Marketing For Specific Genres
On one level, General Fiction Novels have an advantage in marketing, because its wide appeal allows for a readership to arise from many sources...
...and from those sources your readership can be broken down based upon the characters, theme, tone, and even the era you are writing about. Example. If you are writing about an Asian family dealing with alcohol abuse, then you may have a readership of:
1. Those dealing with alcoholism
2. 30-somethings
3. Those that love family dramas
4. Asian
5. Those affected by alcoholism.
But certain genres fall into specific categories, of which whose audience can be hard to reach or even determine. This is what I have learned about tackling this, and I hope that the tips can help guide you in the right direction.
With the advent of technology, writers find that their audience has become more virtual, which is why not only finding your audience has become as important as knowing what that audience is. Book fairs have can be a source of knowing the latest trends in writing, and seeing what people are gravitating to. YA novels are the rage of late, and why? Because young minds are still excited about the written word, and not pulled in by the multiplexes yet, and television trappings of books-to-screen appeal.
So How Do You Find Your Audience, and What Audience Does Your Work Attract?
I write in many genres, including: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Christian, and General and Gay Fiction, most of which if geared towards a Black audience. This audience can be hard to find outside of conventions, networking events, and public readings. You have to, once again, know who your audience is, and build a following where they are. Children's Books and Romance novels (even those romance novels disguised at General Fiction: Twilight, 50 Shades of Gray...), have an easier time in finding an audience, because those novels generally deal in emotional values that are intrinsic in all of us. Love & Learning are common values so it broadens the audience beyond the underlying category of the novel; Horror, Thriller, etc.
Some genres have a built-in fan base such as Science Fiction - while it may not have as large an audience as General Fiction, its loyalty level is higher.
When you look at your writing, you have to look at it from the lives of the characters. When Twilight hit the bookshelves, although the writing was not very good, the love-story was. It was basically a horror book, with its vampire theme, but at its heart was a love story, and that is what was presented to the public. It is an American theme, this focus on romance, from our movies to our writing. Love rules in the eyes of the American. Most of the successfully new writers become that way because of the romance brought out in their novels - and it is usually in the context of some kind of danger.
Looking into your characters as real beings, allows you to imagine who they would attract or connect with in the real world...and that can be the audience you are looking for.
But let’s take a look at how you as a new writer can at least get your work out to a new crowd, even when you aren't sure where that crowd is. Sometimes it takes a little of thinking outside of the box.
Open Mike Nights
Public speaking venues at clubs or lounges (if your writing can lend to it), is a good place to do a small dramatic reading of your work. When I first started on my novel, I tested out certain chapters at open readings at a bookstore. At open mike venues, your writing has to have a certain punch, and a quickness, that chapter reading will not have. So instead of reading a scene, why not describe the neighborhood and its people: "The building was dank, dark, suffocating...like the inside of a digesting belly...” in a poetic fashion. Then tell the audience that this came from a novel you are working on, and if you want to read a chapter for free, you will be giving out business cards outside after the performance. If you go to enough of these, you may be able to eventually hold a book signing there too (and gauge the audience numbers that might attend from the venue you are at).
Writing Workshops
At Community Centers, Colleges, Neighborhood Gatherings, all are good places to not only test your writing styles, but also to get feedback from students and instructors. See if they know any other writing events in town. And from studying the materials in the workshop, and the style and attendance of the teaching, you might also be able to consider doing one yourself. You might even be able to negotiate with the instructor in doing a dual workshop - to make the classes longer, gain a different broader range of participants. Promote both your works, and build a network together.
Social Networking REDUX!
Yes, you can search for reading groups, publishers, and genre specific pages on your favorite social networking site...but then what? Post questions? That may not draw people to your book, your world, get a reaction on your work. Consider doing this: regard your characters as real people, and that they live a life beyond your book. You can create a separate page for them, or post quotes from them as if you are actually hanging out with them in real life. This allows you to see how your characters are received by real people, or if they can achieve their own separate following. So in other-words, instead of writing as yourself, write as them.
Gender/Lifestyle Events
Halloween/Horror Books, Pride Events/Gay-Lesbian, Comicon & Sci-Fi-Conventions/ Science Fiction, Carnivals & Block Parties/ Children Books...As long as the event doesn't carry a lot of alcohol or concert-like music, the people attending will be more attune to the event, and more present in the moment of fun...and more apt to converse with you. You can pass out a photocopy of your book cover and maybe the first few pages. Print on the back of the cover a calendar of events (for you or in general - a keepsake), raffle a free book a month to those that follow your blog, or give a list of your book signings as a book marker. It is sometimes better to give a handout that is smaller than the average piece of paper (for convenience). And if you do decide to do that - don't be dismayed that some people will toss it aside. It happens. Just make sure you find a venue where you are comfortable and most often have a friend with you, so you too can enjoy the event. It's all about finding your audience, and networking with enough people so that can happen.
Just remember that reading is a private event, but it is still a form of entertainment. That being said, it is safe to say that those that read, also like entertainment of other sources, and that you are , where one can break away from their reality and have fun. That is why most of us read...to be taken away from our own reality...
So why can't they use that escapism in the pages of your new novel.
