So a lot of popular novels I've seen seem to fall within the young adult fiction/romance genre and for an aspiring author who prefers the weird, strange and odd tales of fiction, often loving the works of H.P Lovecraft and Junji Ito, i was wondering if there is a viable audience for strange stories with strange characters. I often times write what i would want to read myself and for fun, but various authors and blogs talk about looking at market demographics to write a successful novel and i was wondering whether or not i should modernise my novel (love triangle, appeal to the younger audience) or just write what i want and hope for a small cult following. My book does have a death match theme to it as i loved the original Battle Royal, Lord of the Flies, Hurricane Gold and it allows plenty of character development to explore nature and various themes, but i honestly dislike cheesy romance and plot armour. Thoughts on this? Thanks!
Short answer: If you want to publish traditionally your book has to fall into a genre somewhere and meet that genre's expectations within reason. It's a buyer's market to the millionth degree. The agents and publishers don't need to take chances. They want what sells (rightfully so) and that's it. You sound like you're inclined toward horror or new weird fantasy (if that's even still a thing), so I would start there. No publisher will buy it if they don't think they're going to make money, so you have to follow the pack to a certain extent. You can't actively shoot for a cult following... that kind of just happens, and even cult novels have to sell quite a few books to attain that sort of standing. I wouldn't write romance or YA just for the hell of it, and while I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "modernizing" your novel, if it's a point where nobody is interested in reading it because it's archaic (??), then, yeah, you're dead on arrival already.
If I can mentally autofill in the plotlines and character arcs of a book, it's not worth reading. To the OP: my strategy is to just build up a solid community of people who read and appreciate my work. If I ever make money off of it, it'll be because of organic merit, not because it made $50 more in a month than another book and got a deal with Books-a-Million.
They're idiots. In a business where any single product can make millions of dollars (or nothing at all), playing it safe is the definition of Black Swan blindness. I recall that Harry Potter only got accepted after the publisher had his own child read it and asked what she thought (apparently a novel idea to children's book publishers).
Honestly, the chances of a book becoming largely successful is so slight that IMO you should just write what you like, because at least you get to enjoy writing some parts of it at least. Writing a book is such hard work, I can't imagine slogging through trying to write something I wasn't genuinely enthusiastic about.
Yup. I'm going to write what I want to write and hope that other people like it. If they do, I'll make lots o' money, but if they don't, I'll still have my hobby and my little blog. Also, quite honestly, I'm not skilled enough as a writer to write something I don't like, if that makes any sense. I tried to write something sweet and romantic once, and all my female readers said that they could see I was a horror author first and foremost. I don't know how to write not-horror, so the concept of trying to shoehorn myself into a completely different genre or voice is just foolish. Of course, other people may be (probably are) a lot more mentally flexible than I am, so...
Writing, reading and publishing demographics are changing so fast I can't keep up. What hasn't changed, for me anyway, is the pleasure I get from reading a damn good book. So I will write the kind of book I would love to read. Why not? I have no interest in making writing a 'career,' as I'm retired. So making money from my writing isn't the reason I write. If you want to make lots of money with traditional publishers, you do one of two things: 1) You chase the market, and write exactly what publishers are currently buying (which may well change by the time you finish your book.) They SAY they want 'original,' but if you believe them, you're kidding yourself. They want a book (with a few name changes and plot tweaks) just like the last book they sold in large numbers. Preferably from the same author. And be prepared to give them many more similar books in fairly rapid succession. Most authors today who make enough money to quit their other jobs are authors who have broken into a market, and are now producing more of the same at a regular rate. If you struggle to write a book a year, that's going to be a handicap for you. If you only have one good book in you, that's going to REALLY be a handicap, no matter how good that book may be. 2) Write something that's so stunningly original the publishers just can't resist taking a chance on it—and trust that somebody will actually read your query and ask for a submission. And you'll still be expected to follow up (soon) with more of the same. Making wads of money with self-publishing is still an undeveloped skill. But if you want to write what YOU want to write and get it 'out there,' then that's really your only choice at the moment. (Unless your writing appeals to Literary publishers, who are more amenable to new approaches and subject matter than the other genre publishers, but will still be choosy about style and restrictive about length until you've proved yourself.) While reading itself is undergoing lots of change, what does seem to be unchanged is the love of storytelling. It's the medium and marketing that has changed, not the end result. Where it will go next is anybody's guess. So, basically ...there are much easier ways to earn a living than writing novels, but there are still people out there who love to read them. Everybody seems to love a story told in some fashion ...printed word, TV, movies, etc. So trim your expectations to reality, and if you want to tell a story, find a way to do it that brings YOU pleasure. Then share your pleasure as best you can. Who knows? You might become The Next Big Thing.
Yes, I am inclined to agree with everybody else on this point. You write mainstream, and you have a better shot (unless you break into a niche community like some do). Otherwise you epub and hope someone outside of your beta readers reads and likes your book. And that is a feat in and of itself, seeing as every Tom, Dick, and Harry can epub these days. So you really are playing the odds going either route when it comes to pubbing. If you want to make a quick buck, write a ton of Erotica or some other not so commonly read niche, and see what sticks. Or just write a ton of shorts and flood the market with your work that you commonly write, and see what gets read. It is all hit or miss really. So write what you want and lower your odds of traditional publishing, or just write a copy and paste story as fast as possible, in the hopes that you will get in on that market before the trends change. I say find out what readers are saying about your particular genres, the good, the bad, and the ugly. There are a lot of readers of YA/Romance that will be blunt and honest about what they like, and what they think is over done. From what I have heard from that particular community is that they don't like love triangles as much as the market would want you to believe. Good luck.
I write a combination of the two, weird fiction/romance-erotica thing... I think there's an audience, albeit smaller than YA. there's an audience for almost anything if you do it well. You do you and someone will recognize the genuine writings you make. (Like me, I like it.)
