Okay, so this is a little embarassing to admit, but despite having perused the shelves at various Japanese bookstores a good number of times, I'm still completely bewildered by how books are organised. By publisher, and then alphabetically by author, is that right?

But let's say I'm trying to look for a particular genre -- except for the very clear manga aisle, and childrens' book shelves, I must say I haven't quite figured it out. Is it that each publisher specialises in a particular genre? And if you're looking for a particular author, does this mean you just have to figure out first which publisher they're with?

I think if I put my heart in it, I can probably make it through a Japanese novel. (Uhm, at least partway... and hmm, it might take me years at the speed I'm reading, who knows). But browsing for books seems to be so tough to begin with!

Every bookstore that I've been in (Kinokuniya etc) organizes their books by genre.

The exception is usually the manga section where they are organized by broad genre (shonen, shojo, etc) and then by publisher, at least at bookoff (the only place I've bothered to browse the manga, why buy new?).

The stores I visit are also organized by genre. There is usually a sign up top that indicates the genre. Business, computers, finance, language, etc.

In the fiction section, I typically see them separated by native and foreign authors (ie translations).

Novels and comics are typically organized by publisher, and then by Author, as fwee said. There may be a few different categories for fiction (romances and teen novels will generally be in a different place from regular fiction), but again, within each category books are arranged by publisher.

So there are a few things you can do. If you are looking for a specific book, find it online before you go to the bookstore and find out who the publisher is. If you're looking for a certain author, do the same, but bear in mind that authors do not always use the same publisher for all their books so you should find out the publishers for a few.
You can also always ask a store clerk to look up the info in their computer if you didn't have the chance to look it up in advance.

If you're looking to browse a certain genre of fiction, you're probably a bit out of luck as most mainstream fiction is all in the same section.

thanks v much for sharing!

Have you thought about starting with short stories? (I dunno, maybe you already are). You get more of the feeling of success and progress than with a novel, I think.

I started with Yoshimoto Banana, who has a fairly simple writing style which makes for a good entry point, I think.