Help Needed Determining Book's Category

[Mark]

Hey guys, hope you wouldn't mind helping me out. I'm trying to determine which categories my book best fits in. The book covers a 3 year period of my life where I visited 100 gyms in 23 states so I could train with and interview 340 MMA fighters (mixed martial artists) as part of a sociological study. While writing it I was only considering it appealing to sports and martial art fans, but now that I'm trying to pick the book's best category. My hesitation on marketing it as Autobiography and Biography is mainly due to there being so many characters. I mentioned about 70 fighters in the book, some only getting a few paragraphs, others getting 6 or 7 pages. With that limited time I could only go so deep into each person's story. The same goes for my story. I'm the one telling the story as I'm going through the training, injuries, and interviews, and I do go into a good amount of my past as I try to understand why I had competed in the sport, but again, it's only a small part of the book.
I guess my biggest question is whether you would read a biography with dozens of characters in it or do you prefer books that focus on one individual. I'd also appreciate it if you could point me to some of your favorite books that fit the first category. Thanks for your help.
Mark

[Selina]

As a librarian I would catalogue that in the sports section. If thinking of the dewey decimal system, would be in the 700s not the 920s, which are mostly centred on individuals.

I have read books that have bios on dozens of individuals eg writers, movie stars, royalty, and might get into loony dictators...but in general do prefer to read about one person if reading a bio and then its more satisfying getting more into their whole life story than just a taster. But if you writing a comparison or maybe a certain era in history these books are good as general topic of interest.

[Fishface]

I have cheerfully read many multiple biographies. Alas, Mark, books like yours generally get garbagecanned into "Nonfiction" where nobody would think to look for it. "Sports," as Selina points out, sounds like a much better place to find readers who actually want to know about your topic.

[Julie]

As I have been doing a challenge this year and reading different genres, I have found it is a real pain picking books in specific genres especially mystery which could also be suspense, fiction, crime fiction, thriller and detective fiction to name a few.

[Mark]

Selina wrote: "As a librarian I would catalogue that in the sports section. If thinking of the dewey decimal system, would be in the 700s not the 920s, which are mostly centred on individuals.

I have read books..."
Thank you so much, Selena. I definitely prefer reading about one individual instead of many and appreciate the advice. Definitely focusing on sports.

[Mark]

Fishface wrote: "I have cheerfully read many multiple biographies. Alas, Mark, books like yours generally get garbagecanned into "Nonfiction" where nobody would think to look for it. "Sports," as Selina points out,..."
I definitely don't want that to happen and will focus on the sports category. Thanks!

[Mark]

Julie wrote: "As I have been doing a challenge this year and reading different genres, I have found it is a real pain picking books in specific genres especially mystery which could also be suspense, fiction, cr..."
Genres are crazy creatures and I don't think I'll ever settle down with one, whether it is reading or writing. Fortunately I read at an incredibly slow rate so it's not very hard for me to find a good book. Best of luck finding yours.