With the increasing prevalence of ebooks, most of the press about the book industry has focused on death—the demise of Borders, the end of the print book, the eradication of reading as a popular pastime.
But here’s a fact: the book industry is growing.
More people have access to books now—phones, tablets, computers, and e-readers are all making it easy to have books on the go. And that is translating into more books being read. Some consumers are doubling, or even tripling how many books they read per year!
When you’re working on selling your book, it’s easy to think of selling in terms of competition. That one book you sell is you wrestling your way into the market, staking your claim for a small share, and wedging out someone else.
Well, that’s not how it works.
Most of the people who read books don’t read just one. They consume widely across a genre, continuously seeking out books that are similar to the ones they love.
Just like you don’t select just one M&M to eat when you open a bag, readers don’t pick just one book to read from a single genre.
Competition in the book world is not nearly as cutthroat as it is in other industries. In fact, competition helps you.
Most readers, when they love a book, on top of reading whatever else that author writes will look for books that are similar to what they just read. How many times have you looked on Goodreads or Amazon for recommendations?
Yes, a flooded market means that there’s not enough of a share for any author, but one competing author is not going to harm your sales. Ultimately, the best way to market your book is to think in terms of a broad genre, rather than stacking yourself up against specific books.
In the book industry, books that are your competition are called “comps.”
But instead of thinking of comps as competition, why not think of them as comparative titles?
Ultimately, that’s what they really are. They’re products that, once consumed, will lead readers to you. And that is a really good thing.
Many mainstream publishers ask people to list titles on a similar theme in their proposal. Many writers think; “oh, they’ll say there is too many books on the same theme, I must make mine different.” But what the publishers do is, go into their secret publisher’s list of trade figures on sales, and if it’s high, they take your book.
I couldn’t agree more. It takes me 4 months or so to produce one title in the Astro’s Adventures series. A good reader could finish one of my books in a few hours. I need children to develop strong literacy skills so they keep reading and enjoy my books as well as others. That’s why I promote other children’s authors on my blog.