Ebook sales are being driven by downmarket genre fiction

[DonaldL.]

Ebook sales are being driven by downmarket genre fiction

The ebook world is driven by so-called genre fiction, categories such as horror or romance. It's not future classics that push digital sales, but more downmarket fare. No cliche is left unturned, no adjective underplayed. At the time of writing, the bestselling Amazon Kindle book was Asylum Harbor, by Traci Hohenstein. Crime sells. Try a sample, I dare you. In digital, dross rises. But does this have implications for publishers' decision-making, as we increasingly migrate?

Price is a big driver of digital sales. Self-publishing authors have cannily priced themselves into the game. Publishers watched the demise of the music and newspaper industries. Should they keep prices high and differentiate their wares from the unedited efforts of the self-published? Should they cut prices for ebooks and risk accelerating the decline of print?

[wyndslash]

admittedly, cliches are addicting ) they feed that part of my soul that likes cheap thrills )

[AndrewH]

There is a literary snobbishness at play here, clearly.

No! Really?

[speakingtohe]

Good article I thought. Obviously pushed a lot of buttons judging from the comments.

It is (to me a bit tongue in cheek IMO but entertaining and well researched. I am referring to the lack of substantative data supplied by publishers.

Was especially amused by comment stating that authors picture showed her reading on an IPad. Nowhere in the article did she say she owned one so why should she read on one and where did it say in the article that she was.


Helen

[ATDrake]

Hey, if being downmarket makes decent-quality sf/fantasy/historical mystery more widely available at lower prices vs those high-brow litfic/thriller NY Times official bestsellers, I'm all for it.

I only wish what I read could be had as readily and cheaply and on such good terms as all those Harlequin/Mills & Boon/Samhain/Ellora's Cave e-books are generally offered for.

It's like a win-win. People who want to pretend they're reading only the deeply meaningful serious books can hide their library on an e-reader, and perhaps fewer overtly trashy paper books needing to be printed will result in a drop in the sad and wasteful deaths of trees.

I see no immediately visible downside to this trend (unless the publishers of said downmarket genres decide to jack up the prices, since they're apparently making very good sales from the demand).

[teh603]

Anyone who wants to write a "future classic" needs to have their head examined. That's the kind of boring tripe that gets recycled endlessly though middle and high school English classes. I'd rather write someone's guilty pleasure or cult classic.

[spindlegirl]

I am going to out myself as someone who likes easy reading fiction. Yes, I do like and read a lot of classics but occasionally zoning out to the tune of a romance novel is something i do quite often too. And yeah, e-readers are indeed making it easier for people to buy and read what they like. Nothin wrong with that.

[Apache]

And why do you think cliche's turn up so much?
Apache

[speakingtohe]

Nothing wrong with romances. I would probably read a book in the elf bonks troll genre as well if time permits. Just haven't noticed that many of them out there as I tend to shy away from straight out erotica. Not condemning it, but meh.

Still I like the article.

Helen

[SteveEisenberg]

There are three aspects of the OP article I liked. One, Ms. Senior admitted to the snobbery charge. Second, she admitted to herself being a semi-secret downmarket reader. And, third, any urge she may have had to blame it on the malign influence of my own country -- for example, by describing the disparaged Christian fiction as American Christian fiction -- was successfully resisted.

As to whether Antonia Senior is correct, evidence for drawing our own conclusions is here:

New York Times Bestseller Lists

Comparing the eBook and paper non-fiction lists, I am having a hard time seeing any systematic difference. One can hypothesize that people who are politically conservative are more likely to buy paper. But that may be a coincidence based on just two titles that do better in paper than eBook (Ameritopia, American Sniper).

As for fiction, I'm not familiar enough with those authors to evalulate the New York Times lists. Does anyone here who would know see any systematic difference between the eBook fiction and paper fiction bestsellers?

[SensualPoet]

Nothing wrong with the article but it didn't add anything to the conversation we didn't already know ... which is that we don't know enough because those who do know aren't telling.

[SensualPoet]

Genre sells -- this is nothing new. Harlequin and its affiliate Mills and Boon have literally built an industry and fortunes on selling pulp romance for the past few decades. Crime fiction (which used to be mysteries) are enormously popular in print as they are on TV; an earlier age enjoyed westerns. Now we also have vampires peeking out from every corner and, as the article mentioned, something called Christian fiction particularly serving the US market.

The good news is publishers are getting a handle on pricing through experiments in these categories which ought to lead to better choice and more equitable pricing down the road.

[RainingLemur]

Cheap tricks get easy attention. I fall victim to them quite often enough. Keep the cliches coming.

[speakingtohe]

What are these cheap tricks you mention. Perhaps I have fallen prey to them and still don't notice them. Well probably I do as I often buy stuff I don't need.

Helen

[xg4bx]

downmarket genres sell well in digital because genres like horror and science fiction are dead at retail.

i don't know why peoples reading tastes are a source of embarrassment. they'll openly admit to loving tripe in every other entertainment media but for some reason what they like to read is a dirty little secret. don't tell me you love adam sandler movies while sneering at my zombie novels.

unless you consider someone like cormac mccarthy literary fiction, you will never find it in my home. you will never find a biography, history book or non-fiction work(i do have a few books left from when i went through a civil war phase) on my shelves. what you will find on my shelves and in my kindle are horror, science fiction, and fantasy. i don't want to read about a middle aged woman's journey of self-discovery or what some bougie stranger's list tells me is good, i want to read about space marines, zombies, ship to ship combat in space, warriors fighting dragons, people being savaged by monsters, etc.

life is too short for me to give even an iota of a rat's behind what people think of my entertainment choices.

and to the authors of the "trash" i enjoy: keep up the good work.