Effective today, Shining Tomorrow, what I hoped would be an epic giant robot quadrilogy full of daring battles and unanticipated twists, is hereby canceled due to low sales, though the book will remain available for purchase. I cannot justify spending time and money on something that isn’t working, and I won’t waste hours of every day writing a sequel no one will read.
But that was just one way I was proven wrong. There’s another, very important way as well.
UPDATE: Screw that defeatist nonsense. Shining Tomorrow is back on. But I was still proven wrong in an important way; read on to find out.
I wrote a blog post titled “Appealing to Men,” asserting that since men don’t read fiction (due to being more visual), there is no point in writing fiction for men. If a man wants thrilling adventure, he would more easily get it on film. If you want any pull at all, you must write for women, because they’re the only ones buying.
A recent release has made me question that assumption.
A few days ago, Jon Del Arroz released Justified, Volume 1 of the Saga of the NanoTemplar. According to readers (I haven’t read it yet), it is made to appeal to Christian men in particular, with a futuristic Knight Templar as the protagonist, plenty of action and mayhem, and a definite, unambiguous bad guy.
It sold far better than Del Arroz’s books normally sell, placing him on #1 for Christian sci-fi and attracting even nonreligious readers.
It was as if Del Arroz saw my post and deliberately set out to prove me wrong. And he did.
What do I take from this? There are more Christians and Christian-adjacent folks than weebs. Weebs and mech fans don’t read novels, so it was a mistake to try and market to them. There is a vast difference between an untapped market and an uninterested market.
Thus, I have chosen to put ShinTomo on the back burner and get to work on a Christian men’s adventure that I trunked a few years ago.
The market has spoken, and the way forward is clear.
Pray for my success.
It may be, but I wouldn’t rely too much on chasing trends or unexpected successes to know what is profitable. I guess there’s potential for this new sort of fiction or theme, but perhaps it’s also that Jon del Arroz has a large support network and great clout as an indie writer while most of us have pretty much nothing. Still, if you already have something written along those lines, this may be a good time to push it while the entire thing is still hot, so go for it.
Understandable; I know JDA’s platform is simply bigger. I didn’t expect anywhere near his numbers, but I don’t even have modest success, so I feel continuing it is a waste of time. I want try something else for the time being and handle it much differently.
It’s sad, but it seems that none of the GundamForUs titles seem to be taking off. Xseed seems to be the only one, and at first Brian was saying the algorithm wasn’t picking it up, and it was only success due to GoFundMe, but that changed after Larry Corriea plugged it. Not sure about Star Knight, but that doesn’t seem to have made much of a dent either.
Still another thing worth mentioning, Bradford beat everyone to this whole “Cruci-Fiction” punch. Masculine Catholic badass in power armor? Check, check and check. Yet he’s had no were near the success that JDA, or even Prometheus have had with Justified or Deus Vult Wastelanders. Another example is is Jon Mollison’s Space Princess featured an actual Space Crusade, and again to my knowledge didn’t pull in those kinds of numbers.
And I’ll admit I do find this worrying since my second novel I have planned (first novel still unpublished, but currently with Beta readers before I send it to an editor) mixes Sword and Planet, Space Opera and super robots, and the other projects I have planned are all mecha related in some way. I’m still going to continue with it though. I do think that mecha, and specifically Super Robots doesn’t really have much of a market on amazon, but I’m still wondering if action, and adventure can pull in the general reader, but only time will tell.
I will admit I disagreed with your “Appealing to Men,” thesis, and I was more along the lines of that men were an untapped market, but again there are plenty of Pulp Rev projects that were trying to appeal to men that didn’t have the kind of success JDA has had. So you never really know.
I think that Cruci-fiction needed someone like JDA to prime the pump. Someone with his reach had to prove that the market existed.
Star Knight has met my expectations to date. Those expectations come from my place, which is ZERO. No capital to speak of, no experience, no platform as such, and literally the minimal level of assistance required to put out a decent book. I don’t even have what Brian’s got to work with, nevermind Jon; comparisons are a category error, at the least.
What I take as encouragement is Jon acknowledging, on his livestream, that I got in first and–in effect–provided a Proof of Concept. That’s endorsement netted me some sales, and I’m already committed to producing all of the books. Being hospitalized for four months, and nearly dying, set me back but it won’t stop me. This is a crusade, and I’ll see it through.
A good perspective to have, Brad. You’ve got grade-A material.
Good for you. I’m glad that Star Knight is meeting your expectations.
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Rawle —
Write that Cruci-fiction book now that you feel the fire. The lift is there, and I think that there is more under that wave than just a brief surge. PulpRev + Christianity is a long, term winner.
I think so too. Pray for my success.
“Cruci-fiction” will absolutely amount to nothing more than a fad–and a terribly named fad, at that. Do write with testosterone, and do inform your stories with the supernatural and the Christian worldview, but as Sun-Tzu would likely have remarked (because I have lost the direct quote), you can only be the second best if you immitate.
For years (tedious ones), Christian spec fic writers have been arguing about how subtle to make the Christianity in their work. It’s a dumb argument to have. Christianity is a big part of life for a lot of people. Leaving it out to be more realistic isn’t realistic at all; it’s just a capitulation to the world and its standards. I think that’s what Jon realized. His book came from a place of confidence in his faith rather than a marketing campaign. I could be wrong. But that’s my take on it.
Hang in there!
Rawle
I wouldn’t be discouraged. Correct the aim. Use the mechs, kaizus, the base story lines and use male protagonists alongside the female ones. Use them to explore important themes.
Also I don’t think you should stop the moviemaking. On the contrary the visuals are just as helpful in sparking an interest in the Beauriful and lead them True and Good.
For possible inspiration there are 2 books available at Spohia press institue: Beauty: why it matters
the second How Catholic art saved the faith.
xavier
You’ll be happy to know that Volume 2 has a couple of sideplots involving male characters. As for stopping the moviemaking, that is a simple, straightforward matter of not having enough money to spare — nothing more, nothing less.
Rawle,
Great news about book 2.
I understand about the movies. Budget realities trump art.
I hope that you start again in the near future.
xavier
Thank you. I hope I don’t disappoint.