Dark fiction and speculative fiction in
general tends to go in cycles. Certain genres, or subgenres become popular,
rise to the top and stay there for a period of time while others languish not
doing so well. Trying to time this and write for the market is difficult unless
you are either especially good at spotting trends ahead of time, or get some
inside information from agents/publishers who are looking for specific types of
stories.
Speculative fiction, and especially that of
the darker edge is going through somewhat of a transformation. During the 80s
horror was the biggest genre, selling millions of copies by authors such as
Stephen King, Clive Barker, James Herbert et al. But during the 90s and the
2000s horror and the darker genres slipped down. Urban Fantasy, and Paranormal
Romance has seemingly taken its place in the charts and the consciousness of
readers. This is mainly due to the successes of the Twilight, True Blood, and
Vampire Diaries types of books/shows.
So, as a writer of dark fiction, how does
one go about marketing their work? And what markets are left open?
The bad news is that all out horror and
some of the darker sub genres still aren’t selling all that well in the
mainstream publications. Most of the magazines that serve horror no longer
exist, or if they do, they are relegated to a small audience as e-zines. Even
traditional publishing houses aren’t putting a lot of stock in horror. Sci-Fi
and Fantasy are seemingly grabbing the lion’s share of publishing capital
within dark genre.
However, bad news aside, there is still a
lot of hope and a lot of opportunity for the dark fiction writers.
There are two main ways of publishing your
work. The first being the small independent presses. There are a numbers of
these (list of a few below) that actively seek out the darker work. Being a
smaller press has both its advantages and disadvantages for the author.
Advantages:
-
Easier to approach.
-
They are usually quicker to
react to changes within the industry
-
They have closer relationships
with their authors
-
They often make limited runs of
exclusive editions
Disadvantages:
-
Don’t pay as well as the big
houses
-
Often can’t cope as well with
slush piles
-
Lack resources to really push
an author
However, disadvantages aside, it can be a
great experience working with a small press, and for first time published
authors it makes sense to approach these first. You’ll learn about publishing
and you’ll get that all important publishing credit on your CV. Some of these small
presses have a big name and carry a lot of weight, so definitely don’t discount
these out of hand.
The second way of getting your work out
there is to self-publish. Now, I’m not necessarily saying paying thousands of
pounds to have printed copies made and you sell them door-to-door. No, in this
day and age, ePublishing has become a great leveler. With a little time and
effort you can have you book on Amazon, iBooks, Barnes and Noble and
Smashwords. As with anything, there are
advantages and disadvantages to this too.
Advantages:
-
Freedom to write what you want
-
Freedom to solicit your own
editor, designer, formatter
-
You keep all the profit
-
You keep the rights to your
work
-
Sense of achievement
Disadvantages:
-
You have to do everything and
are responsible for everything.
-
Your sales might not be what
you expect
-
The promotion takes up a lot of
time, and requires diligence
-
Some authors rush in too
quickly with material not ready
The best way to mitigate the disadvantages
is to seek out a good freelance editor to work on your book/story. Also, if you
belong to a writing group (and you really should), have them critique or beta
your work to iron out any main issues. You only want to publish your best work.
Don’t be cheap and stick up anything, it will reflect on you and damage your
sales/reputation.
In terms of promoting your work, that’s a
huge subject and you can find lots of useful information by researching
marketing, but a few easy(ish) ways to promote your work are:
-
Use twitter to connect with
other writers and readers. Get to know them, but don’t push your work too much,
the sales and interest will come naturally.
-
Post sample chapters on your
website. You absolutely have to have a website, there is no getting around
that.
-
Blog regularly. Talk often
about your book’s characters, any interesting information you’ve found during
research and personal anecdotes.
-
Setup a Facebook page and posts
snippets of the artwork, and sample chapters. Again, add people, talk to them, and
get to know them.
-
Join the various Kindle forums.
They are full of great people looking to help you and promote your work (in
return for your help – collaboration is what the internet social networks are
all about.)
-
Send ‘advances reader copies’
ARCs to book bloggers. You have to research these to make sure the blogger
reads the kind of book you have written and like any submission, include a
covering email introducing yourself and your book. Be professional and be
polite.
If you love your work, and are prepared to
put some effort in, there’s no reason why you can’t see your dark fiction in
print or ebooks. Good luck.
Resources:
-
Thank you Colin, if anyone has any questions, or any market news they would like to add, please leave a comment.
