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Righteous Kill by Ted Lapkin

One problem with tagging Alternate History appropriately - Amazon does have an Alternative History descriptor you can tick when uploading self-published books - is that there are people out there who set strict rules about what they will permit to be counted as alternate history. Back in the 2010s I produced a number of books of analyses, each chapter looking at a different scenario, for example of the Second World War. They were successful, but I picked up a lot of flak for listing them as alternate history. Coming from a history teaching background I wanted to stimulate debate rather than provide pat answers. However, I was told more than once because I would not assert a single outcome for the different 'what if?'s the books could not be considered alternate history. To escape such criticism I recategorised them simply as 'History' where they attracted no such criticism, though ironically you could argue that is what they were not as they covered history which largely did not happen. The categorisations are imperfect and I do wonder if receiving feedback by what I term the 'genre police' alternate history authors, especially self-publishing ones, are very hesitant how to list their books, ironically making it harder for genuine fans to track them down.
 
@Alexander Rooksmoor Thank-you for your comment, and you certainly have a point. My contention was certainly slightly different - that searching for 'Alternate History' can bring up titles nowhere near the genre, and I can illustrate that in a moment - but I do hope my article didn't come across as an element of the 'genre police'?
 
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