Another genre classification problem 'Science of'?

[Richard]

I've always had trouble classifying my books, as I write solar system travel fiction where the technology level is as close to present-day as I can get. I've chosen Hard Sci-Fi, and fit in reasonably well there, though the lack of zippy-zappy blaster battles probably disappoints.

I'm now giving myself a similar problem, only more so. I'm writing a heavily-illustrated book describing all the ships and space stations from my imaginary system, with technical descriptions of them and of the scenario. It's not a work of fiction in that there are no characters and no plot, but of course the world it describes doesn't exist.

The nearest analog I can think of is those "science of..." books, though the science in those is all ballocks, and I naturally think mine isn't. I imagine the 'bible' used by movie people might be similar, too.

I recognise that the market for something like this is... severely limited... but that's not a major consideration for me. I'm wondering, though, what tags to put on it when I put it up on Amazon. Does anyone know of a category that might fit, maybe in non-fiction somewhere? I can put it in hard sci-fi, but then it may disappoint for not having a story.

[Elizabeth]

Sounds as if it may fall into the same category as the Science of the Discworld books?

[Robert]

Science fiction is as good a place as anywhere to start. The description is going to say what it is, a book of illustrations, that addresses the problems of how things can be done in space. People are going to see that right away and know right away if they are interested or not. It could help writers who want to write current time space stories but only have a partial understanding of how things actually work in space.

[Richard]

Thanks, Robert, that makes sense. I'd love to see other authors use it as a resource, and I'm making all the illustrations attribution-share-alike for that reason.

It's not really the same motivation as Sir Terry's science books, Elizabeth. He was using fantasy stories to illustrate a science book, whereas mine isn't going to have any actual stories in it. Naturally I'll be rolling out a few technological hobby-horses, though.

[Richard]

I've printed a proof of this in colour, even though I haven't actually finished the text yet. I'm thinking of putting it on sale only as a paperback, with PDF copies available by e-mail request. Has anyone tried anything like this, any idea how Amazon would react?

[R.F.G.]

Richard,

Over on Lulu someone does D&D type illustrations, maps, and such and has a decent following.

If you marketed it as the science behind your series I doubt the Amazonians would object.

Readers who have an interest in a series as well as what makes it work would likely enjoy the primer.

[Richard]

The first draft of this is now complete, awaiting printer's proofs. Anyone want to take a look at it, like a beta read? DM me an e-mail address and I'll send it your way.

[Richard]

Well, it's out now, on Kindle and in paperback. Ideally, I'd like people to buy the Lulu copy, but I don't know how to get Amazon to list it. Createspace doesn't let thin books have titles on the spine, which is annoying, and their paper is lighter.

[Richard]

I've even managed to get through the incredibly obscure process of adding the book here, which bizarrely involves typing three spaces in the middle of my name!