True? https://insights.bookbub.com/how-readers-discover-new-books-to-buy/ Oh, okay, they're saying 95% of readers find them through bookbub. Heh. What about LitRPG? Should we petition BookBub for a LitRPG Cat? Hmmmm....
I think that a discussion on how readers find books is always useful. Here's how I've found LitRPG books to this point: Go to Amazon and search "LitRPG" Scroll through list Look at every book that actually appears to be LitRPG (as opposed to general fantasy). I have noticed that this search turns up mostly books that are actually categorized correctly. Go to Look Inside Buy the book if - Not present tense (I realize this is a valid writing choice, but as a strong personal preference, I just can't handle reading it) AND - No funky formatting (I mostly read on my phone, so extra line spaces means more swiping, which annoys the crap out of me) AND - Writing is reasonably polished
Haven't had much time to read lately, but I go to Amazon, search for LitRPG, and batch download them ten at a time (at least the ones available on KU that aren't thinly-veiled porn, anyway). Then I repeat the process 2-3 days later when I'm done with those ten, or I'll download singles if they're part of a series that I got into. Fairly sure I've read the entire KU catalogue of LitRPG and GameLit books, actually, barring the ones that are like 80% sex/20% thin plot that serves little purpose beyond connecting the sex scenes. Lately though, I've been on a superhero kick. I blame my new gaming group, that got me stuck in a Marvel Superheroes game.
I'm sure that particular "insight" came as a complete shock to the BookBub writer who wrote that. ;-)
I wonder what leads readers who don't know to search for LitRPG to finding and trying a book in our genre -- especially without the clout/presence of a big publisher on the sales page.
To be fair, the infographic says, "94% Used BookBub to find new books to buy. This isn't surprising, as we surveyed BookBub members." So what they're really saying is that 94% of BookBub members find new books to buy on BookBub. Who'd'a thunk it?
Yeah, they've got slick marketing tactics. I've studied them for a while. They have the numbers, though.
I think that the beauty of the LitRPG genre is that there is a very dedicated core of readers who are actively searching for anything new released in the genre. On the downside, I'm not sure that writing in the genre is likely to result in breakout success to wide audiences. Of course, I haven't actually released anything in the genre, so I really don't know. My experience comes from the difference between releasing a novel in Epic Fantasy vs. releasing a novel in Superhero. I had to really market the heck out of the Epic Fantasy to get any sales whereas it seemed like readers came to me for the superhero novel. My guess is that releasing in LitRPG would be a similar experience to Superhero.
