As an author
, I was curious about the exact numbers of independent titles in certain genres. So, after scraping some eBook metadata from Amazon and Barnes & Noble, I compiled some interesting figures which reflect the trends of self-publishing over the last few months. Needless to say, I’m not exactly hopeful for my career as a professional raconteur. If there’s any correlation between the number of titles and general public interest, I think that my literary future might be in trouble if my subsequent title doesn’t mention blowing something other than a bridge. Consequently, my next book will be about incestual Amish centaurs who are lusty billionaires.
Peter Bolton is the author of Blowing the Bridge: A Software Story and has also been known to be a grumpy bastard on occasion.
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I love a good incestual Amish centaur story!! 🙂 do it!!
But that’s not sales, it’s titles, right? So you’ve picked the best genre, if you want to be one of 14 titles, rather than one of 22,419.
True, that is the number of books published, not the sales numbers. In that case, you’re right about standing out in a category that has less population.
However, I think that it might also tell something about the general market. In this case, I think that there is an important lesson here. It seems to indicate that people aren’t looking to read about work unless it assists with the improvement of their skills. When it doesn’t provide such advice, they are looking to escape it entirely.
You left out Interracial Romance. It’s been around for a while, however in the last few years more indie authors (of diverse races) are creating novels for the genre.There’s also Urban Romance and African American romance, genres that have a loyal readership.
I did omit a few categories, so that the list wouldn’t be too daunting in terms of its size. As you have surmised, interracial romance was one of them. However, the data does suggest that paranormal romance is squeezing out interracial romance.
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