Niche Markets – The REAL Reason For Rejections

At some point in our writing career, all of us have felt that our novel is a master piece. Some, more than others, will be of the opinion that they are the fricken Michelangelo of the written word. Then the rejections roll in… and in… and in. Many of these are due to the manuscript (MS) not being of a certain undefined standard at the time of submission (or, God forbid, we aren’t as good at crafting our Sistine chapel as we thought). However, a significant number of MS’s, particularly non-fiction, are rejected because a publisher just doesn’t see a large enough market or simply that particular subject does not resonate with their tastes. This is a fair enough decision, as money has to be made, redundancies kept in check. Not every MS can be accepted, and even if a novel does make the cut, the publishing houses are not equipped to fully market all the books they sell: they cannot afford to. Unfortunately over the past several years the number of publishing houses has decreased, hence fewer authors are being published.

However, publishers DO NOT KNOW all markets and fan bases available, nor how many people participate in these specialised niche markets. As such, they are not in the modern age equipped to serve all authors. A publisher of 30 years is not necessarily going to get the popular new trend of Crimping or the hundred thousand strong fans around the world who play Magic-The Card Game.

Currently, readers are denied the freedom to discover new voices; yet, we are entering into a future where more people will read what they are interested in and discover fields they had never considered. The opportunities provided by e-books, particularly to reach these niche markets are immense. Briefly, a niche market is a market that is fixated or interested in a particular topic. For example I have a non-fiction novel on Gap Year travel (a ‘niche’ of the travel genre), a phenomenon that is major in the UK and US but next to unknown in Australian culture.

A clear example of publishing houses inability to serve all niche markets is shown by Mark Coker, the creator of Smashwords.com, a free e-book publishing site. Mark began this site in response to his failure to traditionally publish a specialised soap opera novel (‘Boob Tube’ who could resist? Really?). Represented by a well respected New York City agency, Dystel & Goderich, to top publishers of commercial women’s fiction, his MS (co-written with his wife) was thoroughly rejected. Undertaking a major revision using the comments of the publishers, they shared the manuscript with test readers interested in soaps and received a very enthusiastic thumbs up. Again, though represented by a top firm, they were rejected. The market was too small to interest main stream publishers. The struggle sparked an idea for Mark and Smashwords was born.

E-books provide an opportunity to reach niche markets of readers, where an author knows the needs of their smaller group of enthusiasts better than a publisher. We all place such high hopes on publishers, but they are just people like us, wandering around their own little world preferring red over black, sex over sleep and who just do not want to read another teen romance, no matter how much it is like Twilight, in fact especially because it’s so much like Twilight.

TOMORROW: We discuss the global numbers game in regards to print book and e-book publishing in niche markets. I do love games...

For more information on Smashwords see http://www.smashwords.com/?ref=EmCraven