Fantasy or Science Fiction?

Source: http://authorearnings.com/sfwa2018/

The above chart has me re-thinking my marketing plans for Beneath the Lanterns. It is from Author Earnings’ presentation to the 2018 SFWA Nebula Conference (The complete presentation here: http://authorearnings.com/sfwa2018/ ) The chart breaks down the sales of fantasy books by sub-genre and who is selling them. Below is the same chart for science fiction. Together, they’ve given me much to think about.

source; http://authorearnings.com/sfwa2018/

My goal for this year’s novel was to write a novel that could be marketed to potential new readers -- fantasy readers, since I knew that fantasy was significantly more popular than science fiction. (And these two charts certainly prove that it is, indeed, the case.) What I didn’t know was why fantasy was more popular. The chart above tells us why. Vampires.

Urban and paranormal fantasy dominate fantasy sales. And while I’m sure the readers of fantasy read books in more than just one particular sub-genre, I've a feeling that Beneath the Lanterns has little appeal to vampire book readers. Epic fantasy, the second most popular sub-genre, concerns itself with great events, empires falling or clashing, great evil or black magic arising, often with many characters, and stories spanning generations -- in short, the polar opposite of Beneath the Lanterns and the types of stories I write. Taking these two readerships off the table, the fantasy market looks pretty much like science fiction.

In writing Beneath the Lanterns, I ignored a lot of the common fantasy tropes, and turned a few on their head. Indeed, I'd a hard time finding its place it in any of the many sup-genres of Fantasy.

(See the list here: http://bestfantasybooks.com/fantasy-genre.php ) My story is a fantasy because it is an adventure set in an imaginary land, a land without magic, trolls, or vampires. The most appropriate sub-genre in fantasy for the novel looks to be action & adventure, which is number 13 on the list with about 1 million copy sales. Adventure in science fiction clocks in at number two with sales of 3.7 million... So... I’m re-thinking my marketing plan.

I could market Beneath the Lanterns as either a fantasy or as a science fiction adventure. When I constructed the world for the story, I did so on a science fiction basis and laced it with little clues suggesting this -- just for my amusement. The clues have no bearing on the story. Nevertheless I, or  a reader who discovers what I did knows more about the world than the narrator, making the story science fiction. On the other hand, if the reader takes the story as told by the narrator, as I intended, it is a fantasy -- an adventure on an imaginary world. While I wrote the story as a fantasy (and not as a puzzle) this underlying science fiction premise allows me to list it as either fantasy or science fiction, or both. At Amazon I think I can list two genre. The question then would be, what category is the primary one?

Nothing is simple. The popularity of a category doesn’t necessarily translate into more sales since there is more competition. Steampunk has the number 18 slot on the SF list with sales of maybe half a million, while space opera has the fifth position with sales of perhaps 2.7 million. My steampunk book, A Summer in Amber has sold around 5,000 copies, while my space opera, The Bright Black Sea has sold around 8,000 copies. Part of the reason for the totals not reflecting the six to one genre balance is that, The Bright Black Sea was released six months later and has spent six months on the paid list as well. Still, that's not the whole story. This month, for example, the two are selling just about the same. The more likely reason is that in a less populated sub-genre like steampunk, A Summer in Amber is always in the top 100 list of free steampunk books, while The Bright Black Sea bobs in and out of the space opera list. In a market with millions of products, visibility is the key to sales. So even if fantasy adventure is far less popular than science fiction adventure, the book might well be more visible in fantasy than in science fiction and, as a result, sell better. 

The book is what it is, that’s not going to change. It is only the marketing that has yet to be decided upon. I'll look into what sort of overall rank in Amazon's free book list books need to reach the top 100 lists in either genre, and then decide just how to market Beneath the Lanterns.