There seems to be a mixed understanding of what Urban Fantasy is these days ... or at least confusing for this reader.

I wonder if it may be easier to classify in the Subject Header the audience the Urban Fantasy title being discussed is aimed at. That is, some of my mates call the Paranormal Romance (many of the vampire, werewolf titles) titles Urban Fantasy because they are merchandised in the Horror section of bookshops here in the UK.

For me, Urban Fantasy is paranormal or fantastical happenings/creatures (be it ChickLit with bite, or the darker gritty stuff) in a contemporary city/town setting.

The only reason I write this, and I hope you understand what I'm getting at, is because some reader friends of mine don't like the ChickLit with bite stuff and don't think it should be on the shelves of horror, but in a section of its own under paranormal romance or some-such header. And, I'd like to underline, I don't want to seem offensive as I read all types of UF.

Also, some of my favourite Urban Fantasy are young adult titles. So it would be good to put a marker in the subject header to distinguish it as such, as some of the bloggers here review the YA books too.

So maybe:

YA for Young Adult
PR for paranormal romance types

Just to help readers separate these from the other mainstream Urban Fantasy titles??

Hope this makes sense – it’s just an idea.

I did take what most forums do (have one really long single recommendations thread with no divisions) one step further and provided split forums with very loose categories.

The idea of specifying what subgenre of fantasy, urban fantasy or Science fiction etc. you are recommending in your post title is a good one. That will help folks who plug that term into a forum search to find exactly what they want.

Do you think I should add a specific forum for YA? Not subdivided, just one forum for all types of YA recommendations.

Thanks Mulluane.

IMHO a YA forum would be great. As you say, it makes the forum more user-friendly for those with specific reading tastes.

If you had one, I hope some lurkers out there might join the party here

I'll create one.

It is early days yet. You've got to figure that a blog takes atleast 6 months to grow a stable reader base. This forum should in theory, go a bit faster since each blog owner will be promoting it to their readers, but I still advise patience and plan on it taking months to build a thriving community.

Meanwhile, don't let that stop you from posting. The more quality content they find once they get here, the more likely they are to stay. May feel like a waste of time at the moment, well written, interesting posts with few replies, but stick with it. Look at it as an investment in the future!

Already, with just the few member readers we have now, people have discovered new blogs to watch and subscribe to, a sign of good things to come I think.

Quote:

Build it and they will come.....

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Mulluane
Dragons, Heroes and Wizards