Do mecha novels sell well?

Hi, for my first novel I was planning on making it unconventional science fantasy with mecha (humanoid machines)- think if Xenogears met Ar Tonelico and you're halfway there. I was wondering if mecha novels actually sell well within my target audience- adults of any sex who enjoy science fantasy and Japanese influence on their books.

I don't want to waste years working on an unprofitable novel, despite the fact I write out of passion. I want to make some money off of what I can do best.

 

Write what you're passionate about, write about what you know. Don't write for what you think the market might be in the future. The market is always changing, and it's not all that easy to predict. Just the other day I was thinking that post-apoc was completely dead, and then The Last of Us premiered to great reviews, and it will be a huge hit. Plus, whatever you're writing, you can be sure that there are hundreds of other people writing something similar. I wouldn't worry too much about what might sell, especially if you are thinking that it's going to take several years to complete the work.

If this is your first effort at a novel, just write it and don't think about making money from it. After hundreds of hours of writing, editing, workshopping, querying, maybe you will sell it. More likely, you will not. But that's fine, because completing a novel is a great accomplishment, and at the very least, you've gained much skill as a writer as a result, and will be in a great position to write a much better one. Write it. Then think about the other stuff.

Best of luck !

 

Got it! Thank you!

 

Battletech has long running series of books.though it is based more on a board game and rpg, so might not be what you are looking for.

 

I think every writer would like to know if their novel would be a hit before writing a single word of it, but there's simply no way to know. You said this will be your first novel. Writing a novel is hard work. Finding an agent is hard work. Selling it to a publisher is hard work. And there are just so many factors every step of the way. You also said writing is what you do best so of course you should be writing a novel, right? What sort of stuff have you been writing up until now? Short stories? Have your other writing endeavors turned out well and profitable? I mean the best answer to your questions is anything is possible.

Also, want to ask you about the unconventional aspect. When I hear that it makes me think it could be a harder sell. None of this is meant to discourage you. I think you should write it and give it everything you've got. Good luck!

 

I wholeheartedly agree with Set2Stun, write your heart out and don't worry about that.

If this is your first novel, then it's important to just write and get to know yourself as a writer. Your strengths, your weaknesses, where you need to improve... etc. You will need to build writing skill anyway, and doing it with a project you're passionate about will help a lot.

Most starting writers imitate the voices of the authors they like the most. This is part of "play", acting like a writer rather than being one. And there's of course nothing wrong with that, play is imitation and humans learn many things through imitation. We learn to speak something as incredibly complex as language through imitation. Practice and write a lot and you'll eventually come to know what I mean.

Also, work on it for years? I'm not really sure a single novel will take multiple years. Some do of course. How long do you want it to be?

 

It’s commendable that you know what you want to achieve - this is the first step to achieving it. Successful marketing requires a different skill set to creating a novel; it’s partly these skills which separate the professional from the amateur in any field, not that there’s anything wrong with being an amateur. You’re on the right track: Start with the destination in mind, but be sure to enjoy the journey.

 

For market research you might have some luck with https://bookstat.com/

 

Sorry for the delay, I was busy with something. I'll bold everything I'm replying to in specific.

400,000 words, give or take. This is a big adventure spanning an entire planet almost the size of Saturn and several pocket dimensions over the course of a year. Descriptions of the external objective world (environment, things, people) will be long to paint an image the reader can absorb so they can get a feel of the alien world and its technology. Descriptions of the inner world will be subtle most of the time in comparison. I think 'multiple years' makes sense in this context.

'Unconventional' is just a guess from me. My worldbuilding is pretty unusual and I've never been formally trained, nor do I care about intentionally including popular tropes or appealing to a general audience beyond a specific niche.

Also, noted, I'll have to find out for myself if my novel will be profitable (when it's at its final stage, of course). That's fine by me.

 

Is that for a single novel? That's a lot...

Even if you're talking about a trilogy, it's still a lot. It's very hard for a no-name author to publish a series of books. You'll have better chances if the first book is very independent though, so keep that in mind.

My first project, a Sci-Fi, was a trilogy of 350k words. It was my first project and it took me a year to complete. I knew that I wasn't likely to sell it to anyone, I was just having loads of fun writing a world that was dear to me. Like I said, having fun with a starting project is pretty important...

It's an old project. I've learned a lot more now and when I look at it, I see that it can use a lot of re-writing. I plan to re-write it slowly over the course of this year.

But it isn't a loss. I learned a lot from writing it and it was crucial to my overall journey in writing. Besides, if the better skills it gave me is enough to allow me to write more publishable book that'll get me to become a published author, and thus no longer a no-name, then there are prospects for publishing it in the future as a trilogy with some editing and revision... which I'm already doing.

That's my experience so far. I hope its useful to you.

 

This 100%. I wish more beginning writers would understand this. It's not like Tom Brady is taking reps in practice (In Tampa, sorry @Homer Potvin) and thinking "this is a waste, not even going to be top 10 on ESPN".

 

I wanted to do a 400k novel because I wanted to create a grand story akin to Xenogears or Lord of the Rings for...fun, really, I want to make a big story. I've made a few short stories before. Also I don't feel like making multiple books. I could slim it down to 200k or 150k if 400k is not doable for me. 90k is not enough for me.

It is. I won't be focusing so much on profitability this early thanks to your and other people's words.

 

This would essentially ensure that every agent (if you go that route) will delete your query as soon as they see the word count. Agents are the gatekeepers for all the major publishing houses. There's a tiny handful of publishers (biggest ones are DAW and Baen) who will accept unsolicited manuscripts, however it's almost certain that they will react the same way to the word count. Why? Because that is a hell of a lot of editing to do for something that they're basically rolling the dice on (you being an unknown with no existing following). It's also a hell of a lot more paper and shelf space for, again, something that might bomb spectacularly.

The top end of what's acceptable for a debut science-fiction novel is about 120K words. My advice is to aim for a self-contained story with this in mind. Another important thing to keep in mind is to make the first five pages your best. You need a hook and some intriguing inciting incident right off the bat. Save the world-building and character development for later. This is simply the reality of publishing right now. Gotta stand out, and quickly, or your query is going straight into the bin. If you are adamant about debuting with an incredibly long novel, your only real option is self-publishing - but in any event, at the very least, writing it will be excellent practice.

 

Noted. I was already considering self-publishing, by the way.