I've been writing for years now and have made significant progress towards the style of writing I aspire to. Lots of room to grow, yes, but I still think what I can push out now is at the very least worth a read.

That said, I have never been able to find my audience. The story I'm writing is niche and the presentation frustrating, but I suppose I felt the need to write it mostly because I would want to read stories like it (for the same reason everyone gets into writing, I imagine).

Basically, I was wondering how people went about finding their audience. I'm not interested in marketing or becoming the next best seller, honestly. But I do want to get my story into the hands of those who would enjoy it (I know these fabled folk must exist). So, any anecdotes, suggestions, tips, etc. would be greatly appreciated.

What I’d basically suggest is to focus more on engaging your audience than “finding” it. With niche content retention is vastly more important than generating awareness. Have a more personal relationship with your reader community if you can. Ask them about their interests, discuss your book with them and listen (not respond) to their feedback.

If you need more readers, since niche stuff is harder to find even if you like it, then it’s the same advice still really. Niche communities gather around each other, and find the things they like through each other, so engaging your readership remains crucial. Allow them space to participate and contribute if you can make that work for you. Polls, interactive plot and character suggestions, fan works, etc.

Most more mainstream content focuses more on generating Awareness, the first and most superficial component of marketing, and let the general appeal and mass attention draw in readers. For more niche stuff it becomes more important to emphasise the Interest and Desire components of marketing, where the readers actually becoming interested in Acting to pursue your content and investing their time (and money at times) into your stuff.

Basically a niche book must more immediately make the reader aware that THIS is the book for THEM. Because a niche reader struggles to find their niche stiff in good quality and will jump on a good find. It can even be like bragging rights if you find the good stuff before anyone else. Being all mysterious sometimes works, since if you act all mysterious you can make them feel even more like they’ve “Discovered” something if you give just enough description to still draw interest, while also making no promises that makes people feel cheated that it isn’t what they’d normally expect (which is a danger with niche stuff).

It is important to keep in mind how niche exactly you are though, because it can be easy to overestimate how niche something is in the same way some people don’t realise how weird it might actually be.

I've found that the different story posting sites all have their own specialties. A story that does well on one site might not find any readers on another site at all. If you tell us what niche it is, someone might be able to give you an idea of a good place to put it.

I wrote my first stories specifically targeted to the audience on one particular site (not this one). I've tried other sites since then, but both of my main series still get the highest amount of readers (by far) on the site they were originally targeted at. I believe that's partly due to the size of the reader base, but also heavily influenced by the type of stories those readers like to read.

I don't really have any advice about niche stories specifically, since my stories aren't particularly niche.

Endless Paving, wouldn't making it more user driven make it less niche? The user driven component seems to be one of the secret ingredients to commercial success. In essence: know what's trending + know how to copy it = infinite money. I think user feedback is great for certain projects, just for this it seems oddly inappropriate.

That said, I think expert feedback (e.g., people like those who lurk about the forums here) is invaluable. The whole reason I first started posting here is for expert comments on writing style (e.g., got laid into for my terrible descriptions and have been working on it since).

Endless Paving Wrote: Basically a niche book must more immediately make the reader aware that THIS is the book for THEM. Because a niche reader struggles to find their niche stiff in good quality and will jump on a good find. It can even be like bragging rights if you find the good stuff before anyone else. Being all mysterious sometimes works, since if you act all mysterious you can make them feel even more like they’ve “Discovered” something if you give just enough description to still draw interest, while also making no promises that makes people feel cheated that it isn’t what they’d normally expect (which is a danger with niche stuff).

It is important to keep in mind how niche exactly you are though, because it can be easy to overestimate how niche something is in the same way some people don’t realise how weird it might actually be.

These two points are gold (especially the last one). I just assume my stuff is niche because I haven't run into anything quite like it (and I realize this could either be because no one has tried it before OR more likely, because people have tried it and it failed miserably).

Apropos what niche...

IvyVeritas Wrote: I've found that the different story posting sites all have their own specialties. A story that does well on one site might not find any readers on another site at all. If you tell us what niche it is, someone might be able to give you an idea of a good place to put it.

I'm not sure, tbh. It's not some bizarre, deviant sex fantasy, nor is it detailing a minute-by-minute account of the wonderful daily life of the mole rat. It has a bunch of familiar tropes: reincarnation for instance, but it's more a 'reset' than reincarnation proper--surely someone's done that, but I haven't read anything like that. Everything about each is a little off.

The other thing that is likely niche is the prose. I aim for a style similar to Jorge Luis Borges, something refined without sounding pompous. But my writing has been previously been described as the exact inverse of that--so I still have some work to do!

In any event, if anyone does know of a place to post the kind of story a poorman's Borges wrote, then please, do tell.

As others have said, each platform has its target audience, but is nevertheless populated by users with an array of interests. If your audience is niche, you may still want to explore additional platforms for exposure. 

Taking part in those communities is the next step, such as what you're doing here. Not only can you engage your existing readers with questions after your chapters, polls, comment responses, etc - but you can take part in conversations on forums and "be seen", as it were.


I personally have found my way to a few fictions due to the signatures that folks have, while reading through conversations in the forums. Given the pace at which fictions are uploaded here, the home page only gives me a tiny snapshot of my options when I visit it.

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Drew Walker Wrote: I personally have found my way to a few fictions due to the signatures that folks have, while reading through conversations in the forums. Given the pace at which fictions are uploaded here, the home page only gives me a tiny snapshot of my options when I visit it.

Now that is a helpful suggestion!

Ral Wrote: So, just think of it carefully. Is it niche or no one just wants to read it? Do you really have an audience in mind? Are there really people out there who seeks these kind of things?

There might also be the scary thing of not having a niche at all. Essentially, you can't find your audience because there is no audience.

I have, of course, thought these dark thoughts before. But ultimately I doubt the plausibility of the thesis. The world is wide and its people varied, their interests as varied as themselves. Furthermore, when you could market shit as gold, why couldn't you do the same with something mediocre? Endless Paving said it best:

Endless Paving Wrote: Basically a niche book must more immediately make the reader aware that THIS is the book for THEM.

I just haven't found the best way to package it for its intended audience, nor the place to find said audience yet. Though, I imagine I'll find some here and may later expand out to other platforms.

Thanks all for the interesting discussion!

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Many points of interest, but three most loudly spoke to me.

Ral Wrote: It is possible to have no niche for it. No market. That is, no one is out there out there looking for it. While yes, people have varied interest, that doesn't mean that there is an audience/market for everything.

I think the existence of that 'something' disproves this idea. In my original post, I said I wrote the story because I wanted to read more like it. This idea really only applies to things that do not or no longer exist (though nostalgia has a way of leading to necromantic revivals for some of those even).

If you're arguing, no market as in 'not commercially viable', then I'd be the first to agree.

Ral Wrote: And yes you could market shit because the are people who wants those shit. It is their kind of shit. Quality has nothing to do with availability of the audience.

I think quality has everything to do with the availability of audience... Even though McDonald's is literally hot trash on a plate, it's wildly successful primarily because of the quality of its franchising system, branding, meal-making efficiency, etc. Is the food shit? Yes. But is McDonald's as a whole shit? No.

Likewise, popular fiction is mind candy. I say this without judgment, as I am an avid consumer of candy both for the mind and the body. Does that mean it's low quality? No. It's the most well-presented trash available. Even if you want to market shit, you have to find the my highly refined and perfected shit to do it with.

Ral Wrote: The essence of the problem here is  this: Are you willing to put the effort and resources to find or create an audience with the understanding that you could still fail after all that?

This is a dark but very pragmatic question. And I suppose the answer is yes, given that we post our words on sites like this in the hopes some will read it, rather than telling our friends to burn our manuscripts after we die (I'm looking at you Kafka--though that bastard succeed even in spite of his self-sabotage...).

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Ral, I'm curious: who exactly would you say is a good writer, as in someone you'd like to emulate?

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I appreciate the encouraging message, Tomoyuki T--a lot of useful ideas to chew on.

I think it's a framing issue, though. I honestly do believe you and Ral are espousing the same basic philosophy. I interpreted Ral's suggestions more as, "if it's important just to you (like your child's macaroni art), then why bother trying to convince the world of its virtues?" The obvious follow-up being that you can invest the saved time into projects that have wider appeal and a greater return on your emotional investment.


That said... the idea that I change my writing style has cropped up twice... I find this odd.

Change the writing style? Wouldn't that change the audience?

As for lighter prose, and wider appeal, I don't believe I said I want a larger audience; I simply want to find the audience who wants what I have.

Prose so purple that it would turn a field of violets green with envy has its place. Just as with visual art you have a wide variety of styles (Impressionism, Cubism, etc.), I think that writing could benefit from styles more interested in conveying an idea or mood rather than painting a scene.

Don't get me wrong, one thing I certainly want to improve on is my descriptive ability, but not at the expense of sounding like everyone else. One thing I hate about modern prose is how generic it all sounds to me. I love the personality of Lovecraft and Borges. I love that they aim for describing a mood or idea.

So refine my style? Sure, that's good advice for anyone aspiring to write something worth reading. Change it? That sounds like good advice for someone aspiring to write something worth selling.

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Tomoyuki T Wrote: To clarify, I did read Conscentia and Before the Fall, but I don't think anyone will believe me. I'll do have to point out that I'm not sure what makes them niche, especially since they are both clearly fantasy stories. What is the specific audience you are looking for? People who like psychological fantasy stuff? Or people who enjoy stories written in present tense?

This will be my final question before I delete my account and leave, but I doubt it will be helpful. Still, maybe it might help to think about what exactly is the specific "niche" audience you are looking for, though I will no doubt get shot down and condemned again for asking a meaningless and useless question.

I don't think you're being toxic and I do think you're contributing. Not sure how to show my sincerity...

In any event, niche not exclusively for content but primarily for style of writing (emphasis on mood rather than description). I should have specified, apologies.

Tomoyuki T Wrote: This will be my final question before I delete my account and leave, but I doubt it will be helpful. Still, maybe it might help to think about what exactly is the specific "niche" audience you are looking for, though I will no doubt get shot down and condemned again for asking a meaningless and useless question.

It's not the genre but the writing style.

Sure it's fantasy, but the style of his writing isn't very modern. It's a style that's not going to appeal to a lot of people because it lack brevity. Not everyone is going to have the patients read that sort of thing. Most modern readers don't. There are people who don't mind. However, how to reach them isn't what I would call easy.

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