The Elusive "Market"

During my marketing blitz, I've obviously thought a lot about my market, specifically if one even exists for my work. I'm leaning towards no. Some will say that women's fiction has the largest audience, which I dispute, but even if that's true, where are they? Many, nay, most book promo sites don't even include women's fiction as a category. Or if they do, it's lumped in with historical and literary. To say that bothers me is an understatement. What good will it do to market under that broad category when every genre subscriber is looking for historical fiction? (No one looks for literary fiction.) The category is basically a catch-all ~ they could just as well call it "everything else". I've chosen it when I had to; when I'd exhausted the other sites' potential and was still clinging to delusional hope, but the results were predictable.

I've researched "where to find the market for women's fiction", and the scant number of articles I found were unhelpful. Because no one knows. One mentioned scanning the bestseller lists, then finding fans of those bestselling authors. Well, how does one find them? Hire a private detective? Even if they were possible to find, then what? 

As it stands right now, I have two fans. Unless they each buy a hundred copies of my book, two fans gets me nowhere. And one of them isn't much of a fan. She follows me on BookBub, but my new novel is listed on the site and she hasn't bought it. 

I've considered and rejected other options. I could write a Substack post or a Goodreads blog post, but I wouldn't know what to write about, and really, I only have three followers on each. I won't ~ can't bring myself to send out another newsletter. I can't get the concept right, no matter what, and most of my followers have never read my books; they're just too lazy (or nice) to unsubscribe. I'm completely over social media, not that it was ever my thing to begin with. Again, what could I post that would lure people to buy my book? All I do now, and yes, it's mercenary, is post the weekly mockup banners that one of the promo sites sends me. I figure, why not? What else would I do with them? Impersonal? You betcha. But when I did try engaging, I was completely ignored. 

Successful marketing is a dilemma that has no solution (for me). About the only thing I haven't tried is TikTok, but that's not my generation. Many years ago when I was pushing my band's music, I even created a discussion forum. (At that time it was free to do; I have no idea if it's even feasible now.) Again, though, would people just stumble on it by accident? In brainstorming, they say there are no bad ideas. Unfortunately in my case, there are no good ones, either.

Soon I'll be letting this whole subject die a merciful death. While I'm not a quitter, sometimes surrender is the only option. 

And my book will still be out there ~ all alone.