Assigning their books to the most suitable categories in online databases is an important part of marketing for self-published authors. People looking for new reading material often search under these categories, but will be disappointed if the content of what they get is different from what they expect. Several different categories would often seem equally appropriate for the same book. Determining which of them will achieve optimum exposure on Amazon is a complex process, and there are websites giving expert advice.

In my own experience I have found that classification of non-fiction books is usually quite obvious, but finding the best category for novels – many of which could be described as “cross-genre” – is more challenging. Thinking back to my medical career, it reminds me of the difficulties faced by doctors who are required to give diagnostic labels to that large number of patients who are clearly ill but whose symptoms do not match any officially recognised disease.

Taking crime, mystery and detective fiction as an example, classification systems such as BISAC (an acronym for “Book Industry Standards and Communications”) include many different divisions and subdivisions. Both as a reader and a writer I find it somewhat overwhelming to have so much choice, though I realise the development of these subject headings is based on extensive market research.

A code I have avoided up till now is the one called “cosy” (UK) or “cozy” (US). I feel this term sounds uncomfortably twee and – given that books about murder are designed to entertain – that it goes too far towards trivialising such a serious topic. The phrase “cosy crime” is surely an oxymoron, though perhaps this is the key to its appeal. Some “cozies” – an even more irritating name – are far too whimsical for my taste. But a recent conversation with a writer friend prompted me to Google descriptions of the genre, and I found that it was broader than I realised. According to the entry in Wikipedia, typical features include:

• an amateur detective, usually female
• a closed community setting such as a village or a house party
• murder by a non-violent method such as poisoning, often occurring off stage
• murder motivated by greed, jealousy or revenge, often rooted in the past
• little or no sex
• emphasis on character and plot rather than action
• a thematic element relating, for example, to pets or hobbies (BISAC has introduced the subdivisions of general, cats and dogs, crafts and culinary)

Most of the books by the great Agatha Christie meet these criteria, and they are now classified as “cosy” – though I think this gives quite the wrong impression, a view apparently shared by her great-grandson James Prichard, who administers her estate. What other term would be better – “traditional” perhaps?

My own novel Fatal Feverfew, a rather lightweight and old-fashioned murder mystery set in England’s west country, fits well into the cosy genre as described above. A while ago one reader gave this book a negative review, and I think this was partly because I had referred to it as medical fiction and it did not align with her conception of that genre; medical crime novels are usually more graphic and dark. I have now moved Fatal Feverfew into the cosy category on Amazon and Smashwords, and hope this will help it reach an appropriate target readership.