More Thoughts on Selling a Book: Fiction vs. Nonfiction

Ever since the indie author revolution got going, there has been a growing market: the indie authors themselves, who are looking for support of several kinds: editing, covers, and marketing, chief among them. Marketing encompasses both actual services and advice on how to do it. Given that many (probably most) new indie authors don’t have a great deal of money to spend on marketing services, marketing advice is of great concern to many of us. In the 3+ years since we published our first book, I’ve been exposed a good deal and—knowing nothing about marketing heretofore, but being an analyst—I wondered where it came from.

Where it came from was thrown into high relief some time ago in an article I happened upon. I didn’t save the link so I’m afraid I can’t share it, but it was called something like “The marketing secrets of Big 5 publishers”. It was an interview with a guy (an “expert”) who had been a marketing professional for said publishers.

This expert said everything I’d heard before (and if you’ve done any research on this, you almost certainly have, too) and a little or nothing I hadn’t (which is one reason I didn’t save the link). But one thing stood out to me. At the end of this long interview, the interviewer asked the expert if he’d had success with marketing fiction.

The expert said: yes. That was basically it. No elaboration, no real discussion of how or even how often, or what his success rate was. Pretty much just yes, and the interview ended.

What the expert had spent the entire interview talking about was marketing nonfiction. Three points I recall him emphasizing were: building a platform, social media, and starting early. That makes perfect sense. If I’m writing a book on how to sail around the world or the Second Defenestration of Prague, readers interesting in those topics are going to want be sure I know what I’m talking about.

Therefore, I should blog about sailing or why people get chucked out of windows; reach out to community groups and give talks and lectures on my subject. I should be active on social media where sailing enthusiasts or history buffs congregate. I should have a “resume” of some sort showing my relevant accomplishments. And I should do all of this well in advance so by the time my books comes out, I’ve established myself as a credible authority and useful resource on the topic.

It will also help if I can garner the endorsement of noted authorities, but this is not something I can control, and I have to do all of the foregoing before said authorities will give me that endorsement (or resort to underhanded tactics). If I do all of this well enough (meaning I’m recognized as a credible authority and useful resource) the chances my book will sell in appreciable numbers is greatly enhanced.

But what does any of this to do with fiction? Short answer: generally not much, if anything.

Nonfiction sells a product: information. That product can be evaluated in ways that are largely objective: is it accurate? Is it relevant? Is it sufficiently comprehensible? Yes, subjective factors intrude, but the ocean does not care what your opinions about sailing are. The ocean will operate on you according to physics, no matter how you feel or what you think.

Fiction, however, sells an experience, and that experience is both wholly subjective and unique to every individual. Because fiction is a wholly subjective, no one really knows what fiction will sell, when or how well. The only way to tell if our fiction will sell is to write it, and put it out there. The only real way to build credibility as a fiction author is to be one.

Now, is it really that simple? In practice, of course not. Nonfiction can be difficult to find a market for. (Would you buy a book on the Second Defenestration of Prague?) Fiction can have a “nonfiction” angle by being tied to a place or an event of local or regional interest. Lines blur and markets respond differently. But the central distinction remains.

The bottom line is that bulk of the marketing advice out there is based on selling non-fiction, because that is a problem with criteria that can, to some extent, be evaluated.

In contrast, selling fiction is largely a matter of “fortune” which is unpredictable. But the more we write, the better the chances of being fortunate. So, in that sense, it is “that simple”.