Lesson III: Finding Your Niche
You may think you have already found your niche. You may already be writing in a genre, or a combination of genres, or just a writing to an idea you have like “A werewolf version of Othello” or “Humans fighting for their lives on a water world full of intelligent octopus creatures.” But most aspiring authors have no idea how to define a niche well enough to write to market in an effective way. Trust us, you probably do need this lesson, and it can’t hurt. Without a clearly defined genre — and usually subgenre — it is almost impossible to write to market and find an audience.
Our genre guides will be a big help. It might be worth reading any of the genre guides that are even close to any of the genres you might want to write in. It can also help to try out a few different niches. Write a few thousand words in each of the genres that you think might be best for you and see how it feels. You may be inspired to write more, or already tired. You may realize that you don’t know as much as you thought about a given genre, or that you already have a nine-book series planned out and are eager to get it written.
Feel free to post these samples on the forums and ask for feedback. You may discover that while you thought your cozy mystery was great, it was your dark romance that really impressed the other authors on our forum. Getting audience feedback, however you can, is invaluable in your search for the right niche. And finding the right niche now, rather than two years from now, will make a big difference in your career path. Spend a few extra days now, to avoid wasting months, or years, of your career.
Readings:
- Chris’s article on Finding Your Niche is an excellent resource. Read it, do the exercises, and come back here.
- Adam’s article on Using Publisher Rocket is also great for researching genres and Amazon categories where your work might fit.
Try to remember that your goal is not to find where your current work fits. Your goal is to find a subgenre that you can target with your future work. This is all about finding a market and learning to serve it. If you don’t identify an audience, and give them what THEY want, instead of what YOU want, you will have real trouble finding financial success and reaching a large number of readers.