# Underserved markets



## Mike McIntyre (Jan 19, 2011)

In many compelling KB threads lately I keep bumping into the term "underserved market" or underserved niche or underserved genre.

In the context of ebooks, what is the definition of an underserved market?

Can you give any examples of them, both current and historic?

How do you quantify underserved markets?

How quickly do they change?

Do they vary among platforms?

I figure they have something to do with supply and demand, right? Using Amazon as an example, it's easy to calculate supply by looking at the number of titles in each category and sub-category. But how do you calculate how many readers there are for each category and sub-category?

And I imagine other factors come into play, like how many books fans of one genre buy per year vs. fans of another genre, and the ratio of authors to titles within any given category/sub-category. 

Also, when you talk about writing to market, does that relate to Amazon's 29 parent categories, or are you mainly talking about identifying underserved markets within the sub-categories and sub-sub-categories of the more popular genres (Romance, MT&S, SF&F)?


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## 75845 (Jan 1, 1970)

By definition an underserved market is one in which the demand far outstrips the supply. You can guarantee that if there was an easy way to work out what was an underserved market that it would be overserved within 24 hours.


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

I've used the term quite a bit recently to describe my niche.

I make a big assumption that Amazon does not have sub and sub-subgenre lists for no reason. That the REASON they have those "bestseller" lists and "hot new release" lists is because there is a readership that grabs those books. When I sign on to Amazon for example, all it offers me is JAFF titles, including my own because my reader/family account is different than my work account, because that's what I buy.

To figure out if people are BUYING books in the sub and sub-sub genre, you want to look at overall ranking in the Paid Kindle Store. If a niche's #20 BEstseller is #20,000 in the Paid Kindle store, I know that author is seeing about 5-10 sales/borrows per day to hold that ranking. I know this because of watching sales on my titles, but BEFORE I had multiple titles to do this, I used Kindle Ranking Sales Tool to get a rough estimate. Estimate is KEY. http://kdpcalculator.com/

So like Here is the bestseller Kindle list for Police Procedurals.http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/10482/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_b_2_4_last

#20 on this list is #1,100 something in the Paid Kindle Store. that's a ranking that takes between 50-100 sales a day to hit and maintain. It's uber competitive. The Hot New Release list is equally so, it's not a genre where readers aren't getting a ton of titles. Or at least the titles they are getting are being bought my large numbers of them.

Now historical mysteries is slightly less competitive. #20 is #3000 in the Paid Kindle Store, #100 is #16,000 in the Paid Kindle Store. More importantly for a new release, the HNR list for Historical Mysteries #20 is #23,000 in the Paid Kindle Store, and #100 on the HNR list is #331,000 in the Paid Kindle Store, so just about ANY "historical mystery" with a few sales will rank on the Hot New Release list for the first 30 days it's out. That is a sign there might be room here to reach readers who are still looking for good stories to read. The higher numbers are selling well (the top 20 of the overall genre are selling well a ranking of #3,000 is a healthy number of book sold per day), and the bottom rankings show that there's not a LOT of competition.

So if someone wrote mystery and wanted to start writing a historical mystery, I would go borrow the ones that are ranked in the top 20 or sample them. Get a feel for what they're delivering to readers, then figure out how you could deliver something similar with YOUR voice and talents.


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## darkline (Mar 30, 2014)

Look at how many books are  released in the last 30 days in that sub-category. Try finding a sub-category with less than 400-500 new books a month, then look at the average rank of the bestselling Top 20. If the ranks of those bestselling books are good, the market might be underserved.


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

Another way to look too is this page: http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-eBooks/b?ie=UTF8&node=154606011

See on the left hand side how there is a count of the titles in each category? Click on the categories to drill down to where you write in general and see the disparity in total titles in each sub niche. Now, a low count might be that there's not a ton of readers who like that kind of fiction, but in many cases there are plenty of readers to support an indie author with low overhead, but maybe not enough to cover the overhead of a large publisher. Clicking on a book in that listing (which is the popular list where revenue counts towards visibility), should help you find at least one book ranking on that subniche's bestseller list. It can be tough, because the most popular book might also be ranking on the other best seller lists and AMazon only shows the top 2.


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

Elizabeth Ann West said:


> #20 on this list is #1,100 something in the Paid Kindle Store. that's a ranking that takes between 50-100 sales a day to hit and maintain.


It might just be the time of year, but it's been taking 150-200 a day to get to that ranking lately.


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

Yes, I forgot to mention that Lydniz. The overall rankings are taking more sales right now. In September, I hit #1100 with less than 100 sales a day. That put me as #1 on a sub-subgenre niche for a few hours.  Then Agatha Christie stomped me. LOL. If her mysteries can be cross listed in Historical British fiction, I say anyone can be cross listed.


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Just looked at that link.  There are almost 500 spots between#8 and #13.    There are only about 100 between 13 and 20.  
Don't look at the prices.


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

Actually, I got it wrong - it's 100-150 (I mistakenly counted all markets), but the general point still stands.


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

Sorry THIS is the KINDLE bestselling police procedural list: http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Kindle-Store-Police-Procedurals/zgbs/digital-text/157318011/ref=zg_bs_nav_kstore_4_157307011 the other link is overall, which includes things like paperbacks and audio sales.


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## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Just think about those books you loved, went out to get something just like it and found nada.


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

Just to give a quick glance at overall ranking. . . BCM is #27,000 right now in the paid kindle store. It's not KU, so there's no ghost borrow action going on.  

Last 7 days of sales on .com alone:
12/28 - 8
12/29 - 9
12/30 - 9
12/31 - 3
1/1 - 4
1/2 - 9
and today it has 4 sales so far. 

So if you're trying to figure out right now how many sales it might take to hit certain rankings, there's my little slice.


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## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

Vaalingrade said:


> Just think about those books you loved, went out to get something just like it and found nada.


Yes.

In some sense, I think that "underserved" is a misnomer -- in this modern internet age, people are serving themselves just fine. They find old books or amateur (i.e. fanfic type) books or tv or movies, or whatever.

It would probably be a better term to say "under-exploited" but that sounds bad. Basically these tend to be groups that are small (niche groups), and hard to "exploit" (in that they don't look for their books on bestseller or new book lists and are utterly immune to marketing).

So unless you are a member of the group, and are writing stuff they want to read because you yourself are looking for it, then they are likely going to be low return on investment.

Which is why these groups are underserved and underexploited in the first place.

Camille


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## darkline (Mar 30, 2014)

Lydniz said:


> Actually, I got it wrong - it's 100-150 (I mistakenly counted all markets), but the general point still stands.


Yeah, I have a book with the rank around #1000 and it sells ~150 a day. It definitely used to require less books.


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## gorvnice (Dec 29, 2010)

darkline said:


> Look at how many books are released in the last 30 days in that sub-category. Try finding a sub-category with less than 400-500 new books a month, then look at the average rank of the bestselling Top 20. If the ranks of those bestselling books are good, the market might be underserved.


I haven't exactly done this, but I think it's a fantastic idea.


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## Mike McIntyre (Jan 19, 2011)

Elizabeth Ann West said:


> I've used the term quite a bit recently to describe my niche.
> 
> I make a big assumption that Amazon does not have sub and sub-subgenre lists for no reason. That the REASON they have those "bestseller" lists and "hot new release" lists is because there is a readership that grabs those books. When I sign on to Amazon for example, all it offers me is JAFF titles, including my own because my reader/family account is different than my work account, because that's what I buy.
> 
> ...


Fascinating! I spent half the afternoon yesterday recording the overall store rankings of #1 and #100 for each of Amazon's 29 main categories. Apart from ordering the categories according to the distance between 1 and 100 (Fiction & Literature had the narrowest gap, and Foreign Languages had the widest), I didn't know what to make of those numbers. I now see it's more relevant to look at them within the subcats and sub-subcats. Plus, I didn't even know about those hot new releases lists.

My category, btw, is almost at the bottom in terms of the overall store ranking between 1 and 100. The #100 travel title currently ranks around #24,000 in the overall paid Kindle store. Underserved or not enough readers?


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## dirtiestdevil (Aug 20, 2014)

darkline said:


> Look at how many books are released in the last 30 days in that sub-category. Try finding a sub-category with less than 400-500 new books a month, then look at the average rank of the bestselling Top 20. If the ranks of those bestselling books are good, the market might be underserved.


Where do you look to see how many new books have been released for a particular category?


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## Mike McIntyre (Jan 19, 2011)

dirtiestdevil said:


> Where do you look to see how many new books have been released for a particular category?


On the left of the main Kindle store page you can navigate among categories/subcategories by New Releases, both 30 and 90 days.


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## Briteka (Mar 5, 2012)

With regards to Amazon, underserved markets are places where it's easy to chart.

Let's take a random made up subcategory of romance and call it Clowns. In order to chart in this underserved Clown category, you need a lot fewer sales than other categories. Let's say the book sitting at 10th place on the Best Seller List for Romance/Clowns is only ranked 68000 in the overall store.

Let's say your Romance/Clowns book can also fit in the New Adult category. If you look at that category, you'll see that the book sitting at 100 on the Best Seller List is sitting at 1000 in the overall store (made up numbers). That means your book will be able to chart in Romance/Clowns a lot easier than it will in New Adult, meaning that you'll get a lot more visibility in Romance/Clowns than you will New Adult.

Usually it's a good idea to target underserved markets. But there are times when underserved markets are underserved because they don't have a large audience. Still, I've found that being the king/queen of your small underserved market is usually better than being a small fish in an ocean with millions of readers.


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## gorvnice (Dec 29, 2010)

Mike McIntyre said:


> The #100 travel title currently ranks around #24,000 in the overall paid Kindle store. Underserved or not enough readers?


I'd be curious to know what the #10 or #20 travel title ranks in the overall store. But if they are ranked like 15,000 or 13,000, then&#8230;sounds to me like not enough readers unless you plan to do an extreme amount of volume to compensate for the smaller audience.


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## Lydniz (May 2, 2013)

Briteka said:


> Let's take a random made up subcategory of romance and call it Clowns.


That sounds more like some really niche taboo subcategory of erotica.


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## Mike McIntyre (Jan 19, 2011)

gorvnice said:


> I'd be curious to know what the #10 or #20 travel title ranks in the overall store. But if they are ranked like 15,000 or 13,000, then...sounds to me like not enough readers unless you plan to do an extreme amount of volume to compensate for the smaller audience.


Travel #10 is #3226 overall, and Travel #20 is #5998


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## gorvnice (Dec 29, 2010)

Mike McIntyre said:


> Travel #10 is #3226 overall, and Travel #20 is #5998


Well, I think that shows you that you need to be able to essentially be at the very top of that particular niche in order to accrue a consistently decent amount of sales on a per book basis.

However, if you can make up for it in volume, it's possible that you could sell well enough in aggregate. But I don't know if the readership will support it, or if you think it's possible to create volume for that group. Their preferences need to be analyzed, as well as whether you can write shorter work, etc.


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## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

Also, a lot of underserved markets aren't going to be represented by a category list.

Let's take Steampunk for example. The vast, vast majority of Steampunk books right now are about monsters. It's vampires or werewolves (usually both) in a Steampunk setting. And that's fine. I love Carringer and Saintcrow.

But.

There is a full-on Steampunk subculture and by and large, they barely read Steampunk work because the subculture itself is not about those elements. They are more about 1890's society (with a few anachronisms) and the tech.

If you can write a Steampunk book that is about those things instead of the monsters, you can crack that market open like an egg filled with money and brass.

But you are never going to discover this by checking Amazon or any other retailer because Steampunk is not yet officially broken up into subgenres. But trust me, there are people out there every day searching 'steampunk' and praying in vain to find something not crawling with zombies to buy.

To find them, you need to enter the fandoms and communities for the kind of thing you want to write and discover what they're yearning for.


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## JRHolmes (Mar 6, 2014)

That is so good to hear, Vaalingrade (he says as he continues to work on his 1880s adventure story).


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## Mike McIntyre (Jan 19, 2011)

Vaalingrade said:


> Also, a lot of underserved markets aren't going to be represented by a category list.
> 
> Let's take Steampunk for example. The vast, vast majority of Steampunk books right now are about monsters. It's vampires or werewolves (usually both) in a Steampunk setting. And that's fine. I love Carringer and Saintcrow.
> 
> ...


There is a steampunk sub sub-cat under Science Fiction & Fantasy with 2,398 titles:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_n_17?fst=as%3Aoff&rh=n%3A133140011%2Cn%3A%21133141011%2Cn%3A154606011%2Cn%3A668010011%2Cn%3A158591011%2Cn%3A6361472011&bbn=158591011&ie=UTF8&qid=1420323661&rnid=158591011


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## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

No, I mean there are no sub cats of Steampunk.

See, Steampunk... is more of a setting than a genre--but it's also a genre. Most steampunk is Victorian Urban Fantasy [Gaslight Fantasy] or Weird West in a Steampunk setting rather than just plain old steampunk. Buuuut, it all gets dumped into the big 'Steampunk' bin.

Imagine if the Fantasy category was JUST Fantasy and you'll see the problem.


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## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

Mike McIntyre said:


> There is a steampunk sub sub-cat under Science Fiction & Fantasy with 2,398 titles:


Yes.... but you missed what Vaalingrade was saying.

The key thing was easy to miss: the vast majority (the underserved part of the demographic) of Steampunk fans DO NOT LOOK at Amazon lists for books they like, because the top of the list is all vampires and werewolves. Publishing has been treating them as an offshoot of urban fantasy, and they aren't.

Many are drifting into Dieselpunk because even though the period is wrong, it's more about what interests them than what passes for "steampunk" these days. And some read regular historical romance rather than in category, again because it gives them more of what they are looking for.

While it's true you can get ranking in those "underserved" genres easier, it's only because ranking doesn't mean much there. If ranking could help you sell books to that demographic, then it would not be underserved. But ranking doesn't help, because the under-served part of the audience isn't looking there.

The other part of what Vaalingrade said -- about genres and subcultures that don't have a category (or have only badly labeled semi-related categories -- such as traditional mystery) -- is true. There are a few areas where, if Amazon put a label on it, people could find the authors better. But mostly, the reason there isn't a category is because the market drives categories, and underserved populations tend to not be market drivers.

Camille


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## Mike McIntyre (Jan 19, 2011)

Vaalingrade said:


> No, I mean there are no sub cats of Steampunk.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Sorry. Thanks for clarifying.


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## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

daringnovelist said:


> The other part of what Vaalingrade said -- about genres and subcultures that don't have a category (or have only badly labeled semi-related categories -- such as traditional mystery) -- is true. There are a few areas where, if Amazon put a label on it, people could find the authors better. But mostly, the reason there isn't a category is because the market drives categories, and underserved populations tend to not be market drivers.


Story time!

Superhero used to ONLY be part of Graphic Novels for a very long time. Therefore, you would have to check there for completely prose works like 'In Superhero years, I'm Dead' by Stackpole

In November 2013, the BISAC added Superhero as a subgenre of Fiction right alongside Sci-Fi and Fantasy. This is where it belongs.

...In August of 2013 though, Amazon had already added the category... TO FANTASY. To this day, I still have to inform bewildered readers of my serial that for some reason, if they want to find Superheroes on Amazon, you need to look for hobbits and elves.

Thank god I'm in the Pen and Cape Society, I just point them to our member section now.


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

jAFF is like that. We find it by searching mr Darcy or Jane Austen variation, there is not Bestseller list for it so the books are scattered across half a dozen genre categories or more. Sorry on phone shutting it off now to watch football lol.


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## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

Vaalingrade said:


> Thank god I'm in the Pen and Cape Society, I just point them to our member section now.


And that's a great example of how you reach those underserved groups -- you have to go where they are, because it's not worth their time to go look in the standard places.

Camille


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## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

Chick lit has that same problem. No real category of their own. Most end up in Humour or Romantic Comedy. Would love to figure out how to connect with chick lit readers. I'm finding a few, but not as many as I think I could. :/

Rue


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

Chicklit is another genre that was a hot trend and then suddenly abandoned by trad pub. 

One problem for that genre is the readership grew up. I bought every pastel published paperback at Barnes and Noble and they sit on my shelves now in my 20s. Now I'm in my 30s with kids, a mortgage, and a marriage that takes work (don't they all?  ) So "chick lit" where the hero is a mid-twenties figuring out her life is going to resonate with a different readership. Anecdotally, when I was an Assistant Director at a daycare earlier this year, I was 10-15 years older than my staff. They all read those light funny stories on their phones on Wattpad. When I pointed out the books were on Amazon and Nook etc. they went "Oooh, didn't know that." 

For some genres, the loss of book stores is going to be a very big deal. My genre was online swapping stories since the Internet was born. JAFF doesn't need a book store. But I could see how chicklit could flounder.

There are some blogs though, check out chicklitisnotdead.

Never mind they closed that blog. Well that's not a good sign.


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## ruecole (Jun 13, 2012)

Elizabeth Ann West said:


> Chicklit is another genre that was a hot trend and then suddenly abandoned by trad pub.
> 
> One problem for that genre is the readership grew up. I bought every pastel published paperback at Barnes and Noble and they sit on my shelves now in my 20s. Now I'm in my 30s with kids, a mortgage, and a marriage that takes work (don't they all?  ) So "chick lit" where the hero is a mid-twenties figuring out her life is going to resonate with a different readership. Anecdotally, when I was an Assistant Director at a daycare earlier this year, I was 10-15 years older than my staff. They all read those light funny stories on their phones on Wattpad. When I pointed out the books were on Amazon and Nook etc. they went "Oooh, didn't know that."
> 
> ...


Thanks, Elizabeth. 

Yes, chick lit was killed by big publishing. It's still around, but aside from Sophie Kinsella and a few others, it's largely being self-published. I just wish there was an Amazon category it fit into. I think it would really help not only my books, but the other self-pubbing chick lit authors.

I've never tried Wattpad, maybe I should give it a go?

Thanks!

Rue


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## Moist_Tissue (Dec 6, 2013)

Oh my goodness. I have been watching Street Lit for a while. I think this is a category where readers are hungry for well-crafted books.


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## Sapphire (Apr 24, 2012)

Moist_Tissue said:


> Oh my goodness. I have been watching Street Lit for a while. I think this is a category where readers are hungry for well-crafted books.


Would you define Street Lit for me?


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## Moist_Tissue (Dec 6, 2013)

African American Urban Fiction.


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## storyteller (Feb 3, 2014)

Oh, like Terry McMillan?  I haven't really kept up with her writing career of late though I read a fair amount of it when I was much younger.


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## Maggie Dana (Oct 26, 2011)

Then there's the tween market ... and thank goodness I don't have to ask a bookstore to shelve my horse books for upper middle-grade/tween readers. They would throw up their hands.


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## Moist_Tissue (Dec 6, 2013)

Hutchinson said:


> Oh, like Terry McMillan? I haven't really kept up with her writing career of late though I read a fair amount of it when I was much younger.


No. The name Street Lit really does paint an accurate picture. It's about the gritty street life within the urban Black community. You'll read about drug cartels, gangs, and that lifestyle.


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## storyteller (Feb 3, 2014)

Uhh, I guess I just see that as a subset of crime fiction, I have read lots of 70s and 80s pulp along those lines.  The book versions of movies like Empire and New Jack City.


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## Sylvia R. Frost (Jan 8, 2014)

Important thing to remember. You have to a find a genre where it's easy to get on the first page but hard to be the #1 spot. If the #1 spot isn't selling well, it could mean the audience just isn't there yet.


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## eleanorberesford (Dec 22, 2014)

This is fascinating.

So, the main genres for my two pen names (both yet to publish):
Teen gay and lesbian fiction:
#20: #55,237. We're looking at less than a sale a day.
#1: #11,580: 1-10 sales a day.

This suggests not so much underserved as something to write for love, not money. Well, at least it keeps my  expectations realistic. (Just for fun, I am at #94 without having released yet, on the strength of 14 pre-orders.)

Same book, taking the different genre route to YA coming of age fantasy:
#20: #2,587, 30-55
#1: #148, 300-550.
The huge leap between 1 and 20 suggest to me that maybe people aren't searching under it at all. (The #1 is also #1 in Arthurian and Myths & Legends.) And I don't know how well my little book would do there.

Now, my other pen name has kind of different (but equally sincere) interests. Let's look at Christian Inspirational Historical Romances. I'm a complicated woman.

#20: #18,387, 1-10 a day.
#1: #641, 100-300 per day.

Still a big leap, and still not a huge selling genre by any means, but it does offer a few more sparkles of financial hope.

Good thing I'm a "write what you love" kind of girl, huh?


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## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

Sylvia R. Frost said:


> Important thing to remember. You have to a find a genre where it's easy to get on the first page but hard to be the #1 spot. If the #1 spot isn't selling well, it could mean the audience just isn't there yet.


That's an interesting observation. I would say, though, that if there is only one author who is hitting number one, and then a huge gap between that person and the rest, that the category still isn't hot. The book is probably selling via another category.

But I also think that your principle probably applies just as well, or even better, if you look across the whole top 100. Or even just top 60. A category which, in general, has a larger gap in ranking between the top and bottom (or middle) of the list should be an opportunity.

Camille


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## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

Hutchinson said:


> In African-American Historical Fiction, I'm still hanging out in the top 100 HNR list and I am as of this comment still in the top 100 for that subcategory. But #1 is an Amazon Publishing new release that is also #70 (ebook sales only) across the whole Kindle store. And #20 for the subcategory ranks about 29000 or so.
> 
> Separate from that, everything's about slavery (rounding up, there's a smattering that is literal porn about slavery and also a little bit of civil rights era fiction). So just not being about slavery means my (very) short story stands out. It is also something to consider with subcats-- what is everyone focused on writing about? There's clearly some (sales) opportunity to write about black history that isn't slavery-focused. By timeline, I'm technically in the "civil rights era fiction" wheel house, and there's almost nothing there and what is there sells pretty briskly (15k or so rankings are typical, as are being in the top 10-15 for the subcategory.
> 
> In conclusion, I guess I'd better change my cover to look more sepia (seriously, it's all sepia in that category, lol).


The thing is, if the category is thin on your subject, then it's possible that people interested in your subject aren't looking there.

And this is true across the boards -- if your audience is starved and eager for content, and they aren't finding it in the Amazon categories and lists, they have likely gone elsewhere. So once we use the lists to find a niche, then we have to go find where the audience is.

Camille


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## Lefevre (Feb 1, 2014)

Moist_Tissue said:


> No. The name Street Lit really does paint an accurate picture. It's about the gritty street life within the urban Black community. You'll read about drug cartels, gangs, and that lifestyle.


StreetLit=Donald Goines... He dominated this "market" 1969 through 1974... He has an interesting back story as well, but his stuff is quite offensive to our modern sensibilities.


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## Briteka (Mar 5, 2012)

eleanorberesford said:


> This is fascinating.
> 
> So, the main genres for my two pen names (both yet to publish):
> Teen gay and lesbian fiction:
> ...


I didn't know Teen Gay was a category!

Most gay fiction isn't going to be placed there. It's going to go in the overall gay category, which is very competitive.


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## storyteller (Feb 3, 2014)

daringnovelist said:


> The thing is, if the category is thin on your subject, then it's possible that people interested in your subject aren't looking there.
> 
> And this is true across the boards -- if your audience is starved and eager for content, and they aren't finding it in the Amazon categories and lists, they have likely gone elsewhere. So once we use the lists to find a niche, then we have to go find where the audience is.
> 
> Camille


If Tyler Perry could, I guess anyone can.


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## Will C. Brown (Sep 24, 2013)

Moist_Tissue said:


> African American Urban Fiction.


I thought about getting into that. My first novelette "LaTonya and Terrell" was an attempt, but I just didn't quite capture it. I'm just not urban enough. 
I do agree that the genre could use some really well written work. I see lots of reviews criticizing the lack of editing that some of those books have.


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## Moist_Tissue (Dec 6, 2013)

I think Street Lit is a fine example of how mainstream publishing has failed to meet the demand of POC readers. Many Indie authors are trying to meet the demand, but they may lack the polish that readers expect. Publishers and agents aren't in the business to help these authors. For them, they want something that needs minimal tweeking.


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

JRHolmes said:


> That is so good to hear, Vaalingrade (he says as he continues to work on his 1880s adventure story).


Keywords are ... key here in allowing readers to find you. Some suggested keywords:

steampunk 1880s adventure story Victorian historical fiction


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## Will C. Brown (Sep 24, 2013)

Moist_Tissue said:


> I think Street Lit is a fine example of how mainstream publishing has failed to meet the demand of POC readers. Many Indie authors are trying to meet the demand, but they may lack the polish that readers expect. Publishers and agents aren't in the business to help these authors. For them, they want something that needs minimal tweeking.


I agree 100%


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## JRHolmes (Mar 6, 2014)

Thanks Cerise for the pointers about how keywords can help with identifying the genre a bit more clearly.


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## Cherise (May 13, 2012)

JRHolmes said:


> Thanks Cerise for the pointers about how keywords can help with identifying the genre a bit more clearly.


You're welcome, but the keywords aren't going to define the genre. No one is going to see them.

What the keywords will do is enable readers to find your book.


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## Vaalingrade (Feb 19, 2013)

JRHolmes said:


> That is so good to hear, Vaalingrade (he says as he continues to work on his 1880s adventure story).


Let me know when you have it up and I'll give it a shout to some of my peeps in the culture.


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## Mark E. Cooper (May 29, 2011)

Cherise Kelley said:


> Keywords are ... key here in allowing readers to find you. Some suggested keywords:
> 
> steampunk 1880s adventure story Victorian historical fiction


I would love to read some proper steampunk. Unfortunately, when I search at amz.co.uk using your keywords I get these:

Treasure Island (Bantam Classic)30 Mar 2004
by Robert Louis Stevenson

Masculinities in British Adventure Fiction, 1880-191528 Apr 2013
by Joseph A. Kestner


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## JRHolmes (Mar 6, 2014)

Looks like someone else is looking at underserved markets. http://www.amarketingexpert.com/secret-book-categories-amazon/

Interesting to see that she makes some of the same points as have been made here.


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## RicardoFayet (Nov 12, 2014)

> By definition an underserved market is one in which the demand far outstrips the supply. You can guarantee that if there was an easy way to work out what was an underserved market that it would be overserved within 24 hours.


That's the truth of it. So the only way to find out is to have a go at it. Here's a good post by author Ben Galley on what he thinks is an underserved market (Western Fantasy, or "Weird West"): http://fantasy-faction.com/2015/western-fantasy-mismatch-or-perfect-match

I guess that's how you find an underserved market: you have an intuition, you want to write in that niche, and you go for it. I'm not sure there's a lot of those left, but, hey, there's no way to know until many try and fail or some succeed.


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## jegarlick (Jun 23, 2013)

Vaalingrade said:


> Also, a lot of underserved markets aren't going to be represented by a category list.
> 
> Let's take Steampunk for example. The vast, vast majority of Steampunk books right now are about monsters. It's vampires or werewolves (usually both) in a Steampunk setting. And that's fine. I love Carringer and Saintcrow.
> 
> ...


Hmmmmm... runs to figure out randoms and communities as said Steampunk Series is not about monsters...but machines vs. man...and a political love story.


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