  Mystery
This week: Inside Amazon's Mystery Section Edited by: Jeff  
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"The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense
of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery."
-- Anaïs Nin
Mystery Trivia of the Week: In addition to his five published novels, Noah Hawley is also an accomplished film and television producer, writer, and composer. He wrote and produced the first three seasons of the television series Bones, as well as created and wrote on the television series Fargo, The Unusuals, and a handful of other projects.
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| ASIN: B004PICKDS |
Product Type: Toys & Games
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Amazon's Price: Price N/A
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INSIDE AMAZON'S MYSTERY SECTION
Like many bookstores and libraries, Amazon's book listings lump their Mystery, Thriller, and Suspense books all into one genre category. Unlike with a traditional bookstore or library, however, who may have a handful of subgenres, Amazon's website allows for listing subgenres within subgenres within subgenres in order to help readers drill down and find exactly the kind of book they're looking for. Since Amazon is the biggest book retailer in the world at the moment, I thought it'd be worth taking a look at the way they categorize the mystery genre.
First, here's a nested look at Amazon's subgenres in under their "Mystery, Thriller & Suspense" heading:
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Crime Fiction
Heist
Kidnapping
Murder
Noir
Organized Crime
Serial Killers
Vigilante Justice
Mystery
African American
Collections & Anthologies
Cozy
Animals
Crafts & Hobbies
Culinary
Hard-Boiled
Historial
International Mystery & Crime
LGBT
Police Procedurals
Private Investigators
Series
Traditional Detectives
Women Sleuths
Suspense
Ghosts
Horror
Occult
Paranormal
Psychics
Vampires
Werewolves & Shifters
Political
Psychological
Thrillers
Assassinations
Conspiracies
Crime
Espionage
Financial
Historical
Legal
Medical
Military
Political
Psychological
Pulp
Technothrillers
Terrorism
I won't get into detailing or describing the different subgenres... that's a topic that's been covered before. But what I want to look at instead is the sheer number of subgenres and subsets of the Mystery, Thriller, and Suspense genres offered by Amazon. It allows for customized browsing that you'd never be able to get at a place with physical shelf space (except maybe at Powell's City of Books in Portland, Oregon, which has 68,000+ square feet of retail space!). Another great feature of an online marketplace like Amazon is that you can categorize your book in multiple subgenres. No need to worry if you should label your book as Crime Fiction >> Heist or Thriller >> Crime, an author can label their book as both! In addition to the overall store ranking, Amazon allows you to have up to three subgenres listed, so you can appeal to multiple targeted segments of the mystery-loving public.
Once you start browsing, you'll find several other filters that you can use to further customize your search. For example, you can refine your search results by format (e.g., paperback, hardcover, audio, ebook, etc.), by moods and themes (e.g., action-packed, humorous, racy, religious, romantic, etc.), by character (e.g., amateur sleuths, British detectives, gay protagonists, government agents, etc.), and by popular author, book series, language, and award winners. The best part is that each of these additional search refinements adjust to the subgenre you're searching, so Robert Galbraith and CJ Lyons are featured authors on the Mystery >> Private Investigators page while John Grisham is featured on the Thrillers >> Legal page. You can also sort by the book's star rating and recent releases with various windows of time (e.g. within the last 30 days, 90 days etc.).
All of this gives readers an immense amount of control and specificity over what they read and where they look for it. Fortunately, those are also tools that writers in the genre can use to find their audience. Especially if you independently publish and don't rely on a publishing house to do it for you, your book can be optimized to fit into some of these categories. Many authors, for example, will heavily promote a book while it's still in the 30-day release window. Or they might optimize a book for a particular and very specific subgenre where their chances of being noticed are significantly better than they are going up against the likes of perennial bestsellers Brad Thor, James Patterson, and Lee Child.
Amazon's Mystery, Thriller & Suspense section is extremely large, but also provides you with the ability to really drill down to specific parameters that interest you. As readers, we can use the opportunities those search options provide to find new work... and as writers, we can similarly use those opportunities to find an audience that might have previously passed us by when people bought books at physical bookstores that lumped might only have a handful of subgenres, if any.
Until next time,
Jeff
If you're interested in checking out my work:
"Blogocentric Formulations"
"New & Noteworthy Things"
Community Activities ▼
 " The Dark Society" 13+: A horror group that worships all things dark and sinister. Join at your own risk!  " The Cube" E: An exclusive auction & raffle to raise funds for groups and activities across Writing.Com
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I encourage you to check out the following mystery items:
EXCERPT: In 1897, a family named Otto lived in a nearby house in Key West Florida, They owned a plantation and had a lot of servants working for them who they treated very badly, One servant girl gave their son Gene a present of a doll, What the Otto family didn't realise was that this servant girl knew voodoo and black magic.
EXCERPT: THE OUTSIDE OF THE BUILDING LOOKED DARK AND DUSTY. The boy shivered, pulling his jacket to where it was tighter around his body. It was the middle of summer, yet his body felt frigid and raw almost as though his skin should be blue and he should be shaking from hypothermia. The boy dreaded the idea of walking into a building that was normally bustling with students and proffesors but now sat empty.
EXCERPT: Here she was again, walking down this dark corridor searching for the way out. Every time she found herself in this house, the layout was different. Just enough was recognizable for her to navigate through the hallways but the rooms were always different.
Tonight the room she entered was expansive. It was empty upon entering but as she scanned the room, things began to appear like boxes and toys. She could hear a soft crying off in the distance that unnerved her. It wasn’t a good sound. She knew she was about to discover something she didn’t want to find.
EXCERPT: Beautiful people can get away with murder. Anything they do is appealing and sexy, even eating spaghetti like a starving street person with sauce on their chins is somehow attractive.
EXCERPT: The fan did little to cool the humid air. The blades laboured and the head slow turn was agonising. All James could do to feel relief was huff. Jimmy dropped into the recliner and slapped a heavy hand on the desk. The fat American was sweating heavy, his dark hair glistening in the shards of light that pierced through the gap in the blinds. He eyed James for a moment, smiled and nodded.
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Mystery: June 29, 2016 Issue [#7725]
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