Lindsay - December 31, 2020We had a lot of listener questions that we didn’t get to in the first Selling Hard-to-Categorize Books That Aren’t Written to Market show, so we’re back for part 2, and it’s all about answering your questions.
Here they are!
- Patricia: What kind of cover do you pick for a book that may be between genres? Should you just pick a cover for the closest genre and hope for the best?
- Jon: Are vendor sites going to help a “square peg” book find its readers? If so, how? And if not, then what channels and tactics outside of vendor sites are good for finding and connecting with readers who may be especially interested in what you are offering?
- J.G. If your series straddles two Amazon second-level genre categories (i.e. Science Fiction and Thriller, which combined do not have a menu navigation, only a search result match for Sci-Fi Thriller), or third-level (i.e. Thriller > Technothriller and Sci-Fi > Genetic Engineering), what’s your recommended decision process for choosing the primary genre?
- Rasana: How do you figure out genres for books with tropes that would work for settings in the West but not international books?
- Mike: What are good strategies for selling upper MG/lower YA books? (Think Animorphs)
- Brent: I have written a dark fantasy western trilogy (or nearly) as well as a prequel novel as a giveaway on the website. There are parallels to be drawn to Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, Joe Landsdale’s weird westerns and Brian McClellan’s Powder Mage trilogy so there is some precedent in terms of genre. But it is still a minute subgenre of dark fantasy. As I am a new author and this may be harder to market I have thought of writing six short story / novelettes and releasing them around the various list builder promo sites such as Book Funnel etc also sites like wattpad to build a dedicated readership and then through an autoresponder sequence lead them to my 100k word prequel novel. After six or seven months of this activity then publish my trilogy… leaving 2-3 months between each release. After the published books mature I might anthologize the reader magnets and publish them. Is this the best way to garner interest in a subgenre that isn’t necessarily that popular and give it the best possible chance to succeed?
- Dominik: I’m always curious about self-published literary fiction. I know it doesn’t sell, generally, but if there are any tips about it I’d appreciate it.
- Christy: Where and how should you buy promo for a not-to-market book?
- Celine: How do you select comp authors for advertising if there aren’t much in the way of big authors with similar books to yours?
- Ian: Is it worthwhile to spend money advertising books that are not written to market?
- Juliana: Are you better off going wide or trying KU for books that are not written to market? Is there a big difference in wide audience expectations (perhaps it even varies from platform to platform) versus in KU?
- Debbie: This is the situation I’m in. Planning to go wide in YA historical fantasy. My question would be which way to lean for the cover: historical or fantasy? I have two 3-book series to launch next year. I’m writing a reader magnet that connects to both series. I’ve split that book into two parts. Act 1 will be the free magnet, and I’m tweaking Act 2&3 to be a standalone book free on all platforms to hopefully lead readers into both series.
- Dan and Laura: What techniques might you use to market audiobooks that don’t fit into a specific category?
Thank you for listening, and thank you to Joshua Pearson for producing the show. You can ask questions in the comments or at the Six Figure Authors Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/504063143655523/
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