Six months ago I released my 2023 novel, The Girl on the Kerb. Until this book all my books had been released as either science fiction or fantasy. I used SF mostly as a setting for the story. By doing so, it allowed me the ability to write the story I wanted, as I wanted it, without somehow shoehorning it into a known time and place. Even though my stories were set in the future, many of the settings I chose to use have been reminiscent of life in the first half of the 1900's. I seem partial to that historical period, perhaps having read a lot of stories set in that time period. The Girl on the Kerb was no exception. Though set in the far distant future, the society was reminiscent of the 1930's, with radio, newspapers, trains and cars, but no cell phones, internet, and personal computers. This being the case, I decided to release the book based not on its setting in the far future, i.e. as SF, but on the major plot element of the story, which is to say, as an espionage novel.
There were both pluses and minuses in doing this. Let's look at them.
On the plus side, I was pretty sure that my regular readers would find the book no matter what category I released it in, so that I did not expect to lose many, if any, regular fans. On the other hand, by releasing the book in a new genre, I could potentially reach new readers. And some of these readers might go on to read more of my other books.
In the minus column there were several points to consider related to these potential new readers. Espionage is not a standalone classification. It falls under the "Thriller" classification, i.e. Thriller/espionage, and Thriller/adventure. I hadn't written a thriller in The Girl on the Kerb unless there is a "cozy thriller" sub-genre. This meant that hardcore thriller readers were not going to find many of the things they usually look for in a thriller; violence, guns, death, sex, and high stakes. In addition they would be on unfamiliar ground, since the story was not set the familiar modern world but in the future. The question was/is how would they react to these twists in the genre? There seemed a good chance that I could annoy at least some of the regular readers of the genre and risk being hit with low ratings as a result. I decided to take that risk.
So how has it gone, after six months?
First off, it enjoyed some very unexpected sales. I can't definitely assign this result to releasing it as an espionage novel, it is probably serendipitous, but I never sold so many books in the first month as I did with The Girl on the Kerb. I released it as I usually do; free everywhere except on Amazon, where I priced it at $3.99. I had the ebook up on preorder for a month, and sold 17 copies at that price in the first week, which was very good for a book of mine. However, within a week Amazon caught wind of the free price elsewhere and decided to match the free price. This was fine with me. I used to let them know about my free prices elsewhere just to get them to do that, but I don't bother any more. Anyway, the switch to free resulted in the sale of several hundred books in a couple of days, which, in turn, seems to have caught the attention of Amazon's promotional algorisms and they must have promoted it somewhere, somehow. It ended up selling 2,610 free copies on Amazon in April. Sales tapered off after that, of course, with monthly sales of 165, 193, 76, 108, only to spike again in September with 864 free copies and 2 at full price (i.e. non-US sales). Which means that in its first six months, I've sold a total of 4,035 copies on Amazon and the book has remained on the upper half of Amazons top 100 free thrillers in its categories ever since release. All told, I've sold over 4,600 copies to date. My usual releases may sell around 1,000 in their first year, at best. Did this have anything to do with its release category? Somehow, someway, I think it does, but I can't prove it.
So then, have all those sales led to an increase the sales of my other books?
Just eyeballing my sales on Amazon in the months prior to April and afterwards, I would say no, they stayed pretty much in the range they had been prior to the book's release. However, since ratings are only now coming in at an increased rate, any effect on the sales of my other books may still be a ways in the future. We'll see.
As to my fears, how did thriller readers react to the The Girl on the Kerb?
First off, perhaps due to the number of sales, it has received far more ratings in the first six months than any other book of mine. It has about 80 rating at this point, all told, but only three reviews, with only one on Amazon. Currently its star rating is 4, plus or minus a decimal point depending on the source. While I can't complain, it is a tad lower than my usual books. The lower rating is due to it having 5 or 6 one star ratings, as well as a similar number of 2 star ratings, which are significantly more than what my books usually garner, especially in the first six months. Plus, its 5 star ratings are less than the 50% level that I would like to see. Of course there is the "and/or" possibility that the book simply isn't as good as my other stories, but that is something that I can't say one way or the other. Still, I'm thinking that I did annoy some readers and that the lower score is a result of some pushback from regular thriller readers. You have to take the rough with the smooth.
Will I do it again?
Yes. Any book I write in the future (birds in the bush) that is not connected to any of my published SF titles will not be sold as SF, even though they will also be set in the future and likely on another world, as usual. One small reason for this is because I'm so over SF. I'm no longer count myself a SF fan. However, given the results of The Girl on the Kerb, I see no reason not to categorize the story by story type rather than setting, and I think that I have a good reason for doing so with any future book. Trying new things in publishing is almost a requirement, unless you're minting money. I'm not.
So what might be my next non-SF book? Stay tuned for a glimpse of that bird in the bush next week.
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