A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: Want good book sales? Niche your book!

 

It is Tuesday. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side.

Today's topic addresses the value of books that fit clear niches and platforms that are conduits to those niches. I am always a bit saddened and frustrated when authors of a pretty good book state in their proposal that no way is their book a niche book, that it will be of interest to everyone in the world, or millions of people, or every woman, etc., referring to a huge population base. Reaching a base that large, unless one has immense amounts of money (tens of thousands, if not more) to invest, is quite unrealistic -- and then there is the issue of creating your audience, i.e. interesting people who are not actively searching for your book to want to buy it. That is easier said than done -- time-consuming and expensive. 

Consider, however, the niche book. It has a ready-made audience, and if you have a book that fills a gap in the knowledge of that audience, then members of that audience are already looking for your book. The need for selling (persuasion) is much, much lower than trying to reach a large amorphous market. With the niche market, you know the audience (potential readers) and the things that motivate and interest them, and there is a limited set of ideas and interests that attract a niche audience, making it much easier to get their attention. If you are considered a guru in your field (niche), then you do have readymade sales from the moment the book appears. You can avoid the big advertising expenses needed to reach a large audience (where you get a very small percentage of the readership, sort of like being a little fish in a large pond) and use inexpensive and even free word of mouth and collegial interactions based on author platforms and outreach (sort of like being a big fish in a small pond, where the % of readership likely to purchase the book being much higher).

Too many first-time authors really have no idea what sells books and where to look to sell their books. They assume that a niche book will sell less than a book on a general-interest topic and proudly proclaim that their book is for "everyone," a statement that tells a publisher that the author is inexperienced, does not have the quality platform needed for good sales, and may even be difficult to work with -- certainly, building sales will be a lot of work. For that reason, many publishers will not take on an author who does not understand the value of niche, has not pitched his or her work toward a narrow but deep reader pool, and believes wider is better than deeper when it comes to defining a target audience. MSI Press LLC will not take on a book for traditional publication from an author who espouses an unrealistic level of generality of potential audience in his/her book proposal. Our experience with book sales tells us a different story than these authors believe. But, stats do not lie. Here is our experience with books that thrive (400-1000+ at launch and steady sales thereafter):

• Our very best-selling book is a niche book; at one point, it was selling 20-30 books a day. The niche is foreign language learning, more specifically, learners focusing on acquiring excellent speaking skills. Sound narrow? Indeed, it is. It is also deep, at least tens of thousands of learners who are searching for just such a book. This book has needed minimal investment in any kind of advertising. The author has a good platform -- his school that teaches famous people, such as NYT journalists, diplomats, and others. Word of mouth carries knowledge of the book deep into that crevice of those needing to speak better. NYT has carried articles on techniques in the book (totally gratis because the journalists are describing their own experiences). Government employees have passed the word among the large groups of government language specialists who need to improve their speaking skills. An influencer from among the target audience latched onto the book and did several youtubes, showcasing the techniques in the book. Again, free advertising. The power of the niche! Word of mouth, the most successful advertising tool available, and free advertising -- you just cannot beat that.
• Another of our bestselling books is aimed toward the RV market. An amazing number of people own RVers, and tens of thousands of them take to the roads each year and run into the kinds of problems that this book addresses. Marketing the book is easy because it is a niche book -- the sources for marketing are not expensive mass-media advertising or Barnes & Noble store placements with their potential for major financial losses but rather articles by the book author about RVing in RV magazines and placement of the book in camping stores. We have had no returns (the problem with the chain bookstores), and the cost for advertising is almost nil. Again, the power of the niche to sell books that members of the niche need outperforms anything possible with a non-niche book.
• Three other books rounding out our top five sellers include (1) a secondary form of ADHD in boys (yes, thousands of boys suffer from this and their parents are buying the book because there is nothing like it on the market -- and they need it); (2) a mental-health help book for first responders (highly needed and not available from any other book at this time); and (3) an award-winning book on how women can take control of their aging process written by a specialist in the field for decades (she has the connections to specialists who want the experience and information hard to gather in one place and there is a very large group of baby boomer women who want more control and less dependency -- note: this is not all women of a certain age, which would make the book more general, but rather a very specific subset, which makes the book a niche item and one where outreach began by sharing the book information with a survey group used in the book; seminars available to community libraries on ZOOM, book awards, and word of mouth have brought a helpful dose of free advertising for the book.) Again, the power of the niche to find a home for this book on many bookshelves and many readers holding the book in their hands and using the information within for their health and sense of peace in aging.

The power of the niche took these five books, all of them niche books, to the top of our sales charts. Yes, we have some good sellers among more general books, like our memoirs (though some memoirs can fall into niches), but it is quite telling that the very best sellers are all niche books.

A word of seeming contradiction (but not really): last week I wrote about topic and content from the point of view that timing of topic is important, that a topic not of current interest to a wide swath of readers is not likely to create a NYT bestseller. However, this is not really a contradiction. If you think about it, this, too, is a niche, the niche being the topic of the day. The difference between this "niche" and the typical niche is that this one has a short-life span -- take advantage of while it is a hot topic and then retire the book -- while the true niche can keep a book alive and selling well for years. An example of the former is our pandemic book series. In 2020-2021, there was quite a demand for this series of books. Their time has now passed, and the series has been backlisted and is essentially available only through our bookstore because the books are not selling well enough to support the cost of global distribution services. That is the downside of writing on the topic of the day and the advantage of addressing your work to a niche that will always be there for you. 

Bottom line: The niche may be a small slice of the world's population, but the niche is a highly powerful sales force for an author who focuses on the needs of the niche.

Lesson for today's Tuesday talk: As the title of this blog post says, niche your book if you can. Don't think for a minute that you are reducing your sales by writing your book for a niche audience; you are more likely to increase them. 

 Read more posts about publishing HERE.

The Tuesday talks reflect real discussions between the management of MSI Press LLC and our own authors or those would-be authors who come through our doors but don't make the cut--yet. If you have a topic that you would like addressed, leave the question in the comment section. Chances are, in our 18 years of publishing first-time and experiences authors, we have had a conversation with one of our authors that we can share with you.

                             

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