Indie Book Club discussion

I wasn't sure if anyone else has ever dealt with this problem, so I figured I would throw it out to the community. Here it is: I wrote a book (yay!). Then over time, and after significant re-work, I felt it was good enough to share so I self-published it, thinking that once it was "out there" it would find its way on its own, or rather that others would find it, nurture it, and my work was done. Okay, it was naïve. I knew very little about the publishing world. After months of having my novel sitting on Amazon without a single sale, I realized I would have to start taking matters into my own hands.

The difficulty I'm having now is that my book doesn't fall neatly into any single sub-genre. It's more of a cross between space opera and metaphysical sci-fi and with what reviews I've been able to garner I keep getting dinged by people who expected more of one and less of the other. I think the resolution to my problem is to find the proper target audience for the subject matter and market specifically to them. But a quick Google search hasn't turned up many "sci-fi/metaphysical only" book groups. It's probably considered a bit of a cliché sub-genre (definitely not as "edgy" as teenagers battling teenagers to the death or a super-virus turning the world's population into flesh-eating zombies). But I wasn't considering that when I first fixated on the objective of writing a novel.

So where does that leave me? I don't want to keep running KDP freebies every three months in the hopes that people out trolling for free books will stumble on my novel and maybe like it, maybe not. Does anyone have any suggestions for more focused marketing strategies aimed at finding specific types of readers? Or is the shotgun approach still the best method for trying to get your work out there?

Here's the other reason I'm asking. I'm currently working on another book in a different genre. I've read that authors should try to establish themselves in one genre before venturing to another or you risk losing what fan base you may have managed to accumulate. A valid point, but I can't always control the ideas that come out of my head! I have several notions, but the project I decided to go with I based on the fact that it is YA fantasy and I think that's a hot market right now. But again, marketing will be the key to its success or mediocrity on the e-bookshelf.

Thoughts?

G.R. don't worry about sticking to just one genre. I've written mainly fantasy and they've been well received. Recently I released a thriller which has been received even better than the fantasy titles. Some fans have accepted both and realised that it's my writing style they like as opposed to the genre. If you've a story to tell, don't worry about the market, just enjoy writing it. Trying to chase a market might tell in your enjoyment of the writing.

So the next bit. Marketing! My less favourable reviews have come from giveaways and read for reviews, so you are correct in your assumption that many looking for a free book will not necessarily be your target audience. The best response I have had has been in kindle countdown deals with planned advertising through listing sites, even at 99p/99c readers are more likely to be selective about the books they want to read and you might stand a better chance of grabbing your target audience. You could also trawl bloggers' sites in the search for reviewers who appear to like books similar to the one you have written.

Thanks for the advice. I've spent a lot of time scouring the internet looking for bloggers and ad sites and, to be honest, marketing has been my least favorite part of the writing and self-publishing process (although I still get very excited when I've had a sale or see a new random review posted).

I have a limited amount of free time and would rather spend it working on a new book than trying to garner new reviews. That's why I threw this question out there. If someone has already found a number of great websites, resources, book groups, etc. that have helped them promote their book, I'd hate to be spending all my time re-inventing the wheel.

The best response/take up I had for my kindle countdown deal was on readcheaply.com. I put it on for free, for which there is no guarantee of a listing and they are more choosey about the books they list. You can get a guaranteed listing from paid advertising, of course. I agree, marketing sucks, but without exposure our books will just sit there at the bottom of the rankings.

Having more books out makes a difference too. I didn't see much momentum until I published my 4th book.

Haven't come across ReadCheaply before, but I'll check them out next time I do a promotion. (There are so many of these sites these days.) I've found Author Marketing Club to be a great site for resources and submitting free days to multiple sites.

G.R. wrote: "...The difficulty I'm having now is that my book doesn't fall neatly into any single sub-genre. It's more of a cross between space opera and metaphysical sci-fi..."

I know this post is a month old, but what's metaphysical sci-fi?

From Wikipedia, metaphysics is a traditional branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world that encompasses it. In other words: "Why are we here? How are we here? and Is there anyone else here with us?" Some examples of other metaphysical sci-fi would be "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "Contact." There are many sub-genres of science fiction and not everyone is interested in reading sci-fi that ventures into the philosophical.

CeDany wrote: "...most readers after nearly 10 years of promotion are simply not interested in telling you how they feel about a book..."

Thanks, I'm starting to discover that for myself. And although it's frustrating at times, it is exciting as well when you do get that anonymous review pop up on Amazon or GoodReads (at least, it is when it is four or five stars!). So where does that leave me? Well, short of running KDP giveaways whenever Amazon will let me (I'm running one just before and the weekend after Thanksgiving), I've pretty much stopped devoting too much effort to promotion. I realized I needed to write more books. That's the only way to really build an audience and get to the audience you intended to reach in the first place.

One more thing I'll add before I sign off, though. I've been tracking hits to my website since I first started it in 2012. Basically just city and country, but it's another bit of data that I find fascinating. I've had hits in 45 different countries and lately I've had three times as many hits come from Brazil as from the U.S. Which makes me wonder: maybe I should focus my attention there? Hmmmm.

G.R. wrote: "From Wikipedia, metaphysics is a traditional branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world that encompasses it. In other words: "Why are we here? How ..."

You can see I don't come back to this thread very often. Thanks for the explanation. However, to me that's just sci-fi. Science-fiction at its best always looks deeper than just telling a story.

Find bloggers who have reviewed similar books favorably, and follow their review submission guidelines religiously. Giving away books to carefully targeted bloggers is much more productive than giving them to random Amazon browsers.

Look for Goodreads groups that have read similar books and liked them, and join those groups and participate as a reader. There are over 1,000 groups here tagged "science fiction", and while that tag doesn't actually fit some of them, there are enough where it does that you should find at least a few where you should fit in, and where the readers who get to know you will take an interest in your book.

I hope this is some help.

G.R what have you done so far to find readers? And do you mean just readers or customers?

As you mentioned currently working on another book, I wonder what you intend to do regarding finding your readers as unless you have changed your approach to this it will be a repeat of the first.

There is an article called "Notes from a successful crossover author" by Neil Gaiman in The Writers' and Artists' Yearbook 2013, which you might find interesting to read, G.R. He ends his article, like so:
"I suppose you become a crossover author by taking risks, but they had better be the kind of risks that you enjoy taking. Don't set out to be a crossover author. Write the books you have to write, and if you write one that crosses boundaries, that finds readers in a variety of ages and types, then do your best to get it published in a way that lets all of them know it's out there. Good luck."

Philip wrote: "I suppose you become a crossover author by taking risks, but they had better be the kind of risks that you enjoy taking."

Good advice. This particular story grabbed me and I couldn't shake it. It kept me distracted during the day and I couldn't sleep at night until I started writing it down. It may have been a risk, but it was one I felt compelled to take.