Promoting to a Niche Market

Are you writing a mystery to a niche market? You know what I mean. Maybe you’re writing a cozy about quilting, or dog breeding. In my case, I write Tudor mysteries, Sherlockian mysteries, and medieval mysteries. Whether you write with a large publisher or a small one, promotion is all in your hands.

Let’s take the example of a Tudor mystery. It’s important to sit down and make a list of all the unique things about what you write, and look for the different avenues in which to sell it. Okay, so I’ve got here an historical mystery. So that means I could market to readers of not only mysteries but historical novels. Since it’s about Tudors, there is that market of people who are in love with the Tudor history, setting, and characters. And since my protagonist is a bisexual jester, I can also promote it to the LGBTQ market. See what I mean? Lots of avenues to explore and exploit.

King Henry VIII and his jester Will Somers for my King’s Fool Mystery Series

Now take that list and expand it. I also investigated the Society of Creative Anachronism, or SCA. That is an international organization of re-enactors, folks who like to have jousts and do wars and just generally meet and dress in period garb and talk about their favorite subject, the Middle Ages. They also have publications sent to their members in which to advertise as well as local chapters. I also noted historical societies throughout the country. They are devoted to promoting their local histories, but they also have an appreciation for history in general and you never know whether they might be interested in an author of an historical as a speaker to their group.

Crispin Guest and Jack Tucker in my Crispin Guest Medieval Noir series. (Commissioned art for the final book in the series)

For anything that you write, there are probably several organizations devoted to that subject, be it dogs or quilts or beekeepers.

Start a blog. I know Substack is the thing today with its monetary option and blogs have fallen out of favor…for a while, but now they’re back, and I think it’s a new era to reacquaint readers with its potential. Right now, I get more tuning into my blog than my newsletter (and if you can figure out BookFunnel to promote your newsletter, more power to you). I don’t monetize either, because I personally feel that if readers buy the book that’s all the monetizing I can grab from them. Also, it’s great if you can form a group blog, that is, a blog with several other writers writing in your genre, preferably with most who are published. Having several bloggers gets you off the hook to blog every day. I used to blog solo AND write in a group blog, but nowadays I choose to blog alone. Since I write historical mystery, I had a built-in theme: historicals. I write a colorful blog magazine full of articles on history and mystery. I’d sprinkle in a few bits here and there about me and my books and other things I’m doing, then temper it with interesting interviews of authors and others, and promote the heck out of it.

But how to promote?

There are the usual places to offer BSP (Blatant Self Promotion) like social media and your monthly newsletter, but that’s not really getting to the heart of the matter. If you are using your online strategy—a good place to start since it’s free—I’d suggest a lot of reading of other blogs that are close to your subject matter, not just other mystery blogs but, if you are a beekeeper writing a beekeeping mystery, find other beekeeping blogs and lists (but make sure that blog is active! Look at the date of their last post. It might be YEARS old). Look to their blogroll and start farming emails. Yes, this is time-consuming, but in the end you will have a very targeted email list. When you have an interesting topic like an interview or a heavily researched blog post, send the announcement to your email list. Now caution must be taken here. Do NOT send an announcement to this list for EVERY SINGLE BLOG POST you write. If they wanted to know about it, they’d subscribe to your blog. No, it’s got to be pertinent since there is a fine line between advertising and annoying.

Badger and Watson in my An Irregular Detective Mystery Series (Sherlockian)

This professionalism on your part might turn into bloggers inviting you to post on their blogs as a guest, opening up your market to even more readers. That’s a score. Or just ask outright if they would take a guest blogpost. Make sure this is original work, not something recycled from a previous post or guest post.

Since I have dumped Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, and only show up on Bluesky, it makes life a little harder, but if you don’t stand for some principles, you will fall for anything. And besides, even though Facebook had been paying me a modest amount for my engagement, I found that fewer readers were coming from those areas. I have to rely on being on other’s blogs, word of mouth, and appearances at libraries and bookstores, which are also declining (because people are still wary of Covid, I have an aging readership, people aren’t buying like they used to? Who knows? I write in a genre that doesn’t respond to TikTok subscribers and other social media memes like the romance and paranormal genres do).

But it’s important to participate. Comment on other people’s comments, but don’t be disrespectful and annoying. Be funny or endearing. Just as you leave a comment on blog posts on other people’s blogs as a way of getting more attention, you would do the same on social media. And post some thoughts of your own. From my blog, every time I make a post, it also posts to my subscribers. The more you post and comment the more others will comment on yours and get the attention of others. It’s part of networking.

And remember, in whatever you do to promote, be unforgettable. In a good way.