Sci-Fi, fantasy and speculative Indie Authors Review discussion

Hey, so I should introduce myself I guess, my name is Jesse and I wrote a cross genre fiction and despite all of my positive reviews, it's actually really hard to market, I'd say at it's core it's more Military Science Fiction than anything but it also has heavy Fantasy elements, Dystopian Fiction, one woman recently said romance because there is a romance in it, I've been told from friends it's a "Political espionage thriller" and so many other labels have been thrown onto this thing

Tis hard to say what it is really, so any advice on that would be great, and if anyone wants to read it and leave a review, that would be even better! I co-made the cover too with the artist, I modelled a lot of the assets in Blender myself to hand to him, also rigged and posed em

Jessie, I sympathize. I, too, write cross-genre stories, mine are nautical/fantasy. The problem is that the nautical people are put off by fantasy, and vice versa. Perhaps the same is true of your work, in that military people are put off by the fantasy label. You maybe have a clue in your friends' characterizations of your book: political espionage/thriller; or even romance. The point is that labelling genres has become more and more fine-grained, which I guess is ok for people who want to read the same thing all the time. But if you are like me in wanting to write "MY book" whatever the genre-label, you're in search of more adventurous readers. You're going to have to establish your own readership instead of piggy-backing on a bunch of books that are all very similar. So back up to a coarser grid, such as romance, and then find a way to market your book aa a romance-with-an-engaging-twist. This means that to some degree, you're going against the Amazon algorithms that just send people to the genre in which they bought their last book. However, you can get the algorithms on your side if you can find books that people say your book is like -- people who aren't one-genre readers. Then re-craft your blurb to capture the attention of those genre-ignoring readers, and the Amazon algorithms as well. Perhaps it's in your main character who reminds people of some famous character on stage, screen or in a book. It's encouraging to look at really successful books that people call "Literature" with a capital L, because so many of them are (or have characteristics of) a genre, usually two or three. It takes time and will probably take you more than one book, so don't lose heart, and continue to be a genre-bender!

Jessie, I meant to add: would you like to swap and review?

Seymour wrote: "Jessie, I meant to add: would you like to swap and review?"

Hey Seymour, reading what you wrote yeah it does seem that way maybe some of the military people are put off by the Fantasy and vice versa but I'm lucky that there is quite a lot of overlap between Sci-Fi and Fantasy I mean Star Wars is a Science Fantasy and so is Warhammer 40K and they're both popular enough.

I would love to swap and review with you but unfortunately I am super super super swamped in books right now and have to get through my own reading pile but I would maybe like to take a raincheck on that offer if that's okay? I think I'll follow your profile.