To what end? You're going to write what you're going to write regardless, correct?
Doing this is a great way to not make money.Michael Kingswood said:To what end? You're going to write what you're going to write regardless, correct?
My first short story attempt was amazing, I LOVED the concept. But guess what, NO ONE wants to read it. So I spent my last couple days off publishing in a genre and theme that's "hot hot hot" right now and had my first borrow within a couple of hours today. Only time will tell if it's a fluke or if I'm onto something, but the one thing I learned was that 'writing popular' got eyes on my short story REALLY fast.funthebear said:Doing this is a great way to not make money.![]()
Judging by the figures that I can check, it's also wildly inaccurate. Off the scale type inaccurate.Elizabeth Ann West said:Kindle spy is awesome. Tells you average price of top 100 too and monthly revenue estimates.
It calculates free books as if they were paid, so as comparison tool it comes with a huge grain of salt.Elizabeth Ann West said:Kindle spy is just a snapshot and assumes the rankings will never fall. So no it doesn't give you accurate data for the 30 days, it is a good comparison tool since they're both calculated the same.
This.DanaG said:I get the impression that short stories are a tougher sell than longer works, no matter what genre you're in.
Kindle Spy - if it didn't cost money I'd definitely check it out. But again, as far as figuring out what the hot genres are - it's incredibly easy. Just look at the Amazon bestseller lists.
Thanks for your kind words of encouragement Dana. I suppose I'm really being a bit premature with all this worrying. I will have to wait to see how my anthology of short stories goes before I get too worried. You are absolutely correct about differnet genres, I do like mysteries, particuarly psychological thrillers with psychopathic antagonists. I've also got a strong knowlegde of New Age interests such as Tarot, Feng Shui, psychic development etc and have often toyed with the idea of creating a fantasy series but under a pen name to see how things go.DanaG said:Michael, it can take a lot of time and experimenting to find out what genres work for you. I tried erotica and a bunch of different types of romance before I started doing really well. Also, from what I gather so far, horror short stories are a tough sell. If these stories don't sell for you, and your goal is to make money from your writing, it might be worth your while to experiment and see if any other genres click for you -mystery, maybe?