Hi, fiction lover! I’ve been enjoying this October quite a bit. This year, it’s been all about my return to loving fiction. Honestly, there was never a time when I “stopped loving” fiction, but there were definitely moments when I wasn’t giving priority to my writing, reading, and editing. These days, I carve out space to learn about storytelling and to really give the best I can into my novels. How about you? What are the intentional choices you’re making to make fiction a part of your life? Today, I’m going to be talking about how to pick an author niche. We’ll talk about what this looks like for us writers, and the question we’re all asking—do we really need an author niche?
How to Pick an Author Niche: Simplified
You’ve probably heard about niches in terms of content creation or even looking for a job. For an author, it means largely the same thing. What are you specializing in? What are you doing that can differentiate you from the crowd of so many others? Although sometimes we don’t like to think about this, it’s something we need to ask if we want to make a living as a writer.
For an author, this niche can be quite simple. For example, your niche could be “YA fantasy.” Of course, there are many other writers in a niche like this one, so it may be good to narrow it down further. Say: “YA fantasy with strong female protagonists, written in first person, focusing on medieval time periods.” There are so many ways to get creative with these niches. Try not to think too hard about it! A lot of the time, our niche is what comes naturally to us. It’s what we’ve done in the past and what people tell us we’re good at.
There is the question of whether we actually need a niche as an author. I’m going to be discussing this further! But for now, just know that an author niche can be key to creating an author brand, which will give readers exactly what to anticipate. It’ll draw the right people in and keep them as loyal fans because they know what to expect of you.
Two Case Studies
I’d like to bring in some case studies about two successful authors—Marie Lu and Joan He. They’ve approached their careers in different ways, but they both crushed it in their fields and became NYT Bestsellers.
Marie Lu’s author career was first tied to her Legend series. This is what happens often in a traditional deal: a trilogy is planned out, and then the author will spend several years on that series. So, the YA dystopian field was where Marie Lu was placed. And she gained many fans in this era. Because Legend was so successful, Marie Lu stayed in the field of YA, but she branched out a bit to fantasy. Even so, The Young Elites very much had dystopian themes, too. Then, she published Warcross, which was also dystopian slash sci-fi. Since then, she branched out even more, till she was able to release her debut adult fantasy, Red City.
On the other hand, Joan He made it clear that she did not want to be known for one genre. Joan He debuted with a YA fantasy, Descendant of the Crane. But she quickly jumped into a dystopian sci-fi, The Ones We’re Meant to Find. Making such a huge switch-up was a decision that Joan He was intentional about, as she didn’t want to be stuck writing one genre or type of story. Later on, she wrote another epic fantasy, Strike the Zither, this one inspired by the Three Kingdoms. Because she wasn’t pressured to expand on a series with her debut, she was able to explore many modes. Sure, she’s known for her iconic twists in her books, but she chooses to write the story of her heart, even when it veers from her last project.
Closing Thoughts About How to Pick an Author Niche
Both authors in the previous section were authors of speculative fiction. However, they had different ideas on where they wanted their author careers to go.
And we will all have to make that choice as authors. Should we be known for a particular genre? Is there a theme that we’re known for? For some of us, it’s easy to jump into a genre that we’ve loved for a long time, like fantasy or romance. For others, it might feel like torture to choose.
I’m somewhere in the middle of Marie Lu and Joan He. I also love YA speculative, but I’m also very into contemporary and romance. So, I’ll just be focusing on one project at a time and seeing where it takes me. If I really had to specialize, I would choose YA light fantasy, but it’ll also be hard to give up all the other genres I want to explore.
In terms of how to pick an author niche, I want to make it clear that there are many avenues to success as an author. So, I would answer “no” to the question of whether we really need one. However, there is a big caveat. Successful authors will often choose a niche because it makes it so much easier to find a fanbase and to build a community of superfans. So, it’s up to you. I’ll say that if you have a niche you’re leaning toward, go for it and really become a master of that genre.
Did you find this post helpful? Let me know if you learned something new regarding how to pick an author niche. This one was so fun! I loved talking about a couple of my favorite authors. This week, I hope you fall a little bit more in love with writing and storytelling. Try to take fifteen minutes to write down what you think your author niche would be, and make sure to share it in the comments below! Follow me on my blog for more posts about fiction and fandom.