I was recently talking to some authors at a conference and heard time and time again, authors who have limited their potential for getting their works published. In an effort to make their stories special, they have narrowed thing so much that now they are stuck in a niche market.
I get that you might think a story set in the Pacific Northwest focusing on traditions in the Pacific Northwest sounds great! I am not going to deny it. HOWEVER, does anyone outside of the Pacific Northwest care? NOPE!
The same goes for the authors who want to write a Christmas story. Sure, it sounds good, but remember, there are only so many of those books coming out during that month.
I also understand that these authors are thinking that they are going to have a hard time competing with the general fiction books from the other major authors during the rest of the year. Yes, you will. However, you will have more publishers to work with.
Let me return to a couple of those authors I spoke to over the weekend.
The author writing about the Pacific Northwest was not just writing about the region. This was also based on a real range war that happened so this was also a western (sort of). Heavy research into the book but the market is just not there. For this author, the best he can hope for is some independent publisher, and with them, they only release so many books a year. Bigger competition.
For the other author, this person was writing about a group of people who were emigrating out of Quebec during one year in the middle of the 60's. Totally interesting story, however, if you are not familiar with the time, with the region, with Canada... you see what I mean? The market is just not there.
Keep that in mind as you start thinking about that book you are now writing.l
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