Where do I Begin? Try this one first.

Welcome back to another blog hop, with #OpenBook. Here’s this week’s prompt.

Don’t forget to click the purple button to see what everyone else has to say on this week’s subject. It’s at the end of my post.

Which book of yours do you recommend readers start with?

Before you can get to that part, you have to confirm that any prospective reader is a fan of your genre.

Unfortunately, that is where I tend to fall down. The reason is a two-word answer to the question, “What do you write.”

Science Fiction.

At that point, so many people’s eyes glaze over. “I don’t read/like that,” is the usual answer. I’ve even had people tell me they don’t read Sci-fi at Sci-fi conventions, which begs the question “What are you doing here, then?”

When faced with that, the response is that they don’t read. They prefer Sci-fi movies or T.V. series.

My Sci-fi novels mix genres, which many readers find problematic. For example, Sci-fi readers don’t like my space-based amateur detective series as they’re “Cozy Mystery.” However, Cozy Mystery readers don’t like them because –“they’re Sci-fi”.

Even if I go the other way around and say that I write crime or romance or whatever, as soon as I mention that they happen to be set in the future, or on another planet, I get the same response.

And that’s before you get to the Self-Published bit.

That’s a repeating thread, whatever the themes, there always seems to be something in any of my novels that puts a potential reader off.

You could argue that the stories don’t need a Sci-fi element. It’s true, they would still work in any setting.

That’s not the point.

Sometimes, it’s almost as if…, let’s not go there.

Despite quite a lot of advertising and effort on my part, I don’t sell many books. Not nearly enough to make a profit.

Largely because of that, I’ve just about given up trying to find an audience interested in the kind of things I write.

The trouble is, I can’t help writing stories with at least some Sci-fi in them.

And if I mash genres, so what?

I think a new approach makes things more interesting.

Whether it’s

1. amateur detectives, in space, or
2. love loss and redemption, in space, or
3. crime dynasties and corporations at war, in space, or even
4. the hero’s journey, guess where.

The whole space thing seems to wreck my chances of getting readers.

I’ve tried writing other stuff, like Sword and Sorcery Fantasy, Steampunk and Psychological Thrillers.

But people know that they’re written by me.

And I’m a Sci-fi author.

So, if I had to recommend one of my books, I’d struggle to know where to start.

Because they all combine genres and tropes in a way you might not expect. In some way, they all contain elements of Sci-fi.

At the moment, the only people I seem to be able to find to engage with, don’t like that.

If I had to, I’d just recommend that you try the first in a series. Or any one of my standalone novels.

If you don’t have a pathological hatred of anything Sci-fi, you can find all my books here,

What do you think about this week’s subject?

Let me know below.

Then, please click the purple button to check out what my fellow writers have to say about this week’s topic.

Until next time.

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