Like many readers of genre fiction, I am a full-bore biblioholic, constantly desperate for my next story fix. And though I’ve read my share of literary fiction, once I got a taste of the black tar heroin that is pulp fiction, there was no going back. I want plot, suspense, action, adventure, and wonder. And when I read something that gives me what I crave, it’s like a Dorito chip. What I want most after eating one chip is more. I want the next bite to be exactly as delicious as the last. I’m loyal to the writer who can supply me with a fully replicable, reliably enjoyable experience far into the future.
Genre fiction attempts to satisfy a particular need. Having read a book I intensely enjoy, I want more of the same. I want it to be new and different, but I want it to push all the same buttons. How do I find the right product? Word of mouth from like-minded individuals on social media, Amazon’s AI recommendations, Goodreads’ Listopia, The What Should I Read Next website, and the Literature Map.
Let’s suppose the book I’ve just read is Storm Warning, the first in the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher. The genre and subgenre of this work is fantasy, specifically urban fantasy, particularly occult detective urban fantasy. Genre, subgenre, and series all operate to get me more of what I need. I know that the next in the series is going to give me more of the wise-cracking cynicism of a tarnished hero, the intrigue, the action, the magic, and the world-building I crave. All seventeen entries in the series will be recognizably and reliably similar; all approximating to a formula, yet not so formulaic as to bore me. There will be narrative twists, shocking revelations, and cliffhangers to keep me reading the next and the next. All follow pretty much the same rules; all push pretty much the same buttons deep in my psyche that addicted me in the first place.
The problem is that if I read one Dresden book a week and start on January 1st, I’m going to be in serious withdrawal by the end of April. Readers of subgenre fiction are often addicted to the subgenre. If I’ve devoured the Dresden Files, I’m not going to shrug and move on to psychic animal cozies or romantic westerns. While Jim Butcher goofs off taking another year or two writing the next Dresden novel, I will probably read six more urban fantasy series. There are 451 books listed in Listopia’s category “Best Occult Detective Fiction,” though if you reduce that to just the different series or authors, it’s considerably less. Go on, Butcher, take another year or two to crank out the next installment of The Dresden Files; I’ve got other suppliers. I need my fix. And I’m not alone. Because writers write so damned slowly, there’s plenty of room for multiple purveyors of similar products to share the market. And all these authors are targeting the same basic core audience.
Each year about four million new books are published, more than half of those self-published. But the average book sells about two hundred copies per year and about a thousand copies over its lifetime. Why? Because the average reader of genre fiction doesn’t sort through four million titles looking for something to read. Almost all those books are about things they have absolutely no interest in. By Sturgeon’s Law, 90% of what’s out there is crap anyway. Most readers of genre fiction sift through a relatively minuscule selection of books almost identical to a handful of books they really liked, and they rely on a very small tribe of like-minded individuals (or their AI simulacra) who restrict their attention to a tiny subgenre of fiction.
As a genre writer, how do you get your book on the radar of the reader most interested in purchasing your new novel? Understanding the function of subgenres, microgenres, and series can vastly increase your chances of reaching full market saturation. One way is to concentrate your marketing on just those readers most likely to want your book. You must find, join, and positively interact with your tribe. Find the reviewers of your latest favorite subgenre book on Goodreads, join their communities, enter discussions, and post reviews. Go to the websites and blogs covering the subgenre and post comments. Bond with your tribe. There are maybe a thousand people you must make aware of your book. Out of all the millions of readers in the U.S., you have to get the word out to a town about half the size of Kemah, TX.
For most authors who aren’t Stephen King, there are optimistically between two hundred and a thousand potential readers out there who would buy your book this year, if they only realized it existed. Jim Butcher’s last full novel in the Dresden Files series sold about 3,084 copies (both paperback and e-book) this last year. Here are the numbers for the most recent novels in similar series in the same subgenre:
o The Nightside series by Simon R. Green—552
o The Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch—936
o The Laundry Files by Charles Stross—324
o The Sandman Slim books by Richard Kadrey—600
o The Repairman Jack series by F. Paul Wilson—96
o The Greywalker series by Kat Richardson—120
The important thing: many readers who bought one of these series have bought some or all the other series. And all of that is for a subgenre as popular as urban fantasy/occult detective. If you can focus on an even more specific sub-sub-genre, or microgenre, with comparable addiction among its core devotees, the competition for market share is greatly reduced. I recently became interested in horror novels featuring lost or cursed movies. On Goodreads’ Listopia, this microgenre is listed as “Lost Films and Cursed Movies.” Here’s a representative subset:
o Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia—2,724
o Experimental Film by Gemma Files—204
o Night Film by Marisha Pessl—744
o Midnight Movie by Tobe Hooper & Alan Golsher—24
o Ancient Images by Ramsey Campbell—120
o Ring by Koji Suzuki—118
o Horror Show by Greg Kihn—60
There were 451 items on the “Best Occult Detective Fiction” subgenre list on Listopia. There are only thirty-one items on the “Lost Films and Cursed Movies” list. If a connoisseur of this microgenre reads one of these books per week starting on January 1st, they will be jonesing for your similar masterpiece of terror by early August. There just aren’t that many books of this specific type out there, and my tribe really wants to read more. Some people belong to multiple tribes, while others are addicted to just that one subgenre. I’m currently addicted to New Pulp, classic pulp, steampunk, dieselpunk, atompunk, capepunk, cyberpunk, retrofuturism, hard SF, alternate history, Cthulhu Mythos, noir, hardboiled detective, disaster, spy, technothriller, weird western, and Pynchonesque maximalist novels. But most readers are quite focused on just one or two tribes.
What are your favorite subgenres and microgenres? How do you go about finding more of what you like? If you are a genre writer, what are you doing to connect to your similarly addicted tribe? My latest genre stories are “Gutshot Straight”, a classic pulp noir, and “The Dybbuk vs. The Crime Cartel”, a New Pulp costumed crime-fighter tale. Look for them both in The Final Twist’s newest anthology We Were Warned, is now on sale.
The Final Twist Writers Society 