FINDING GOOD ICKY BUG UPDATE

WHEN ONE OF YOUR GENRES IS UNDER-REPRESENTED IN THE BOOKSTORE

INTRO

            I originally posted this in 2016 and was inspired to do an update after a recent experience art the bookstore where I realized why I never buy much there. I have to dig up my icky bug on Amazon for the most part. It’s kind of telling that the stuff that makes it into the bookstore, which is extremely hard for indie authors, is not anything I’m interested in. See below.

ORIGINAL INTRO

            Though the title talks icky bug (my word for horror for those of you new to my site), this applies to all of you that have a penchant for any genre or sub-genre out of the mainstream.

            Bookstores, just by virtue of their business model, have to make money. They’re out to sell books and tend to put books out there that sell big. The problem is that they also pander to the big five publishers and their whims and many books represented sell less than a thousand copies total. Even if the odd genre or sub-genre might sell better than a pet interest that sits idle, if the big five don’t favor it, the bookstores won’t stock it. Period.

            Speaking only from my own interests, I know that icky bug…okay, horror to most of you…is the bastard child of the publishing industry.

NICHE MARKET

            Horror is a niche market. It doesn’t sell as big as say…fantasy, westerns, romance or whatever. However, there are fans. Lots of them.

            What are the publisher’s answers to that?

            I cringe when I repeat this but I’ve heard it over and over again. “If you aren’t Stephen King, forget about it.”

            Well, screw you!

            So much for a niche market.

BUILT IN BIAS

            Face it folks, if you write horror, you automatically have a strike against you. You’re obviously not Stephen King, so what next?

            Most publishers either won’t even talk to you, or if they do, they want writing so above the “best of the best,” you don’t have a chance in hell of getting published.

CAUSE AND EFFECT

            Because of the built in bias of the industry, many frustrated horror authors have taken it upon themselves to self-publish. Sometimes with disastrous – sometimes outstanding results, but with little to no promotion or distribution. Those bad tomes have resulted in a lot of crap out there. On the other hand, there are plenty of cool and outstanding stories just waiting to be found.

            That’s the key. Waiting to be found!

WHERE’S ALL THE GREAT ICKY BUG?

            Folks, there’s plenty of icky bug I wouldn’t waste my money on. Sub genres like splatter gore and serial killer, torture porn and the like are not my thing. However, good old b-movie monster horror, what I fully embrace as icky bug, is what I’m talking about. It’s out there. It’s stuff you’ll never see in a bookstore. The big five turn their noses up at that stuff. It’s “not worthy,” apparently.

            Sure, a lot of them are self-published. A lot of these books are great stories but in need of decent editors. A lot of them could use better artwork. Yet there are still plenty of independent publishers cranking this stuff out. They’re there, all you have to do is look for them.

            I recently made a significant (well, to me anyway) order from Amazon. After all, that big “store” is, right now, the only place I’ll ever find these b-movie monster stories.

            I hit the jackpot. I’ll never ever find books like this at Barnes & Noble or any other brick and mortar store. As much as I like to shop and support the local chain and independent bookstores, I want to support authors who write what I like also. Sure, I like other genres, but I need my icky bug fix.

            I purchased a mix of self-published as well as very professional works. I’m having a great time.

OTHER FACTORS

            It’s not just about creature feature icky bug either. There may be some icky bug in the bookstore (there is a horror section now) but as I found out the other day, after skipping Stephen King, there was little written in a style I’d read, let alone subject matter. I’ve made it quite clear in all these years of writing this blog that I cannot tolerate present-tense. Besides that, I’m no fan of first-person, though if I really like the author and subject, I can make an exception. A recent one was Manrattan, by Hunter Shea.

            The other thing is even if I like the subject and open the book for a quick look, I often find page after page of droning on. No blank spaces on the page, full-page paragraphs. In other words, they’re really literary character studies. Nothing sucks the life out of a good icky bug more than droning on and on.

            I browse the books and outside of Darcy Coates, of whom I’m a big fan, either I’ve already read the book or it’s some combination of literary, first-person, present-tense, or all of this. Scratch those off the list!

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

            Do you have a genre or sub-genre the big five ignore? Do you have books the stores just don’t or won’t carry? Of course, you can maybe special order them through the store, or just break down and make an order through Amazon. In my case, some of these books, especially the self-pubbed ones, weren’t always available as special order through Barnes & Noble. Now, I haven’t tried special ordering through the independent stores yet. That could be a next step one day.

            Happy writing!