What's the definition of a "Gift Book"?

I believe they're (physically) small, short books with just a line, a paragraph, or an illustration on each page. I often see them near cash registers in some stores. They can easily be slipped into a pocket or purse.

That has basically been my understanding of what a gift book is. Usually shorter, usually thoughtful or inspirational. May or may not be picture heavy though. Some are just lots of quote, annecdote type material. Check out Hallmark or the Christian bookstores for what they put in this category, that should point you in a good direction.

Andrew Jameson said:

AgentQuery, for example, in their list of nonfiction genres, lists "Gift Books." I'm guessing a gift book is a picture-heavy book that's light in subject and tone. Amirite? Anyone?

Thanks.

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gift books are really more a marketing category than a genre. They are generally developed by a different department than trade books, for example, and are sold at gift shows as well as book trade shows.

You can have novels that are considered "gift books"--like those really teeny, condensed versions you sometimes see--but usually they are books that aren't easily categorized elsewhere. Cpickett and eraser are right in that they usually are light on text, heavy graphics, but certainly not always.

The nonfiction book I am working on could be considered both a gift book and a self-help/reference book. It is a complilation of 50 to 75 interviews and the estimated length is 300 pages. It's all in the marketing. If you think your book might sell as a gift book, I would mention that in your proposal or cover letter where you discuss markets, but not necessarily in the genre references. Don't limit yourself to the gift book category. The more ways you book can be marketed, the better.

Yeah, but a 300-page book isn't really a gift book--if it's a self-help/reference book, then it's a self-help/reference book. It could certainly be sold as a gift, but there's a distinct category of books that are created, designed, and marketed as a gift book, and when the publisher decides what category marker to print on the back cover in the corner (for ease of cataloguing/shelving by bookstores), it's likely that your book will say, "reference" or "self-help" since that's its primary category. And that's exactly where you want it--when your publisher markets your book to a self-help audience, they won't be looking for it at the checkout or in the stationery section, they'll be looking in the self-help section. Most gift books are point-of-sale purchases; people see them by chance rather than search them out in a particular section (although not always). Gift books are as likely to be sold at stationery trade shows and gift shows as they are at a book show.

Go into Barnes and Noble or Borders, and look at the spinning display of tiny, square books near the cash registers. They have titles like "Cute Cats," "101 Ways to Say I Love You," and "Passport to the Soul," among a million sentimental or cutesy others.

They are usually considered gift books, or if you're a wageslave to retail, "impulse buys".

It sounds like a coffee-table book.
As for the definition of "gift book," that was my point. If a book is promoted soley as a "gift book," then that is all it's going to be--a tiny book on a rack. It doesn't hurt to market another kind of book as having gift-giving appeal, but it could hurt to label a project a "gift book" when referring to the genre in a proposal if it is something with broader appeal than that.

Think of the book What to Expect When You Are Expecting. That is a self-help/reference book, but women rarely buy it for themselves. It is a hugely popular "congratulations" gift for first-time moms. I got three copies when I was pregnant with my first.

At the time of my post, we didn't know what kind of project the OP was questioning.