Episode 24: Genre Effect on Sales
K
Hello, my beautiful cinnabar moths or any kind of moth you’d like to be. Welcome back to another episode of the writers triangle. I’m so happy you’re joining us today. And today we’re going to be talking about book sales and genre does genre drive book sales? That’s something that I’ve always found to be really interesting, because there is just literally an avalanche of information on that says yes. All signs point to yes, that genre absolutely drives book sales. And I don’t know, based on looking at our books and the way that they sell. We’ve, to date so far, because we’re coming up on the one year anniversary of our first book, which I’m super stoked about. Not my rachis I must set the wrong book title. What a horrible publisher, I am. Lucky for me, it’s Chad’s book, and Chad will forgive me it is not my records is coming up on his one year anniversary next month, which is really exciting. And that book is literary fiction. So here’s what they say about literary fiction, that literary fiction is a slow burn, that you’re not going to sell a lot of books, it’s going to take years and years to sell any books at all. And it really takes three or four years for a literary fiction book to catch momentum. Here’s also what they say. literary fiction is hot, red hot, and is flying off the shelves. Okay, interesting. Which one’s correct, which source dry blue, I believe that literary fiction is flying off the shelves, or that it’s a slow burn. And here’s what I think. I think that it’s both. And I think that it’s like with everything else, it depends on if your book gets noticed. And there are book trends that make books a little bit hotter, but make books hotter in a different way. So we don’t do candle distribution exclusively. But if you’re self publishing, KDP exclusive might be the way to go. Because if your book is on trend, whatever is trending in Kindle Unlimited, or whatever is trending, and Kendall sells, and your book is in that genre, then Kindle will push your book more, but only if you’re doing Kindle Direct Publishing exclusive. And we don’t so we don’t benefit from that. The same thing with Amazon, if you’re going through Amazon, and you’re letting Amazon print your books, and you’re selling your books exclusively through Amazon. And your book is on trend, Amazon will push your sales, we don’t distribute exclusively through Amazon because we love libraries. We absolutely love libraries. And we love our authors. And we love ourselves. So I’m not saying that if you’ve published with Amazon exclusively, you don’t love yourself. I’m saying if you’re a publishing house that’s doing it, Amazon just it takes money from you. It takes money from the author. And it takes money from the bookstores that it sells to. And so for us we were thinking about, okay, so it’s going to take money from the independent bookstores that it delivers to, and I don’t really like that is going to take money from me, beyond publishing costs is going to take a percentage of sales, and I don’t really like that. And it’s going to take a percentage from our authors. And I really don’t like that.
K
Because we’re not making millions on books, we don’t make a lot of money on books. And on each individual cell. There’s not like a huge PYtest to split up despite what you see, because you have to factor in cost of covering cost of covering, editing, printing, all of that goes into the cost of the book. And it it really chips away after the profit for it but rather quickly. So if you’re looking at trends, to be able to write a book on trend, you have to be fast. And I find that our authors are not fast writers. Some of our authors really turn them out quickly. They can turn out in novel in six to nine months, and not lightning fast. There are some authors who can turn out a novel every 30 days. And that is amazing. And that is romance. If you’re a strictly romance writer, and you’re going through Kindle, it’s a book a month, romance readers read, sometimes two to three books a day. And I was just like, wow, that is a voracious appetite. And erotica is the same way you have to really be able to turn them out. So we don’t really do romance and strict romance in that Harlequin romance kind of way. And we don’t do erotica. And it’s not because I have anything against erotica. It’s because I don’t feel like I can compete in the market in the marketplace for erotica. Because when you’re looking at every 30 days having to have a new book by an author, I used to say that’s a lot to ask of an author. And that really, you’re asking you’re off, you’re asking the author to dedicate all of their time to that. And I don’t I have this weird tech where I don’t like to ask our authors to dedicate all of their creative time to any one project. I like our authors to be able to work on more than one project at a time. And that was part of what inspired doing the E zine was that it gives our authors somewhere to submit to but a lot of our authors submit stories not just to us, but other places, because we can only take five stories plus our writer in residence story. So we only do six stories an issue. And that’s just not enough. So I encourage our authors to get to know other publishers and get to know others zine, and submit to anthologies submit their short stories to anthologies, and that sort of thing. Because, in my mind, it allows them balance and freedom, right? Because you can be working on your novel. And you can have your word count and your page count. But that’s a grind. Working on writing a novel is a grind from my perspective. And I feel like I don’t want my I just didn’t like the idea of our authors just grinding it out and having to get us something in 30 days. And I feel like if I were going to do erotica or romance, I would have to be that way, I would have to say, Hey, guys, we need to put something out every 30 days. And that’s just the way it has to be. And I don’t want to be that kind of taskmaster. I also don’t like to publish more than one novel from an author in a year. So that takes romance and erotica off the table for us as well. And I don’t do faith based. And the reason that we don’t do faith based is because I don’t want to proselytize or promote any one faith above the other. So that would mean doing faith and going out and scouring the earth for Facebook’s from every known religion, that that I could think of for me to feel fair and balanced. And for me to feel like I wasn’t proselytizing or promoting a lifestyle. And faith based I don’t understand the faith based market. When I look at it, it says that faith based is really hot and trending. That I’m not seeing a lot of bestsellers in the faith in the faith based genre. There are bestsellers in that genre, but I’m not seeing a lot of them. Turn over quickly. I’m seeing more like slow burn in terms of that genre for me. And my research and I could be totally wrong. And I I have. Like I said I just know enough to know what I don’t know. I don’t know everything. And so looking at the genres, I feel like erotica needs to be published every month. I feel like romance needs to be published every month and that’s romance. That’s softcore erotica.
K
And there’s not enough softcore erotica in the romance. It’s not going to sell as a romance book has been my experience and is what the research says We sell books that have romance in them, but are not romance books, if that makes sense. And we get a lot of feedback that people want more romance than the romance we’re giving them. And that’s kind of like, but it’s not a romance book, and to have the romance be centered, and the book wouldn’t be a good fit for the book. And the books that the romance is centered, we do have some steamy nests. But that’s not quite what the book is about. It’s not just about that. And that’s because I don’t think I could do a service. And again, I think it has to be monthly. And I think that impacts sales. If you don’t have a quick follow up, I think romance readers aren’t willing to wait a year for a book to. Whereas if you’re telling, if you’re doing like a contemporary fiction that has romance elements, I feel like people are waiting a year are willing to wait a year for a book to if it’s a sequel, but I could be wrong. So that covers romance and erotica. A lot of people say that there’s favoritism in the book industry for y a science for young adult science fiction. And I find that that’s usually people who write adult science fiction saying that there’s favoritism for young adult science fiction. And I wouldn’t know because we haven’t published any. So I don’t have any firsthand experience, that when I look at young adult science fiction, I don’t see it outselling adult science fiction in the way that people are reporting. And these are authors who are reporting not being able to get an agent or not being able to sell their books. These are people that we know that are talking to us in the industry and saying, yo, they’re just not buying any adult science fiction. And I don’t know if that’s down to marketing, because I read a lot of adult science fiction. I also read for just enjoyment read a lot of middle grade and young adult science fiction. So I read across the age spectrum, I really liked middle grade, because I know it’s going to be a light, easy one day read with nothing too heavy, and no trauma.
K
And some days, I just don’t want to be traumatized. I just want something light and airy. And so that brings us to middle grade. And that’s why we picked up relatively normal secrets. I jumped on it when it came in our inbox, because we didn’t have any books that were trauma free on our, in our lineup at all, everything has trauma in it. And I was just like, okay, because even our romantic comedy, slash cozy mystery has some trauma in it. And that the one of the main characters is neurodivergent. It’s a funny book. It’s a light one day read. But it is talking about the lived experience of being neurodivergent. And it also does cover there’s a bisexual character. And it also does cover bigotry and bias against bisexuality. So for me, it doesn’t quite tick all the boxes for that trauma free, I’m just going to be safe. There’s nothing going to be triggering whatsoever in this book at all. And looking at our why a book, jump and go. It definitely has a lot of trauma in it. And you start at the beginning of the book meeting Marcus who’s just abled, which I absolutely love a black men character who’s middle class and disabled, love it. But it’s not the lightest affair. And there is lightness and fun. But there’s also a little bit of sadness and trauma that runs through the book. And pixies in the mist is our adult portal fantasy. And it is traumatic. It has tons of content notes. So I was wanting a book that had zero content notes to meet. That’s a good middle grade book, when you don’t have to put a single content mount in it. You can read it in a day. And there’s something clever and fun about it. And I think those types of middle grade books sell really well. I feel like with middle grade, it’s either you’re completely capturing the experience of being in the middle grade and it’ll sell really well. Or you’re really captured bring the excitement and adventure of being a middle grader and that innocence and charm, but also keeping it funny and witty, where it ages up and down really well. And I think those types of middle grade books style really well. So for me, when it comes to genre, when we’re looking at middle grade, I think it’s more of rather than the genre, I think it’s about meeting the expectations of the genre. And that is for me, personally, and again, this is just me. That’s no content notes. I want zero content notes in my middle grade books, I don’t want any trauma. I don’t want any swear words, except maybe like, dam is okay. But anything more than dam is too much for me in middle grade. And that’s my preference. And that’s my thinking. And I think those types of books do really well. And I also think that middle grade, if it’s a series does really well, I think that series are very popular. And I think that if you can get, you know, get in the Library of Congress, and if you can get those librarians, stock, middle grade, I think libraries make or break middle grade cells. And I also think teachers make or break middle grade cells, and maths, why it has to age up and down really well. Because I think teachers have to enjoy the book, to put it on their students reading list, and feel that the book has merit and that the book offers something to their students, if they read it. So those are kind of how I think about selling middle grade. And so I do think that if you say middle grade, and then you put a lot of trauma and a lot of cursing, that it’s not gonna play as well. So I think there are some rules for for middle grade I and I’ve seen books that have broken the rules, and I’ve done great, I just don’t have that kind of courage yet. When it comes to middle grade, I like to play it safe. With why a young adult, I think that there’s no specific genre in young adult that does better than any other type of genre and young adult, at least in my experience.
K
I like Portal fantasies. And so we have in 2021 we put out three portal fantasies, because I love portal fantasies. And so does everybody else. And they’re all really good books. And I’ve really fun portal fantasies. I think that when you do a portal fantasy for it to to do well. I think that it has to be different than than the then the world we’re in now. Right? There has to be thought about that. And I’m going to do a whole podcast on portal fantasies, because I absolutely love them. So, for me, I feel like what impact sells more than a specific genre is a specific marketing. So I don’t think that science fiction, or outside of, of course, erotica and romance, I don’t think that like science fiction, literary fiction, contemporary fiction, gothic fiction, horror core, I don’t think any one genre sells more than the other. Unless you’re, you know, following a trend. And you can turn a book out in 30 days, because that’s how fast being on trend has to be, you have to be able to get that book out and 30 days from what I’ve observed. And I know a lot of indie authors that do that and do really, really well getting their book out on trend. And they share they have shared with me, I’m lucky enough that they are willing to share openly with me about their process. And I love that collaboration. And they share with me that they just have to do that for the first book. And then they have six months to write the follow up. So if you’re following a trend, they say I want Book One has to be written in 30 days, and then I’ve got six months to get Book Two out. And then every six months, I have to get a book out. If I caught a trend. And I’m riding a wave. I want to make sure that my book can ride that wave all the way through. And what I’m hoping to do is to create trends and create waves, but do a slower build where people are willing to wait a year for a book to allow each book to gain momentum to gain popularity but also to make room for other authors and our roster to have their time there. I’m trying to, and I want more authors because I want more diversity. And I think that if I was putting a book out every six months, every six months by the same author, for us as a press, I just don’t see that working as a business model and what we want to do with the press, so looking at what sells books, and what determines whether or not your book will sell. And what I’ve found with the feedback that we get from our reviewers, is that if we say a book is young adult, then it means to be young adult, and not middle grade and not adult. And we have to really understand what young adult means. And I find that that young adult is if the characters are in their early teens or mid teens, mid teens is a little bit late. So basically, like freshmen or sophomore, sophomore years in high school, you can kind of get away with the junior years in high school, but that’s getting at the higher of the age scale, no sexual content. And, but there can be violence. And so I find that that young adult, is you can have violence, you can have a relationship, but there needs to be no explicit sex or implied intercourse in the book. And those are the rules and that the writing has to be accessible at the level of a young adult reader at that, that age range. And that age range you’re looking at the 1415 year olds through adulthood is basically why a at least my understanding, is if you’re going to write a why a book, make sure that you make it exciting, make sure that it can read up, they don’t really read down because they usually have some sort of violence or trauma in them that prevent them from reading down. And then there’s other ry eight books at least have that other why a books don’t have that trauma. And so they can read as a middle grade or a young adult. And most white a books kind of blur that line between ya and middle grade.
K
Based on how adult the content and how mature the writing is, and how mature the characters are, and what goes on it. Middle Grade, like I said, no content notes, like easy reading really captures that, you know, third to eighth grade experience. And that’s middle grade. And then children’s books, we don’t handle children’s books. But children’s books can have trauma, that’s not traumatizing. And I think of a series that people either love or hate, and that Series of Unfortunate Events. And it’s written in a really whimsical tongue in cheek way. But it does have the trauma of them being orphans. And if you read the book, it’s really dark, but young readers don’t get the darkness of it, like count off wanting to marry a baby. They don’t get the darkness of that and how twisted and messed up that is that the adults do. And I think that’s what I’m talking about with the aging up and down as a really great example. So I guess that’s more middle grade than children’s. I think a great children’s series is the magic school bus. And that’s a science series. Lots of really great information. And I also think the magic Treehouse is great. Not everyone likes the magic Treehouse, because the science and the science, the history isn’t exactly on point. So you can kind of be I think, a little bit shady a with the research, a little bit shaky, rather with the research when you’re writing for younger audience. And then there’s picture books. And we know what a picture books is, right? You just have a few sentences on each page. And as you turn it, there’s a picture on every page. That’s a picture book. So the difference between a picture book and and a middle grade and a children’s book, I find children’s book, they have a picture every I want to say 10 to 15 pages. And it’s an illustration of something that’s going on in the book. And that sort of helps the reader transition from picture book, two chapter book, and that’s where we kind of, for me, that’s my understanding of children’s chapter books. And I think that if You follow the conventions and you follow the rules of these things that you have a better chance of selling in those younger genres. And that’s why a on down. So looking at adult genre when it comes to adult and has to be tightly written, really well edited, and engaging story that captivates the reader. And I think with adults that you have about one page to do something that captures the reader’s interest, for it to be for it not to be a book, they don’t finish, I think they’ll start with one page. And I think they might, from my experience with readers to who explain that, it’s, I’m not reading this anymore. Though, give a book up to three chapters, that you see by the first page, they have a pretty good idea of whether or not they’re going to finish an adult book or any book when it comes to adult readers. And if that first page doesn’t captivate them, it kind of taints the way, or clouds the way that they’re looking at the rest of the chapters. And makes, you really have to redeem yourself if you don’t have a good first page kind of thing. And giving it up to chapter three is sort of like the rule of thumb, to say, I gave this book a fair chance, making sure that those first three chapters and the entire book has consistency is going to help the book self as an adult genre, adults really pay attention to consistency. And I’m talking about consistency, I’m talking about consistency in dialogue, consistency, and pacing, and character behavior, and in the world that they’re in, if something happens, that doesn’t quite fit in the world, then that’s going to be a turnoff to readers. And if in the first three chapters, there’s an info dump, that’s going to turn readers off. And I think that has more to do with what people enjoy reading versus genre rule. So info dumps are big no, no. And show not tell. I
K
think it’s something that I’m going to dedicate an entire podcast too, because it’s something that a lot of writers struggle with, at least, that I’m seeing. And I’m also going to be dedicating a podcaster, to world building. And that’ll probably be in my portal fantasy, I’ll probably be focusing a lot on world building, and not can translate to any genre. And that’s what I find when we look at genre outside of like, what age group we’re going for. And whether it’s contemporary, Gothic, horror, science fiction, all of that boils down to, are you meeting the readers expectations? Are you going completely against convention? Because you know, convention? Did you write a book that you enjoy? Did you write a book that you would recommend to a friend? Do you know who your intended readers are? So after you’re done writing a book, who in your life would you recommend your book to? And if there’s no one in your personal life that you would recommend your book to? Who do you know that exist in the world that you would recommend your book to? And it can’t be everyone. And that’s the hard part. And as a marketer, I want to say, this book is great for everyone. But that’s not the case. Every book is not great for everyone. And over this year of being in the process and doing marketing, it’s really come home solidly for me, because of the amount of reviews that I’ve consumed. What book is for who? And really thinking about when I’m marketing the book, who is this book intended for? Because that impacts how I interpret feedback? And how I interpret all of the data that comes on how I interpret book sales, and are we marketing this book correctly? Is it going to where it needs to go? And is it being? Is it reaching the population that it needs to reach? So I don’t think that genre in terms of science fiction, horror, or any of that affects sales as much as knowing what age group your book is intended for, in terms of what is the bulk of your readership going to be? Or I don’t even know if the bulk of readership was right? What’s the age group of your intended audience? Because I love a great middle grade book. And I’m in my 50s. So I’m not the target demographic. But what I feel comfortable handing this book to an eight year old, and letting them read it. If not, it’s probably not middle grade. And I know eight is everyone’s like, um, people debate, what’s the age range for for middle grade. And I feel like eight I feel like grade three is where it’s at. When it comes to middle grade, that that’s where it starts. Because that’s when the young readers are transitioning right from and getting into chapter books. And so I think eight nine is where it starts. So like I say, with everything, these are just my opinions, and this is just based on my research. Go out there, do your own research, and see what you find. And then let me know what do I get right when I get wrong? You can let me know if you’re listening to this on YouTube. Let me know in the comments what you think be nice. Or you can leave us a comment on Twitter or on any of our social media. You can leave us a comment on Instagram or Facebook. And yeah, let me know what you think. Do you agree with me? Do you disagree? And as always, thank you for listening. I love all of our beautiful cinnabar moss or any kind of moth you want to be and like I say every week you can even be a butterfly, but I’m not Mariah Carey, and I’m not trying to bite a rhyme and I’ll talk to you in two weeks. Bye