Another Lucrative Niche Market

Earlier this month, I discussed the idea of writing for niche markets. I gave examples of markets that one might not think of if one weren’t told the markets exist. Today, I am sharing news about another niche market that has readers with strong book-buying habits. How about 3.8 books per month on average!

If you are knowledgable in the areas of interest discussed below, you may want to consider publishing for this market.

from bama.org:

A recent Barna survey found there are 315,000 Protestant houses of worship in the United States—that’s compared to approximately 13,000 McDonalds and 4,000 Walmarts. Or, to put it another way: more than 300,000 people who purchase, on average, 3.8 books per month. That’s not counting the number of books purchased by people influenced by pastors, such as other ministry staff and congregants, likely driving the total number of books even higher.

According to new research by Barna Group into the buying and reading habits of pastors, younger pastors buy more books per year than do older pastors. This is a strong indication that the market for book-related content will remain strong among the youngest generation of faith leaders.

So what are the books these pastors are buying? Well, for the most part, they’re related to a specific topic a pastor needs to know about or is interested in. When a pastor selects a ministry-related book, the single most important factor is the topic. This was followed by the author and a recommendation from someone. Price, title and convenience were reportedly rare selection criteria.

So what topics are they looking for? When asked to identify the types of books they have read recently, pastors identified spirituality, theology and leadership most frequently. Other popular subjects include prayer, history, cultural trends and church practice. About half of pastors are reading biographies and one-third are consuming business books. Fiction is a slightly less prevalent category among pastors, compared to the general population.

Where They Buy It’s clear pastors are buying books, but where are they purchasing them? After all, usually the “death of books” headline is accompanied by a “death of bookstores” subhead. We saw the rise of Amazon and the death of Borders. Is that the trend among pastors too?

Yes and no. In the Pastors + Books report, pastors reveal that Christian retail and online were the two primary channels through which they acquire books. General retail was a distant third, followed by book distributors. Small slices of pastors purchase direct from the publisher or from their denomination.

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/