Fringe Fiction Unlimited discussion
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Why does your book struggle to find readers?
Many reasons (it's a complex, and good, question) but in the spirit of brevity I'll name only one: increased competition. Not only do indie authors have to contend with the "big-boys" but also with thousands of other indies. The more books that are out there, the less chance for you to stand out.
Excellent question. I've been struggling with that since day one. My answer is the following:- Total lack of support from the publisher
- Total idiocy of the publisher
- The publishers mind-numbing stupidity
- Last but not least, my novella doesn't have a genre, which I always knew, but decided to be the brave little engine that could, and wrote it anyway. No genre = no targeted audience.
Mod
I write in a niche genre - epic fantasy romance, where the fantasy and romance are evenly balanced. Most books that combine the two lean more towards one or the other with the second element being more minor, so they attract more straightforward fantasy fans or romance fans. My books are also adult non-erotica, so they don't fall into the red-hot YA, NA, or erotica categories, and they also aren't paranormal or urban fantasy, the hot fantasy categories right now.I'm willing to be patient, though. The great thing about being indie is my books won't get yanked from the shelves if they don't sell a lot the first few months. It may take a while, but I'm confident that there are readers out there who are looking for my books, and they'll find me sooner or later. In the meantime, I'll keep putting out more books and working to build my audience a little at a time.
Mod
My book is focused more on violence than romance, which might cut me off from some readers. It is otherworldly, so lots of world building and establishing a frame of reference people might not have patience for. It's got killer puppets and bizarre lingo - people might not take that seriously for a premise.
I'm by nature not a social person so my Facebook friends list is very short and my GR friends list is even shorter. My Linkedin contact list is larger but still small compared to most professionals. I've announced I'm a published author but less than 125 people know that (I was surprised how many Linkedin contacts I have when I looked).
Courtney, now I have to read your book! Sounds right up my alley.
Courtney wrote: "To be a sport, though I'm not published, I assume my problem will be:My book is focused more on violence than romance, which might cut me off from some readers. It is otherworldly, so lots of ..."
Killer puppets sound good. The bizarre lingo might put me off. Depends on how that's handled. If the first page is covered with bizarre lingo, I'd probably set it aside. Also, I'd have to like the sound of the made-up words.
Mod
Gregory - I'm not sure what your or anyone else's limit would be but characters don't die in my book, they're "eliminated", "recast" or "get their strings", the baddies are Glints and people babble about weapons of choice or chance. That kinda stuff. Maybe it'll only sound as stupid as wands and quidditch once things are rolling.
Courtney wrote: "- kisses Mark's cheek - Thanks for telling weird girls should let their freak flag fly.Gregory - I'm not sure what your or anyone else's limit would be but characters don't die in my book, they'..."
That lingo wouldn't bother me in the least.
Mod
Sometimes fantasy or SF books start out on page one with characters with made-up names conversing in made-up lingo about other characters with made-up names who live in far-off cities with made-up names. It's too much to parse, and I can't settle into the story.
In a word - obscurity. Unless you're bringing an already established fan base (fanfiction, your blog, or a ton of FB or Twitter friends who are readers) for most new indie authors it's a long, uphill battle trying to get readers to look at your book out of all the thousands that were published at the same time as well as the millions of other novels already out there who are already pushing their books as hard as all the newbies but may have a lot more recognition. The rest, I believe, is just plain luck since even having a very well-written book isn't a guaranteed edge when several really poorly written novels have been super successful.
For my book? It's self-published and horror, which makes it hard to find review sites willing to take it. Furthermore, it has nothing to do with the usual genre tropes (no zombies, vampires, or werewolves--or cheesy romances pertaining to any of the above), so it's a hard sell. Unique seems to be great for writing, but bad for selling.
Also, I completely agree with C.G.'s assessment above.
for me it's multiple reasons. being pretty much came into this blind, self-published in a market that's pretty much grown very large since Indie publishers have taken over, and Maybe just Maybe the content of blood and sex but I doubt that's one of them. but for the most part, came very blind into this whole thing and am still learning.
Courtney wrote: "Why is it so hard for your book to find more readers?I think it's because my book is a mix of two genres. Sci-fi and fantasy/paranormal.
It's not hard core enough for some sci-fi fans and the sci-fi parts might put off the fantasy/paranormal fans.
G.G. wrote: "I think it's because my book is a mix of two genres. Sci-fi and fantasy/paranormal. It's not hard core enough for some sci-..."
I have that same problem. The Science Fantasy sub genre is still too new.
It's not new, been around for a while. Speculative fiction.
Oh well... We're still better off being avant-garde than in a trend that slowly fading away... (At least I hope!)
Speculative fiction refers to a group of genres, but individual ones, not mixed.
Spec fic is a mixture of elements from horror, sci-fic and fantasy in which the story is speculating within all these elements. Sometimes, specific magazines and such look for specific types of stories within spec fic, but that's an individual publisher's personal taste, not a defining genre. Many authors enjoy spec fc because they're not confined to only one genre and can "speculate" with many at once as a vehicle for the story.An author friend of mine writes and publishes spec fic. He was rejected by one magazine because they don't like stories where characters die. Ridiculous, of course. So he submitted elswhere and got the story published.
I agree with all the comments above. I came in with no fans and I can't afford much in the way of marketing/self-promotion. In my personal case, my book is about horse trainers, so those who don't like horses or aren't really interested in them probably just walk away from it. But it's a good story, if people would give it a chance! :-) I'm sure that is the case for many indie books out there.
Agree with all the comments, indies lack an author platform, we are the great unknown(not published yet, hopefully in the next couple weeks)and marketing your book is a scary thing if you 're clueless in that area and money is a constraint.Also indies publishing without a professional edit or proofread are taking a huge chance. Bad reviews and word of mouth will kill future sales.
Kathleen, I may know someone who can help you. A writer friend of mine writes about and actual does train horses. Send me a message if you're interested.
I agree with the comments above. And to add . . . I think I got started too late with marketing and platform building. I'm in a saturated pair of genres (urban fantasy/paranormal romance), so it's hard to stand out. It's better to start early in trying to generate buzz about a book. I think I was too scared to do so until I actually published my first book so that people would be able to see the finished product.
Great comments which I totally agree with. I've got 3 kids in college so there is no money to use to hire an editor or pay for marketing like ads or blog tours. So my book just sits out there hoping to get a random sale. My YA paranormal market is so saturated that it is impossible to get noticed. Plus, I'm on the shy side so I don't have that many Facebook or Goodreads friends and morally I don't feel it is right to spam them.
Lack of marketing experience and funds. It never occurred to me to start looking for reviewers or fans before actually publishing. I didn't realize that was something I could do. I didn't create my FB page until after I had published. I have a decent amount of likes now, but many of them are a result of contests and some of them were through blogs that read YA, but their main fan base is more interested in other genres. I don't think I'm really reaching my target market.
Courtney wrote: "Why is it so hard for your book to find more readers?"Well, in my case that would probably be:
- a bit preconceived attitude to novels in verse, which are not very popular these days (for one reason or another the poetic style of novel writing is not something most readers are willing to try), and
- a varied mixture of genres (sci-fi, fantasy, dark romance, paranormal, mythology, warfare, post-apocalyptic, gothic and perhaps some other genres as well and not necessarily in that order), which makes it hard to determine the target audience.
Another challenge is finding time for marketing/advertising. It requires lots and lots of time, if not money, to raise awareness of your work, if no one's doing it for you, of course.
Tatyana wrote: Another challenge is finding time for marketing/advertising. It requires lots and lots of time, if not money, to raise awareness of your work, if no one's doing it for you, of course.Lack of time is my main problem with marketing. I need to really spend more time on it than I do.
Since ebooks have become so popular and self publishing is now the norm anyone can be a writer. Now a good writer, that is a different story. It seems everyone has either written a book, in the process of writing a book, or is thinking about writing a book. So maybe we now have more writers than readers? Who knows...
Robert wrote: " So maybe we now have more writers than readers? "Readers and writers are not necessarily different categories completely. Many writers or aspiring ones are avid readers.
And with ebooks and audiobooks available reading has become something you can do on the road, or while doing house chores (the case with audiobooks).
I don't think it's more writers than readers, I think it's more of a leap of faith. Whether this book is worth the buy and time to read compared to these other big named authors. sadly not all are worth a leap of faith.
Some of us may be oddballs, but I admit I have never met any. I love to write, but I hate to read. Speaking only for myself I always found reading to be rather boring.
I am writing towards a niche market.. young adult and hope to hit all the high notes with people on the autism spectrum. I do not expect record sales but I can live knowing that it is out there.
Mod
Go on book, thats right go ahead, do your thing, sell yourself like a common street walker...too much? lol.
Bruno wrote: "I am writing towards a niche market.. young adult and hope to hit all the high notes with people on the autism spectrum. I do not expect record sales but I can live knowing that it is out there."You've gotten my curious. What do you mean by aimed at people on the autistic spectrum? That's a wide range of people and we often read very different books?
I know that my book in 4 months has sold over 500 copies (free of course). I dont market, i hardly tweet, and I don't really talk about it to others. I think that it sells itself, and I do have some promoters tweeting about it. I think that it is all about your platform and the ability to not push readers to read it, but rather, ease them into reading it.
I just think it hardly sells though because I dont have Hollywood marketting my book or websites like this.
Justin wrote: "I once wrote a blog post about 'If Books Could Sell and Speak For Themselves', silly I know but it made me wonder if it were possible and how much stress it would take off an author to promote it...."
Lol!
Justin, I wish that could happen. I'd pimp that book out on every street corner, I'm not proud- go out there and earn me some money book!
If my book was a streetwalker, she's seriously undercharging her johns.
I don't like saying this, but I think it needs to be said. Some books are just bad, and we can't see it ourselves or we'd write a better one. I say this as a beta reader.
Well unfortunately Virginia is right. Some books are bad, but it can also take time to find your audience, especially if you are an indy writer. Writing takes time to develop and even if your first book doesnt succeed, the next will be better.
Mod
I couldn't agree more. There are tons of bad books. Personally, I've read just as many bad traditionally published books as non-tradition. However, bad or not, that doesn't seem to be a deciding factor for why a book would struggle to find readers, especially in recent years with the boom of online publishing.*cough* Fifty Shades *cough*
Mod
In one paragraph or less AKA be concise, no tangents -
Why is it so hard for your book to find more readers?
I'm asking this because so many threads in this group bring this up this issue but it seems like the reoccurring answer is "it's hard to find readers". I'm curious why you feel that is. Do you believe it's bad luck? You write in a niche genre? Or an oversaturated one? Do you focus on writing more books over marketing what you have out?
And why I'm asking you be concise is to keep this on-topic and zero in on the critcal point rather than reiterate other comments, recite personal experiences or articles and other interjections that derail the conversation. Sorry to limit you but I think people forced to use less words make sure they're used effectively.
So if anyone is willing to soul search and share, in a paragraph or less, why is it so hard for your book to find readers?