Niche Market Publishing–LGBTQ and Others

My chosen market for writing is plain vanilla: I write murder mysteries with no special lifestyle twist. There is also a untold number of other writers competing with me.

One way to achieve success is to write for a niche market.

In a recent conversation, a friend said to me, “Have you considered writing man on man romances?” My answer was I hadn’t. I am not a man. My friend informed me that a segment of women writers were writing man on man love stories with financial success.

I forgot about that conversation until today. While researching the author of the Argo story, I stumbled upon an article about a publishing house owned by two women. I clicked on the link (pasted below at the end of this post) and learned that the publishers specialize in children’s books for LGBTQ families.

I was familiar with LGBT, but was uncertain what the Q was.

According to http://ok2bme.ca/meaning

LGBTQ is a short form or acronym that means:

“L”esbian “G”ay “B”isexual “T”ransgender, “Q”ueer or “Q”uestioning

Once again, I was reminded that niche markets exist everywhere. One Twitter follower of mine is I. M. Telling. Telling writes stories exclusively about bi-racial sexual relationships. Another niche market.

By now, everyone knows about the success of Fifty Shades of Grey, a self-published hit in erotica that touches on specialized sexual niches. According to The Guardian, Fifty Shades “contributed to an overall rise in digital and print sales in 2012.”  Wow! How is that for the power of a niche market?

The unusual nature of the niche markets described here is to make you realize that, as an author, you can write about anything, and there is likely an audience for it. If you are finding it hard to break the financial success barrier in a plain vanilla market like mine, you may want to consider exploring a niche market for which you have an aptitude and interest.

http://twolivesbooks.wordpress.com/

You Can’t Make This Stuff Up

As authors, we are always looking for unique ways to make our stories stand out. One way to achieve that is to weave weird facts into the story line. Here are a couple to show you what I mean.

First, persons with a go-getter personality — dominated by ambition, logic and decisiveness — are likely to have a ring finger that is longer than his or her index finger. Why? The long fourth finger is an indication that this person was exposed to a higher than average amount of testosterone en utero, according to author Dr. John T. Manning of Rutgers University. He covers the subject in his book Digit Ratio.

Second, women change their taste in men based on their hormone levels. Researcher Tony Little found that women taking birth control pills tend to choose men with pronounced masculine features. The manly traits indicate a higher testosterone level, which is also linked to aggressive behavior and a higher than average likelihood of divorce.

Finally, an adrenaline rush can make the sparks fly between partners. Research by Arthur Aron and Donald Dutton prove it. They found doing something daring together increases the odds of bonding with your date. In one study, male subjects were asked to cross either a shaky or sturdy bridge to speak to an attractive female “researcher”  who provided the male subject her phone number. Those men who met the female after the shaky bridge crossing were more likely to follow-up with a phone call and an invitation to go out together. The exhilaration of being in a risky situation together increases attraction.

Who knew?