My Audience, My Voice and Me

Most everything I've read about marketing a novel you've written talks about identifying the audience you think might be interested in reading it. Sounds simple – unless the books you write are hard to categorize and you don't stick to a particular genre. But let me try to do it, looking at the eight books I've finished writing to date as objectively as I can, and ask the question - who would want to read them? Or, more pointedly – how easy are they to sell?

The first book I wrote, Inner Core, is a thriller about the coming cataclysm in 2012 - but in truth the big story ends up being about the main character getting back together with his childhood sweetheart. My assessment? Subject matter and format appealing to thriller/action/science-fiction readers but content geared towards relationships and romance. Hard to market.

Then came my four novel Urizen Series about the collapse of democracy in America. Each book in the series, despite having lots of action and a number of pretty good twists if I say so myself, is about people getting together, having babies, loving each other then saving America and the World. My assessment? Content probably too mushy for most thriller/action readers. My main character is really tough and a not bad anti-hero but he's not very manly. There's lots of futuristic/science fiction type material in the books but I don't think it would have much appeal to readers of that genre. Kind of a mess actually when you look at selling the series.

Next is The Meghan O'Byrne Chronicle. It was supposed to be one book in three parts, but at over 300,000 words I thought it would be too long to market as one novel (not sure if that's right or wrong). The series follows the life of a girl who has perception and power far beyond that of normal human beings. While, I'm confident Meghan's story is intriguing and will challenge readers, when I go to pick what genre it fits into (from the drop down menus offered) I am truly stymied. So, it's not romance, it's not about the occult or supernatural, it's not religious, it's not women's literature and it's not young reader appropriate. My assessment? The subject matter and even writing tone of the book would be better accepted if written by a woman. I did think very seriously about publishing the series using a female pen name but in the end decided against it. Maybe that was an error – I don't know. Crap, it's really a marketing mess too!

Given my propensity to write adult oriented material that is romantic, and focused on love, relationships and babies, I'm guessing my audience is mostly women over thirty. My voice inside is truly more female than male, though I am obviously male. That, I think, confuses matters and is of course is an entirely different subject for perhaps for another day.

Overall assessment of my first eight books (and ten years of effort)? Not one easy sell in the works.

The genre best suited to my style and focus of writing is probably Romance. It came clear to me one day when I began writing my latest novel, Lost & Found. It's a pure love story and even involves time travel (though it's not set in Scotland). At least it will be easy to categorize! Maybe it will be easier to sell?

Probably the best way for me to sell my work would be to focus on writing romances. Now I know that may or may not fly either, but I think if that were my focus it would be a good way to approach it. But I'm not going to do that. I'm going to write what I feel like writing. I don't write for an audience – though it would be great to have one – I write for me. My tenth book is going to be written in the first person and present the teachings of an entity beyond our time-space reality.

If I ever garner an audience who consume my work, they'll have to be eclectic and read over a wide spectrum of genres. Maybe they're out there – maybe not. I do care, but I also know that being true to oneself is more important than selling books. Success to me is writing them. Any recompense or recognition that result, merely a dividend.