Avoiding Romance offerings at ebook sites?

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by Critteranne

For example, under "Romance" tonight, I found The White Company by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, some PD Westerns, and some Sinclair Lewis. What?!

Maybe they're going by the really old-school definition of "Romance", where it meant a kind of fantastic adventure-type novel?

Or maybe they're just lazy idiots who don't bother even summarily glancing at the works they hope to profit off of. Bet those versions are straight Gutenberg/Google Books rips, too.

I think the moral of this thread is that nobody categorizes things correctly, the browse function is thus rendered useless, readers become increasingly frustrated, and the best way to find new reading in your preferred genre is still to look at what other people/entities devoted to your preferred genre are reading.

I'm willing to go by Locus' sf/fantasy/sometimes-horror listings to alert me of new sf/fantasy books which are sufficiently sfnal/fantastical for my taste. And while I don't read romance aside from the occasional exceptionally interesting/cracktastic-looking freebie, if I did, Smart Bitches Trashy Books would be my go-to place to find out if a given book was romance-y enough to be considered even a crossover romance*.

Ok, so the moral of this thread is actually that word of mouth still rules. And that if you buy a thing once at Amazon, you are branded for life as a prospective buyer of many more of those things by the Recommendations, even if you never want to buy another one of those things, until you fix the recommendations.

* Also for the snarky reviews. Pregnesia†!

† There is a world of cheesy badness implied by that simple portmanteau. And apparently the book lives up to it!

[Joykins]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

* Also for the snarky reviews. Pregnesia†!

† There is a world of cheesy badness implied by that simple portmanteau. And apparently the book lives up to it!

I haven't read _Pregnesia_ but was impressed that the author commented on that review, which was hilarious.

Dear Author is another good blog for romance, although they cover some Urban Fantasy/mystery with romantic elements.