Audio books show as music

Hi all
New to this and have spent ages searching but no
luck.
I have added audio books to iTunes and to iPod but
they show as music and when I select shuffle on iPod
the spoken word is included in the play list.
I have selected (and checked that I have) Audio and
Spoken Word in the Genre, and if I select Genre or
specific Playlists it is OK as they don't appear. It
is only on Shuffle.
Have checked file extensions and all music and audio
files are .m4a
The other issue I have is that with an audio book of
(say) 8 discs I have had to set up 8 Playlists, one
for each audio disc. Is there another way around
this?
Thanks
In anticipation.
Rustyhelen