Stroll through the fiction section of a bookstore or library, and you’ll notice the phrase on countless spines: “A Novel.” Is this really necessary information when you’re in the fiction section? “As the genre became more and more experimental, publishers put ‘A Novel’ on book covers to reassure people that they were approaching something familiar,” writes Eliza Brooke in Vox. It turns out that many people still need the reminder.
Image credit: Bauman Rare Books