[CEMartin2]

I just discovered this and it is so frustrating...

I went to the Men's Adventure category at Amazon to see how far down on the list I was, after the kind of books I like to read, like Warren Murphy's "The Destroyer" series, for example.

I sorted by lowest price first... and was shocked at the findings.

Part One: 25 Horny & Slutty Girls in 30 Days - Erotic Dating Sex Stories (Jake's Hot Stories) by K.A. Jones
IN SEARCH OF. . . ( An Homage to and Love Story set in Key West) by Wil Adams
Saludos! Roman (German Edition) by Alexandru Ecovoiu and Radu Barbulescu
Created, The Destroyer (The Destroyer #1) by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy

The fourth one on the list actually is Men's Adventure. While the others may have men going on adventures, it's not the same. And if you keep scrolling, there's a horrifying quantity of erotica and gay erotica titles listed... all under the Men's Adventure category. I can't even keep clicking to see how far down my Horror/Men's Adeventure book is.

Is there any hope Amazon will one day police the categories?

 

[Janet Michelson]

Is there an official description of Men's Adventures? If so, what is it?

 

[CEMartin2]

Wiki has this super long-winded explanation of it. Basically, they're pulp novels, but from post WWII. They tend to be better written than the pulps, in my opinion, but have the same fast-pace and center around action.

Don Pendleton's Mack Bolan and Warren Murphy's The Destroyer are two of the best examples of what Men's Adventure is. James Bond could count as men's adventure.

Men's Adventure is not erotica. It may contain some James Bondage action, but overall it's like a Golan Globus 80s action movie- lots of 'splosions and butt kicking.

 

[CEMartin2]

Does Amazon have a category description anywhere that readers or writers can easily find it?

In the absence of a description, one can see where some might get the impression that "Men's Adventure" might include erotica, especially given that many porn magazines are euphemistically referred to as "men's magazines."

Wow. Hadn't considered that. Guess I need to change categories AGAIN.

it's Fiction> Genre Fiction> Men's Adventure

I could swear a few months ago it wasn't even there, but it's so well hidden, I could be mistaken.

Hmmm... thriller? suspense? what's something people will actually see that's close to a pulp/men's adventure? Anyone?

 

[Guest]

I've read some Mack Bolan and Remo Williams back in the day, also Casca which was listed as 'adventure' in the library... but if you had a Men's Adventure style book with a female MC, would that still be Men's Adventure?

Also, enforcing the categories strictly would require someone to read the books.

 

[vrabinec]

In the absence of a description, one can see where some might get the impression that "Men's Adventure" might include erotica, especially given that many porn magazines are euphemistically referred to as "men's magazines."

Yeah, absent description, my drunken walks out back to pee with the dogs are "adventures". I wonder if it's just authors complaining about categories, or of readers complain, too. because, they can get pretty silly.

 

[Guest]

NOW maybe people understand why I am constantly complaining about genre definitions and placing books in the correct category?

Amazon is not going to spend money to police the categories. They are left up to the individual publishers. The reason why you see books that have nothing to do with a category in a category is because of a combination of authors deliberately putting books in those categories for various reasons. Either they don't understand the definition of the category, or they think they can get visibility by putting their book in a smaller category. There is a strong undercurrent in some areas to put books where they will get the most visibility instead of where they would most fit.

Sort of like those SEO moochers who name drop celebrities on their blogs not because they have anything relevent to say about them or because the book has anything to do with the celebrity, but simply in the hopes of redirecting traffic.

 

[George Berger]

To be fair, men's adventure is a category particularly ripe for confusion, and not just because it sounds like a euphemism.

I do wonder if people stick men's erotica gentleman's literature fap-fiction there in an attempt to avoid Amazon's infamous "adult dungeon", though.

Eh, whatever. Genres and categories are just arbitrary 20th-century bourgeois social constructs, anyway, ones which bear down on the shoulders of writers like yokes, and erode our spirits and creativity like millstones. Let us throw off the leashes of our exploitative overlords, and, um, found a utopian commune, or something. Yeah, that's the ticket. We'll all live together, write all the time, bathe irregularly, and have no lords, no masters. We'll all be equal - except for Hugh Howey, first among equals and leader in all but name...

--George, on second thought, Camelot sounds like a silly place...

 

[Guest]

NOW maybe people understand why I am constantly complaining about genre definitions and placing books in the correct category?

B-but Paranormal Fantasy exists...

 

[Guest]

Eh, whatever. Genres and categories are just arbitrary 20th-century bourgeois social constructs, anyway,

Tell that to Plato.

 

[heavycat]

Golan Globus 80s action movie

This should be a category

 

[George Berger]

Tell that to Plato.

As far as I can tell, empirically, he's a 20th-century construct, too.

I kid, I kid.

 

[CEMartin2]

I've read some Mack Bolan and Remo Williams back in the day, also Casca which was listed as 'adventure' in the library... but if you had a Men's Adventure style book with a female MC, would that still be Men's Adventure?

Also, enforcing the categories strictly would require someone to read the books.

Time will tell. There's a brand new Destroyer spinoff that has Remo's son and daughter working together. I think the series is called Legacy.

 

[Guest]

On another note, 2 books in the Paranormal Fantasy top 5 have the same female model. This definitely makes it a cohesive subgenre and not a mismash of urban fantasy and paranormal romance.

 

[Jena H]

I was looking at a particular category, and sorted by release date.  The first two pages of entries listed books w/ a release date of Dec 31, 2036.  Or 2030, or 2015... you get the idea.  The only reason i can think of for that is so that their book will be at the top of the "most recent published" list.  And these aren't all self-published indies... many are well-known, trad-published books.  Sort of disappointing, if that's the tactic they're using.  But hey, maybe I'll try that neat trick on my next book.   

 

[CEMartin2]

I was looking at a particular category, and sorted by release date. The first two pages of entries listed books w/ a release date of Dec 31, 2036. Or 2030, or 2015... you get the idea. The only reason i can think of for that is so that their book will be at the top of the "most recent published" list. And these aren't all self-published indies... many are well-known, trad-published books. Sort of disappointing, if that's the tactic they're using. But hey, maybe I'll try that neat trick on my next book.

Hmmm... if I publish the exact same book, but give a current publish date, couldn't I sue them for copying my work...? I mean, 2030 hasn't even happened yet.

 

[vrabinec]

As far as I can tell, empirically, he's a 20th-century construct, too.

I thought he was a hound?

 

[ElHawk]

I've been trying to figure out a way to get them to break their Historical Fiction category down into sub-categories for months.  I don't think they'll ever start paying attention to how their categories are used, and whether there's a way to make the category feature more profitable for their own company!  Uuuuurgh!!!