I don't believe in such a thing as "too saturated" as long as the product is good. But a 35k novel? More like a novelette, no? My advice would be to price accordingly and make it very clear in your product description that it's a small book, or you'll risk the wrath of the "I got ripped off! This book is too small!" reviewer.

 

I have been told that the market is too saturated for it. Is this just poisonous advice not to be heeded?

I don't know whether it was "poisonous" (that seems to impute malicious intent?) but it's mistaken, in my opinion: I don't believe in oversaturation.

(If it gets to, say, 40,000-ish words, I do think you should probably market it as a "novella" (not a "novelette", which is much shorter) rather than as a "novel", and state the length clearly.)

 

Sorry, wrong word for sure. There are actually a few places that could be expanded. I had skipped a whole section that i really liked at first, and it also expands the story in a potential spin-off direction. Maybe I should expand a bit to hit 40k, put it out ,and work on the sequel.

Would $2.99 be out of the question for the first one, with the intent of dropping it to .99 to act as a funnel once book 2 is ready?

 

I don't know whether it was "poisonous" (that seems to impute malicious intent?) but it's mistaken, in my opinion: I don't believe in oversaturation.

(If it gets to, say, 40,000-ish words, I do think you should probably market it as a "novella" (not a "novelette", which is much shorter) rather than as a "novel", and state the length clearly.)

I didn't even know there was such a thing as a "novellette." I just put it in there because I thought it was funny. Ha.

 

Go for it! We can oversaturate the market together!

~~~

Finish the chapter. Currently it's a novella. Go for that, or expand it into a novel, but only if you can add beneficial substance to it. Don't just add words to add words.

 

Reader's will decide. And anyway, what would you do with it if not publish it?

 

Sorry, wrong word for sure. There are actually a few places that could be expanded. I had skipped a whole section that i really liked at first, and it also expands the story in a potential spin-off direction. Maybe I should expand a bit to hit 40k, put it out ,and work on the sequel.

Would $2.99 be out of the question for the first one, with the intent of dropping it to .99 to act as a funnel once book 2 is ready?

Here's an exercise: Look at your genre on Amazon. You'll essentially be fighting it out with 300-page books selling for $2.99 -- the average price for this genre in my experience. The more established writers are selling for $3.99/$4.99 (for full-length books -- around 100K).

I like to use Kboards member Rachel Aukes' excellent "Deadland" as an example. She's currently selling her 451-page book for $.99. I believe it was originally $2.99, but I think (though I'm not sure) she's doing a promo.

www.amazon.com/100-Days-Deadland-Saga-ebook/dp/B00E4V2FK4/

So, take a look at all the alsoboughts under her book. Almost every single book, without fail, is over 250 pages, with one just slightly under 200 pages. The regular price for all of them is $2.99. The ones you see at .99 are on temporary promo (I believe).

So, now try to picture your 40K book (which will, generously speaking, come out to around 125-pages, give or take), fighting it out with those titles. And remember, no one knows who you are, so you'll be asking a total stranger to take a chance on your zombie book in this kind of field.

As a reader, how much would YOU be willing to shell out for your book? Then price accordingly.

And oh, my advice, for what it's worth? Write the sequel, too, then combine the two, and sell it as one title. You'll have a better shot at selling it for $2.99.

 

There have been a lot of zombie novels published by the main SFF imprints in recent years. But oversaturation is a matter of opinion, and angle. If yours brings something completely new to the table, it's okay. If you can get it in front of readers who haven't been exposed to a bunch of zombie books in recent years (ie, not regular SFF bloggers), then it won't matter, and there are always readers who are new to a genre. I think you should publish it and see how it's received.

 

There have been a lot of zombie novels published by the main SFF imprints in recent years. But oversaturation is a matter of opinion, and angle. If yours brings something completely new to the table, it's okay. If you can get it in front of readers who haven't been exposed to a bunch of zombie books in recent years (ie, not regular SFF bloggers), then it won't matter, and there are always readers who are new to a genre. I think you should publish it and see how it's received.

^^^^THIS^^^^

Let the readers decide if your zombie books work. You won't know that, however, unless you publish them.

 

A lot of *bad* zombie fiction focuses on non-clever action action action, usually mixed in with prescient prepper stockpiling that shatters suspension of disbelief. I seriously read a story that opened with five chapters of a trained doctor (because being a doctor is super useful in a survival situation) deciding the zombie apocalypse was about to happen; this character then maxed out credit cards and bank loans turning his mansion (yes mansion) into a fortress complete with fence and firing platforms, stocked with enough weapons and food and survival gear to keep a damned brigade going for months. This doctor was also an expert shot with all guns. When the zombies hit, the doctor gleefully turned into Rambo saving his ex-wife and a couple of friends who'd laughed at his Minority Report style foresight (making sure to stop repeatedly to revel in I-told-you-so moments), and then added a healthy dose of Superman to his Rambo as he started venturing out from his fortified House of Awesome to save random strangers in his town.

I kept reading because I couldn't believe how *bad* it was. And a LOT LOT LOT of zombie fiction on the market right now fits exactly into this category of bad.

I don't know what you're talking about. That book kinda sounds awesome.

 

I think the zombie fiction market is oversaturated for poorly written and undeveloped zombie stories. I'm not necessarily saying 35K is either, but a LOT of zombie fiction is just thrown out and fits precisely into those two categories. As a reader, any 'story' that's so short is automatically suspicious. As an author, I'd have to say it depends. As both a reader and an author, there is PLENTY of room in the zombie market for well written stories. Compare and contrast the first and (so far) fourth seasons of The Walking Dead tv show (good seasons with good stories) with the second and third seasons (generally accepted by a lot of fans to be less good, or even bad)

.....

There is room for good zombie fiction. If it matters, I've had a 220K word zombie story out for nine months now that I've made thousands of dollars off of. My reviews are pretty good. I'm writing a follow-up now. But if you're serious about wanting to add a good story to the zombie market, you have to make sure you're not falling afoul of the trap of "yay action, zombie killing, gore splattering, skull crushing" a lot of the stories focus on while forgetting that what audiences are interested in are characters. Real characters.

I agree with much of what you've written. However, just because you might not like them, doesn't mean there aren't enough readers who don't like brain-dead action romps.

Who cares if the market over-saturated in anything. If your work doesn't sell, you write more books with better character development. Or you write book 2 just like book 1.

 

I don't know what you're talking about. That book kinda sounds awesome.

Exactly. Let the readers decide if a zombie book is "good" or not.

 

I think the zombie fiction market is oversaturated for poorly written and undeveloped zombie stories. I'm not necessarily saying 35K is either, but a LOT of zombie fiction is just thrown out and fits precisely into those two categories. As a reader, any 'story' that's so short is automatically suspicious. As an author, I'd have to say it depends. As both a reader and an author, there is PLENTY of room in the zombie market for well written stories. Compare and contrast the first and (so far) fourth seasons of The Walking Dead tv show (good seasons with good stories) with the second and third seasons (generally accepted by a lot of fans to be less good, or even bad) ......

Dave extremely insightful, thanks for posting this up. As both a reader and a potential author in this sub genre I really enjoyed it. ~Chrispy~

 

Here's an exercise: Look at your genre on Amazon. You'll essentially be fighting it out with 300-page books selling for $2.99 -- the average price for this genre in my experience. The more established writers are selling for $3.99/$4.99 (for full-length books -- around 100K).

I like to use Kboards member Rachel Aukes' excellent "Deadland" as an example. She's currently selling her 451-page book for $.99. I believe it was originally $2.99, but I think (though I'm not sure) she's doing a promo.

www.amazon.com/100-Days-Deadland-Saga-ebook/dp/B00E4V2FK4/

So, take a look at all the alsoboughts under her book. Almost every single book, without fail, is over 250 pages, with one just slightly under 200 pages. The regular price for all of them is $2.99. The ones you see at .99 are on temporary promo (I believe).

So, now try to picture your 40K book (which will, generously speaking, come out to around 125-pages, give or take), fighting it out with those titles. And remember, no one knows who you are, so you'll be asking a total stranger to take a chance on your zombie book in this kind of field.

As a reader, how much would YOU be willing to shell out for your book? Then price accordingly.

And oh, my advice, for what it's worth? Write the sequel, too, then combine the two, and sell it as one title. You'll have a better shot at selling it for $2.99.

This advice is golden. I have nothing to add other than it's always good to believe in what you're writing; regardless of what naysayers put in your head. Good luck

 

Here's an exercise: Look at your genre on Amazon. You'll essentially be fighting it out with 300-page books selling for $2.99 -- the average price for this genre in my experience. The more established writers are selling for $3.99/$4.99 (for full-length books -- around 100K).

I like to use Kboards member Rachel Aukes' excellent "Deadland" as an example. She's currently selling her 451-page book for $.99. I believe it was originally $2.99, but I think (though I'm not sure) she's doing a promo.

www.amazon.com/100-Days-Deadland-Saga-ebook/dp/B00E4V2FK4/

So, take a look at all the alsoboughts under her book. Almost every single book, without fail, is over 250 pages, with one just slightly under 200 pages. The regular price for all of them is $2.99. The ones you see at .99 are on temporary promo (I believe).

So, now try to picture your 40K book (which will, generously speaking, come out to around 125-pages, give or take), fighting it out with those titles. And remember, no one knows who you are, so you'll be asking a total stranger to take a chance on your zombie book in this kind of field.

As a reader, how much would YOU be willing to shell out for your book? Then price accordingly.

And oh, my advice, for what it's worth? Write the sequel, too, then combine the two, and sell it as one title. You'll have a better shot at selling it for $2.99.

Thanks for the mention, Jack!

Yes, Jack's right. Deadland's regular price is $2.99, and I plan to return to that (or possibly 1.99) as soon at the second book comes out next month. I'm using .99 for exposure so--hopefully--more readers will be interested in buying Deadland 2 when it comes out. Because there are so many zombie books out right now, IMO it's easier to get noticed at the 2.99 price point or lower. I'm a new author to the genre, and I believe I would've have fought tooth and nail to get sales if I went above 2.99.

With that said, the bigger names can command a higher price (like any genre), but they're the exception. Take a look at Molles's prices since he's likely the biggest self-published zompoc author (though he's joined Orbit). His first Remaining novel is priced at 1.99 and the subsequent novels are 2.99. Those are full-length novels. With a novella, I' believe you'd have an incredibly tough time building a platform at a higher price point, since there's so many discounted books already in this genre (in fact, I'd see anything above .99 tough to sell a zompoc novella).

The nice thing about the zompoc genre is that the readers are voracious and go through quite a few books (I'd compare them to romance readers in that respect). There are plenty of readers out there. The challenge is getting your story noticed in a sea of zombies. But, it's possible. Best wishes!

 

It's not just tacked on -- i also disagree with that. It was just that during the initial draft, i thought there was a particular character that would be perfect for some expansion -- a traveling call girl. In my story, the outposts of humanity are almost feudal -- small villages that have hardened against the hordes that travel outside the city walls. My MC is a traveler who is searching for lost family members. He frees a girl who is a highly paid consort. Her muscle was killed and the MC frees her. There is more, but it seemed like a great character to follow, especially since her bodyguard is dead, and her money has been stolen.

In the initial draft, she asks him to get her out of the city, but he refused since it would take him off his mission. I wanted to have him accept, but I realized it would add 10k or more to the story, and I wanted to move ahead and finish it.

 

I think the zombie fiction market is oversaturated for poorly written and undeveloped zombie stories. I'm not necessarily saying 35K is either, but a LOT of zombie fiction is just thrown out and fits precisely into those two categories. As a reader, any 'story' that's so short is automatically suspicious. As an author, I'd have to say it depends. As both a reader and an author, there is PLENTY of room in the zombie market for well written stories. Compare and contrast the first and (so far) fourth seasons of The Walking Dead tv show (good seasons with good stories) with the second and third seasons (generally accepted by a lot of fans to be less good, or even bad)

I'll also say this; bear with me a moment. There are two general zombie types; fast and slow.

This is relevant because fast zombies push the story heavily toward action action action. It's hard to have contemplation and "oh the horror, the horror" when fast zombies are surging toward your characters at a dead run. It's hard to come up with clever and "ah ha!" action moments when your monsters are sprinting like Olympic champions at anything with a pulse. Reference the second and third seasons of Walking Dead; sitting hunkered down in a fortification may be logical and safe, but it is HARD to maintain action conflict and compelling drama in that situation. In the 'good' Walking Dead seasons, the characters are vulnerable and threatened by the zombies, and conflict helps drive audience interest.

Slow zombies allow for character beats to carry the story. Slow zombies are threatening but give the story room to maintain that threat without being so oppressively urgent so as to shoulder aside anything but action. The slow zombies provide pressure and threat to allow (good writing) to work against that ever present danger to keep the characters interesting.

A lot of *bad* zombie fiction focuses on non-clever action action action, usually mixed in with prescient prepper stockpiling that shatters suspension of disbelief. I seriously read a story that opened with five chapters of a trained doctor (because being a doctor is super useful in a survival situation) deciding the zombie apocalypse was about to happen; this character then maxed out credit cards and bank loans turning his mansion (yes mansion) into a fortress complete with fence and firing platforms, stocked with enough weapons and food and survival gear to keep a damned brigade going for months. This doctor was also an expert shot with all guns. When the zombies hit, the doctor gleefully turned into Rambo saving his ex-wife and a couple of friends who'd laughed at his Minority Report style foresight (making sure to stop repeatedly to revel in I-told-you-so moments), and then added a healthy dose of Superman to his Rambo as he started venturing out from his fortified House of Awesome to save random strangers in his town.

I kept reading because I couldn't believe how *bad* it was. And a LOT LOT LOT of zombie fiction on the market right now fits exactly into this category of bad.

I'm not saying your story is bad; I haven't read it. But I'd encourage you to make sure you've utilized the following concepts in your zombie story:

• Try-Fail Cycles: audiences don't engage if everything your characters do always works, if the characters always have the right tools and right decisions to deal with problems. Characters have to fail, repeatedly, for the audience to cheer success.
• Flawed characters (specifically, characters that make wrong decisions that cost; characters that are NOT Superman or Rambo)
• The concept of 'throwing rocks' at your characters: you establish your characters, then begin chucking problems, disasters, horror, sobbing, tears of joy, etc . . . at them throughout the story (especially all through the second act)
• Character detail and development beyond action: what a character does and can do is often way less important than how they feel about it, how what they MUST do or are being FORCED to do affects them
• Emotional Character Arcs - where the character is at the beginning, where the character is at the end, and how they changed from one to the other. This should tie into your plot arc, but is SEPARATE from your plot arc. Where the character is and where the character ends up, emotionally, informs your plot. It develops your plot. It develops the CHARACTER. Characters usually must grow/change for audiences to fully engage with them. If characters start and end a story in the same place, emotionally, that's static and generally boring.

Take, oh, Rambo. The first movie (also a spectacular book as well). Rambo is super competent; Green Beret who is Mr. Survival and a one-man army. Why is Rambo First Blood such a lauded story? Because Rambo doesn't want to fight, hates having to fight, hates having to be forced into the conflict with Sheriff Teasle and the rest of the town's police. Rambo is haunted by what he had to do, what he learned to do so well, in the war. He carries nightmares of the war with him. He tries and tries to disengage from the police, and they keep pushing him into having to fight them. Rambo is damaged and hurting.

Further, look at the other Rambo movies. They got away from the emotional and character driven core of Rambo, and became action movies. First Blood is regarded as good storytelling, and the others have been less well received. First Blood has a well developed character at its center, and the sequels lay that aside for generic action action action. The sequels throw away all the work that went into developing Rambo and reduce him to a caricature. Which is why you see Rambo jokes all the time when discussing characters now. Because bad writing TURNED him into that caricature.

There is room for good zombie fiction. If it matters, I've had a 220K word zombie story out for nine months now that I've made thousands of dollars off of. My reviews are pretty good. I'm writing a follow-up now. But if you're serious about wanting to add a good story to the zombie market, you have to make sure you're not falling afoul of the trap of "yay action, zombie killing, gore splattering, skull crushing" a lot of the stories focus on while forgetting that what audiences are interested in are characters. Real characters.

THIS
I've printed this off and it's on my desk right now. What a great, and I mean dynamite tutorial on the craft. As you probably know, we don't see a lot of discussions about the craft here on Kboards, but you need to be acknowledged for this post.

I'm not surprised that you're doing well with your book.

To the OP...
uhhh... is this your first kick at the cat with respect to writing and self publishing? B/c if it is, my advice is to go over to Kris Rusch's blog and read her post on 'Wait'. I say that b/c from your follow up comments, you might be rushing things a bit. If I'm wrong, so be it. I said that b/c you mentioned other plot threads etc that you put aside. Not having Beta'd your work, I can't say anything substantive, but my gut is saying that maybe it's not ready.

Now... as far as 'oversaturation' is concerned....
How many Pizza joints are in your community? Go grab a phone book and count them up. Or plumbers even? If you're good, you're good and the rest will simply be getting the word out. And there's L O T S of advice, proven advice here on how to find readers.

Don't sweat that, okay? If your stuff's good, then you'll make money when you figure out how to find the readers.

Best of luck!

 

Thanks for all the advice guys. I will take it to heart. I had honestly hoped to place the newest book at 2.99 each time, and allow the previous ones to drop to .99. It's easy to come up with strategies...so I post them here and let you guys cordially blow holes in my sails!

 

I have been told that the market is too saturated for it

We could probably make the argument that the erotic romance market is oversaturated. Yes that's what most indie mega-sellers are writing.

 

JT,

I disagree with Jack wholeheartedly. Anything near 40k is becoming a novel (some call them Summer Novels).

Do you know the story of why novels were given a certain number of pages? It's because the publishing industry needed to inflate the number of pages to cover the costs of doing business, so that they could raise the prices.

If I was you, I would publish the book at $2.99. See how it does. If it's a good story, with a great blurb and an awesome cover, it will sell. One of my books is 39k words and I am selling it at $2.99. I can tell you that it has sold beautifully without any warning as to size or calling it a novella. No one has given it any negative reviews for size.

My point is there is no harm in trying. As with any advice, you should only take what makes sense to you. Selling a standalone book is difficult in the era of series-heavy readers. There's no rule saying that you can't leave the book at 3.99/4.99/5.99 and drop it later. Try 99c, even though I would disagree with it. Try things and see how they work for you.

No one is going to come to your house with a gun if you do it wrong.

Value your time. Try different strategies. Write the next book.

 

I was told I shouldn't write any stories that had anything to do with vampires a few years back. That the market was over-saturated. I didn't listen of course even though this was right on the tale end of the last vampire craze.  But judging by the sheer number of books released in just the last 90 days that contains vampires or elements thereof I'd say I'll be in good company...when I finally wrap things up.

Don't listen to such silly talk and just publish. The idea of over-saturation, completely disregards all the readers who are looking for and enjoying those types of stories.

 

The Nebula, Hugo, and Bram Stoker Awards all consider anything 40k+ a novel. I recently lowered my projected wordcount on my zombie novel WIP from 65k to 40k because I don't know if I have a 65k novel in me. So anything over 40k will be icing, and at least at 40k I'll be in good company.

 

The market is more like a stream, throw your book in and see how it goes.  Even if it doesn't strike popularity *now*, it might later; and until people have read it it's always going to be a new experience for them when they do.

 

I don't think the market is oversaturated. If I did, I wouldn't be writing one. I agree with a lot of the advice already given, so I won't try to throw my own two cents in other than to echo the sentiment of bringing something original to the table. For instance, my zombie novel has a notable sword and sorcery element.

 

With that said, the bigger names can command a higher price (like any genre), but they're the exception. Take a look at Molles's prices since he's likely the biggest self-published zompoc author (though he's joined Orbit). His first Remaining novel is priced at 1.99 and the subsequent novels are 2.99. Those are full-length novels. With a novella, I' believe you'd have an incredibly tough time building a platform at a higher price point, since there's so many discounted books already in this genre (in fact, I'd see anything above .99 tough to sell a zompoc novella).

The nice thing about the zompoc genre is that the readers are voracious and go through quite a few books (I'd compare them to romance readers in that respect). There are plenty of readers out there. The challenge is getting your story noticed in a sea of zombies. But, it's possible. Best wishes!

Another zombie author here. I'll just quote Rachel, since I was going to post something similar. Some people might not mind paying 2.99 for 40K, but I think a lot might. I might release it at 99 cents and then go up, not the other way around. I just released a novella to go with my novel (25K) and it's priced at 99 cents. My novel is 2.99.
But you could always start it at 2.99 and go lower if need be.

And the second point is so true. "They" might say the market's oversaturated, but the readers who love zombies will disagree.
Get it out there--why not? Good luck!

And Rachel--I'm pretty sure you're supposed to be in the writing cave, not KBoards.