Hello!
I just wanted to report and comment on what appears to be at least a slight, tentative marketing success.
My publisher recently listed “Cheetah’s Win”, a novella about a washed-up and massively self-destructive baseball player given a second chance at the Bigs if he was willing to undergo many changes in his life, including being TF’ed into a feline. I didn’t expect it to sell at all well-- quite frankly I mostly wanted it made available as a standalone (it’d previously been published in the ROAR series) because a) I’m rather proud of it and want it to be part of my legacy and b) because I’m a nickel-grubbing curmudgeon of a writer that values royalties from all sources, no matter how small. But…
Much to my surprise, it’s selling in at least a small way. We’ve moved at least thirty copies in roughly as many days at this point, and the trend continues. It’s even picked up a couple reviews already.
So… What’s different about this one? Not much. The cover is low-budget, the price is (for me) average, and no attempt whatsoever was made to market the thing. Only one known factor has changed, and that’s that it was listed in the Sports Fiction section as well as SF and/or (not sure) Fantasy. Therefore, if I had to point to a single cause for the unexpected sales, so far that’s where I’d have to go.
Is the Kindle market starved for sports-fiction books, perhaps? Are there more potential TF/Furry fans out there in jockland that we suspect? Or, did I maybe just get lucky and a prominent critic/blogger/whatever read it early and liked it? All I can say is that as of this posting it’s still selling a copy or so a day, and I can’t say why.
However… This much I am certain of. I’m now much more likely to consider attempting a sports-themed full-length furry novel than I was a mere month ago, and am posting here so that others might perhaps profit from the same experience. =:)