban fantasy, paranormal, supernatural. The real answer is my books are all three. And maybe a couple of labels more! 

Often the words are used interchangeably, but there are subtle differences. 
Fewer books are being labeled supernatural, although that term is generally accepted as referring to the creatures and powers involved.  While the term paranormal was once restricted to ghosts and spirits, it has now been extended to include werewolves, vampires, witches and similar beings. Again, it refers to creatures or powers and increasingly it also implies romance.  Urban fantasy is a sub-genre of fantasy with specific elements: supernatural or paranormal beings with unusual abilities and a story set in a contemporary city. It may or may not have a romantic line.  So how do booksellers and reviewers handle these labels? Not well if they're a brick and mortar store or the review appears in print. By choosing one label for shelving and/or categorizing the book, it becomes a serious problem for readers to find what they're looking for. If you read in this genre, you know what I mean. One book could be located in several places, depending upon who shelved it: urban fantasy, supernatural, paranormal, horror, romance, mystery. Some stores have resorted to putting these books into general fiction, where nobody finds them. 

Online sites discovered an easier way by using keywords, so they don't have to choose and can stick on multiple tags. It has made marketing life easier for those of us who write these non-conforming stories. Twenty years ago, even if I had found a publisher willing to take the risk, my books would have been lost on the shelves. 

Since fortunately that isn't the case today, you can find the Guardian Witch series at any online bookstore, labeled variously as urban fantasy, supernatural mystery, or paranormal romance: 
urban fantasy required element - Riverdale is a contemporary Midwestern city of 270,000supernatural mystery required elements - The main character is a witch, an Otherworld cop, who investigates crimes and tries to figure out 'who done it'paranormal romance required elements - The witch's main love interest is a vampire
I'm very lucky I wasn't trying to market this series before ebooks changed the face of publishing. I might have been filed under OTHER. 

Have you had similar marketing problems with finding the proper category for your book?