I am trying to short-list different Genres (mystery, drama, comedy
etc.) that typical publishers use to categorize their novels and
short-stories written by authors. There seems to be different lists of
each site that I visit. So, let us say that if I were given the task
of  categorizing 500 novels that we just bought from someone else,
what are the important genres used by publishers (both traditional and
Print-on-demaind publishers) that I would have to use.

I am looking for a 'fully-digested' answer, which the researcher might
come up with after an analysis of genres used by traditional and p-o-d
publishers. Would appreciate links to the websites of these publishers
that mention the different genres.

Thanks, in advance.

TVR-ga

How many genres do you wish to see in total?

EG: Sci-fi could be one genre, or it could break down to sci-fi
contemporary, sci-fi near future, sci-fi distant future, sci-fi
alternate universe, sci-fi novels from the past, etc..

The Book Industry Study Group maintains a standardized list of book
subject headings. This standard is used by many industry
participants--publishers, wholesalers, and retailers alike--to
categorize books by their subject.

The most recent list of BISAC Subject Headings is online at
http://www.bisg.org/standards/bisac_subject/major_subjects.html

Looking through the list (perhaps particularly for your purpose, the
"Fiction" category) and the various sub-categories and
sub-sub-categories listed there should provide some insight on what
sort of genres are regularly recognized as categories.