In the last post, we discussed if there's such a thing as too creative? The answer, apparently, is yes. But why? Why wouldn't readers want something wildly different? Why wouldn't publishers jump on incredibly unique stories? Why is it that when a unique, wonderful, beautiful book hits the market, we don't get MORE of them?
A majority of them simply don't survive.
Being wildly unique is a gamble for the author/publisher.
While it's awesome that the author was able to find that odd niche that makes them unique, it's hit or miss on whether or not people are going to get it. It took J.K. Rowling how long to become a hit? I don't even remember hearing about the books until, oh, I don't know, a couple years before the first movie came out. And then, it was one of my friends who mentioned them and was like, "Yeah, it's a kids book, but it's cool. Not something I'd typically read, but we're a few books into it now and the kids have grown a lot. I like it." But she said this with a shrug and a frowny face, so I wasn't really sold.
In J.K. Rowlings' case, she wrote a series of books in an age group I didn't read. My kids did, so I might have gotten into it through them. As it was, I...well, I think I did pick them up once, but put them down because there weren't dragons, dogs, horses, or princesses in them and my girls weren't "into boys" yet, or even acknowledging they existed.
Ms. Rowlings' gamble was that her type of story would most likely appeal to children. The world she created, the characters she shared, even the plot as dark as it got, was perfect for kids. Her writing style made it highly palatable.
Of course, it made it highly viable for readers--and a few non-readers--of all ages to slip into her stories as well.
But for a long time, I'm willing to bet Ms. Rowling was sweating it. What we forget is that time when she was still an unknown name and her sales really weren't that awesome. She had to pick up speed and readers, and get people talking about Harry first. And that took time.
Genre's are buckets where readers reside, a little like planets out in space.
The thing to remember about the market is that it's filled with buckets. The reason being unique is a gamble is because your story usually falls OUTSIDE all the buckets. If you have an "interesting approach," you're still inside the bucket, but you discovered one little thing that makes you at least a little different than everyone else. That's a good, safe place to be.
The only thing is, it's easy to disappear there because everyone else is there with you. You never really shine unless you're lucky or really, really awesome, but it's hard to whine when you're at least selling books. When you're selling books, people are, in theory, reading your work. So you're not truly invisible. You...blend in, more like.
However, when you're flailing in the world outside the buckets, it's a struggle. Why?
Imagine the buckets are actually planets. That's where the people live. Now, every once in a while, the people will get into spaceships and travel to other genre planets. Typically, the people on the planet Western don't travel far, but the people on Planet Fantasy or Planet
Sci-Fi will go to many planets.
What you don't typically see are the spaceships stopping along the way to look at the stuff floating in space. Why, do you ask?
They assume you're space junk.
Space junk is out there. If you're a reader--and if you're reading this, you probably are--you've seen the space junk. Those really weird books with the horrible covers, that are at the really just odd-ball prices, that have three reviews that are all over the place, with the blurbs that leave you feeling dazed and confused. Hell, I'm still not entirely sure I'm not the space junk.
When you're floating in space, it's hard to be seen or even taken seriously.
Readers are people--of the assuming and judgy kind.
This isn't a bad thing. We learned to judge. It's a survival instinct. We need to judge.
However, we can take things a bit too far. Look at the world of politics, race, and religion if you disagree.
Sometimes, when you're wildly unique, people assume you lack the ability to tell a real story.
A real story would fit inside a bucket. They'd be able to pick up the book and gauge what they'd be forced to suffer through.
It's Survival 101. Don't invest your time in a waste of time. We're short on time. We were born with a clock ticking away our time, so to err would be...well, detrimental, really. Once a moment has been wasted, you can never get it back again.
So now, a truly unique book is a gamble on the reader as well.
There's a lot of gambling going on.
So, why write unique in the first place if it's just a waste of time?
It's not! It's just not a sure thing--not that anything in this industry is. You simply have to know what you're jumping into.
You're jumping OUT of the life-saving buckets of genres.
You're FLOATING with space junk, trying to twinkle at just the right moment to be seen by a single person, then maybe another.
You're WAITING for people to talk about you and your amazingly brilliant story--that's hard to describe or button up in a single sentence.
Although, when you're IN the life-saving buckets of genres, there are hardships there, too.
That's where the money is, but EVERYONE's trying to grab for it.
EVERYONE is there with great stories that are just as good as yours, but once the light of your story sizzles, then it's a race to see who's going to the light next.
Lastly, EVERYONE is waiting for people to see them, even though EVERYONE's there--readers and authors alike.
So either way, it's tough. Not impossible, though! Don't give up the good fight! No! But understand the challenge you're taking on. You're paving your path! Next post, we'll discuss how to take this insight and apply it to creating a bucket of your very own.
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