I'm worried my book will be impossible to sell/market because it doesn't satisfy a niche or genre. Any advice on how to fix that?
I recently got feedback on my wip from some friends, and am pumped as they gave a lot of ideas that will make it better, but they have also gotten me thinking a lot about the genre of the book, and how to sell it. Namely, I worry that since it doesn't fit neatly into a sub-genre, it will be hard to get folks to read it and I am shooting myself in the foot for how marketing as a self publisher works.
- If someone picked it up hoping for an epic fantasy adventure, they would disappointed that the entire story takes place in 6 hours, the epic quest is 20 blocks, and it takes place in 2010's suburban Massachusetts.
- If someone picked it up hoping for an urban fantasy, they would be disappointed that it... honestly doesn't have any tropes from the genre at all (monsters aren't secret, only 3 monsters, monster society isn't addressed, no romance, no mystery or noir, no attention paid to worldbuilding, etc)
- A horror fan would be frustrated that the horror is mostly dealt with at the end of the second act and the final quarter is mostly about family dynamics.
- A fan of adult literature could be frustrated that the entire story deals with ya themes about growing up and reconciling with your parents and place in society. But it also doesn't read like ya much at all either, it isn't cool enough.
I know people do comparisons to other media in order to convince people to read and the I can think of is: Take "The Amazing Screw on Head" but remove all the pulp elements and goofy setting, then cross it with "The Boy Who Cried Werwolf" but remove all the disney channel tropes. Then tone down the humor by 75%, add more psychological horror, then soak it in a bucket of surrealism. And honestly I don't think thats a pitch that would convince anyone.
The real genre is "kid's halloween movie for adults" which just isn't a vibe folks are going for. The idea behind it was "a super speed version of growing up, a character is created as a baby, and has to deal with all the problems of growing up in a single night", but that isn't a pitch, people won't pick it up based on that.
Two friends said that I should just port it to medieval times, make it more YA, and stretch out the timeline to make it more classic fantasy (saying the setting doesn't add much) but i'm not sure that is the right path. I'm partly thinking if I should just start over and think about how I can use the core ideas in a story that is easier to market while self publishing.
And all that said, I DO think the story is good... if I can get people to read it I think they will like it. I'm just worried that I know its going to take me at least another year of work to finish it to the level I want, and it might be for a project that is going to be impossible to get anyone to read. And I feel like I should do what I can to catch that early.
Any advice?