We all know the general genres that books fall into: science fiction, fantasy, horror, romance, non-fiction, how-to, biographies, religion, etc. But beyond the general themes there are some specialized niches that some writers are developing. Here are a few that you may not have heard of.

1. The convergence of art, science and technology. This niche is so unique that they haven’t quite come up with a name for it yet. In spite of that, it does have a following and a serious print and online journal dedicated to it that is called Leonardo, after the great painter/scientist.
2. Alphabet books. You’ve probably seen lots of these books, but never realized that they had their own little niche in the book world. They are children’s books that take you through the alphabet one letter at a time.
3. Alternate History. These books generally fall somewhere under the science fiction realm. They are fictional stories, usually set in another world environment, but use incidents or portions of earth’s historical facts as the basis for the story. They present ‘what if’ scenarios to historical situations.
4. Oulipo - Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle is the title given to a group of French writers and mathematicians who determined to discover or invent new literary forms by imposing specific limits to how certain forms could be written.
5. Scottish Highland Time Travel Romances. For some reason, this specific plot line has developed its one little corner in the book world. I guess no one could decide whether to put it with historical romance or science fiction.
6. Sci-fi Westerns – Cowboys, horses, six-shooters and space ships, why not? A limited group of writers fill this niche, but it is there for those of you who can’t decide between historical and futuristic.
7. Gay Mystery-thrillers – As there becomes more literature available that labels itself as ‘gay-lesbian’, we also see specific genres popping up under that label as well. The mystery-thriller category is small but growing.
8. Police Procedural Mystery-thrillers – You may have read some of these and not even realized that they have developed their own specialized niche in the mystery-thriller market. But if you particularly like those stories that detail out the police investigations, you can actually search for this specific genre on Amazon.
9. Prehistoric Romance – Bet you haven’t read any of these! Cavemen (and cave women) trading grunts. I’m sure the guys have to fight off some ferocious dinosaurs and invent exciting things like wheels and fire to light up the eyes of the watching women.
10. Robot Romance – This one shouldn’t surprise you. Wall-E was such a hit with all generations and what was that but a robot romance? Your choices are still a bit limited in this genre, and it may need a little time to grow before you find another Wall-E blockbuster.

This is just a sampling of course. There are all kinds of cross-genre books and super specialized books to fit the unique tastes and needs of our multi-faceted society.