3 Things You Need to Know about Your Book's Market

Gina Kammer Author

Apr 10, 2025 |

These are three key market pieces you need to know to get your manuscript ready for readers and meet their expectations.

3 Things You Need to Know About Your Book's Market

The bad news?

Your book is not for everyone.

The good news?

Your book is not for everyone.

Yes! It’s a good thing. For one, it means you don’t have to try to please everyone.

But you also simply can’t. Readers have expectations based on the look, feel, and sound of your book. These elements include factors like the cover design, which signals genre; the tone of the prose, which can set expectations for mood or style; and even the pacing and themes, which contribute to the overall reading experience. But that means it needs to have a specific look, feel, and sound. So make sure you know your market!

3 Things You Need to Know About Your Book’s Market

1. Your Reader Age Category
   Reader age categories refer to the general age group of your target audience, such as children, middle grade, young adult (YA), or adult. Each category comes with specific expectations in terms of themes, language, complexity, and content. For example, middle-grade books often focus on themes of friendship, adventure, and personal growth, while avoiding explicit content. Young adult novels typically feature teenage protagonists grappling with identity, relationships, or societal challenges, often with a faster pace and more emotional intensity.
   
   Understanding your reader age category is crucial for ensuring your book aligns with the expectations of your target audience. It helps guide decisions around content, tone, and even word count. If your book strays too far from these expectations, it risks disappointing readers or confusing publishers.
   
   

2. Your Genre Umbrella
   Your novel's genre umbrella refers to the broad category your story falls under, such as science fiction or fantasy. This overarching genre sets the foundation for your book’s identity and influences elements like setting, themes, and overall tone. For instance, science fiction often explores futuristic technology or space travel, while fantasy delves into magical systems or mythical creatures. Identifying your genre umbrella helps you communicate the core essence of your book to readers and publishers.
   
   

3. The Best Subgenre Fit
   Your novel's subgenre fit narrows down your story’s unique flavor within the broader genre umbrella. In science fiction, subgenres include space opera, cyberpunk, and hard science fiction. In fantasy, they might include epic fantasy, urban fantasy, or grimdark. Subgenres help set specific expectations about tone, tropes, pacing, and narrative focus. For example, urban fantasy often features fast-paced action and modern settings, while epic fantasy leans toward expansive worlds and intricate plots. Pinpointing your subgenre helps you connect with readers looking for a specific type of story experience.
   
   

These are three key pieces you need to know to get your manuscript ready for readers. Whether planning, drafting, or revising, defining a few market areas for your book will help you meet reader expectations—even the readers who are not your target audience.

Sometimes readers read outside their predictable categories. But when they do, they want the experience of the other category, such as when adults want the dash of teenage momentum from a young-adult novel.

If your YA novel reads like an adult novel, you break your implied promise to that reader. If your content, tone, and age level don't match up or confuse readers, you risk losing your audience.

Meeting reader expectations means a better chance at success for your book. You'll actually gain more readers, even those outside the book's target, by zeroing in on where your novel fits best.

How to Identify Your Reader Age Category

One of the best ways to determine your book's age category is to find books similar to yours and see where they’re categorized. But sometimes it's hard to know where to start. That’s why I created a flow chart to help you identify your book's likely age category, covering aspects like protagonist age, mixed-age points of view, and emotional age and type of content. This resource is available in the Enchanted Library when you sign up for a free student account in The Inky Bookwyrm Conservatory.

Sign up here and get instant access!

Word Counts and Market Expectations

Your book’s word count is another critical element to nail down for its market. Different age categories and genres have different expectations. For example, middle-grade books are typically 20,000 in the lower MG category to 55,000 words in the upper MG category, offering quick-paced adventures for younger readers. Meanwhile, adult epic fantasies often exceed 100,000 words, immersing readers in intricate plots with multiple points of view and expansive world-building.

To make this categorization identification process easier for you, I’ve created a chart aligning word counts with expected age categories. You can download it as part of your free resources in the Enchanted Library when you join The Inky Bookwyrm Conservatory.

Click here to join and download the chart!

How to Find Your Genre Umbrella

Understanding your genre umbrella means identifying the broad market category of your book, such as science fiction or fantasy. You can find your genre umbrella by recognizing the overarching reader expectations tied to it. Each umbrella genre carries specific themes, settings, and narrative styles that readers anticipate.

For example, science fiction often explores futuristic worlds, advanced technologies, or societal questions about humanity’s future. Within this genre, readers expect elements like:

• World-building: Settings rooted in science or speculative technology (e.g., spaceships, dystopian cities).

• Themes: Ethical dilemmas or the impact of technology on society.

• Tone: A balance of wonder, tension, and intellectual curiosity.

On the other hand, fantasy delves into magical realms, mythical creatures, or epic quests. Readers expect:

• World-building: Unique magical systems, diverse cultures, or mythical lands.

• Themes: Good versus evil, personal growth, or destiny.

• Tone: A sense of wonder, mystery, or adventure, often steeped in folklore or mythology.

To find your genre umbrella, think about the broad strokes of your story:

• Does it focus on speculative technology or magical systems?

• Is the central conflict rooted in science-driven scenarios or mythical quests?

• What tone dominates—intellectual exploration or magical adventure?

If you're still unsure, reviewing comparable titles can clarify which umbrella fits your story. For example, if your book includes an interstellar war and advanced AI, it likely belongs under the science fiction umbrella. If it's about a chosen hero confronting an ancient prophecy in a land ruled by dragons, it’s probably fantasy.

What Happens When Your Umbrella Genre Isn’t As Stereotypical?

But those are rather obvious examples. For over a decade, I’ve been working with a wide spectrum of authors as an editor and book coach. Most of these authors are often writing more innovatively in their chosen umbrella genres, and placing them in one umbrella over the other can seem less straightforward.

My military sci-fi author’s epic series contains alien races with powers based on the elements, and they’re on a quest, of sorts, to protect a powerful object. In this sense, it overlaps quite a bit with the expectations of fantasy. But the primary setting and the nature of its plot events are futuristic military with advanced technology. The protagonists are a modern military commander and the academic specialist aiding him. The powerful object, while not well understood, seems more technological than magical. And the same goes for the extraordinary abilities of the alien races. It features explanations steeped in hard science and speculative concerns. Therefore, this series better aligns with the expectations of science fiction readers due to the overall effect.

On the other hand, I coached another author writing in an intricately built, grungy urban setting with oppressive hierarchies and plenty of guns. The wild west-like chaos creates a mix of technology and the more primitive. In this sense, it might seem to fall under the sci-fi umbrella as well, maybe leaning toward dystopian or post-apocalyptic fiction. But semi-immortal god-like beings rule with powers that have no clear scientific or technological basis. While the protagonists are more akin to modern people than medieval heroes, some have supernatural abilities and one is the subject of a prophecy. Therefore, this series better fits the overall expectations for fantasy despite some overlap.

So when you’re in doubt, pay attention to the more dominant overall effect of your novel. It’s OK for elements to overlap. But the primary sense your novel gives through its most prominent setting, themes, and protagonists (regardless of what other tech, races/beings, or abilities your world might contain) should provide clearer direction. For confirmation, check potential subgenres to see which one(s) fit best and which umbrella category those subgenres fall under.

How to Find Your Best Subgenre Fit

But how do you pinpoint your best subgenre fit? If possible, it’s usually easiest once you’ve identified your likely genre umbrella. Subgenres provide a more specific lens through which readers view your story, offering clear expectations for tone, pacing, themes, and tropes. Each umbrella genre has its own set of subgenres.

To find your subgenre fit, market research is key. Here’s how to start:

1. Research Comparable Titles: Look for books within your genre umbrella that share key elements with your story. For example:

   • A science fiction story with advanced robotics might align with hard science fiction.

   • A fantasy set in a bustling, magical city could fall under urban fantasy.
     
     

2. Use Bookstore and Library Categories: Check how books similar to yours are categorized in bookstores or libraries. Look at shelving labels or browse online genre tags.
   
   

3. Analyze Story Elements: Break your story down into its core components:

   • Setting: Does it take place in a magical realm, a dystopian city, or deep space?

   • Tone: Is it lighthearted, dark, whimsical, or intense?

   • Themes: What central ideas or conflicts drive the narrative?
     
     

4. Dive Into Reader Expectations: Consider what fans of each subgenre typically enjoy. For example, grimdark fantasy readers often seek morally complex characters and bleak, high-stakes conflicts, while fans of space opera enjoy grand adventures and interpersonal drama in a cosmic setting.
   
   

5. Evaluate Comparable Titles: Read the descriptions, reviews, and even excerpts of books within potential subgenres. Look for patterns and identify where your story best fits.
   
   

By narrowing down your subgenre, you position your book to meet the specific expectations of a dedicated audience, increasing its chances of resonating with readers and publishers.

What Do You Do If You Can’t Find Any Books Like Yours?

One of the easiest and most enjoyable hacks for finding out where your book fits in the market is to find books like yours and see where they’re categorized. But this is still a daunting task for most authors. Is it daunting to you too?

It’s silly, yet we like to think “nothing is like my book.” But brain science—and experience—says that’s simply not true.

“New” ideas really come from combining existing elements in novel ways. So there must at least be another book out there that shares some elements with yours.

Cling to that. Use it to gain some traction in actually finding comparable titles instead of simply dismissing everything. You might be surprised how close of a fit some titles might be.

Not to worry—your take is still unique. No one will write the same topic in exactly the same way, so no two books, even based on the same prompt, will be identical.

There is room for both. No one can get your perspective anywhere else.

Your story is valid.

But now the task is daunting in another way. There are just So. Many. Books. Right? Where do you start?

You don’t have time to read all of these books just to see if they might be similar enough to your story to be useful for defining your market. You need to focus on writing in the precious little time you have! Well—hard truth warning here—if you don’t have time to read, you don’t have time to write.

If you want to level up your craft and understand the market, you need to get familiar with the literary conversation that’s already taking place through fiction. You’re entering into that conversation, after all, if you want to share your story with readers. So don’t just barge in like an oblivious, late party guest.

Readers may not know exactly what seems off, but they’ll sense something isn’t measuring up to what they expected. So go in informed as well as you can. And I can help you do that!

How to Find Your Novel’s Market

You don’t need to read hundreds of titles just to see if any are comparable to yours. We have the internet at our fingertips.

It’s easier than ever to start with one title that you know might share something with your story. For instance, if your book involves a magical school, you might search for “books like Harry Potter” to find similar stories (even if such extreme successes don’t make good comps in query letters, they can be just fine as a market search starting point!). From there, you can go down the rabbit hole, discovering plenty of other possibilities and narrowing in on the closest titles to yours.

• Read descriptions, scroll reviews, check out previews, and do some general browser searches.
  
  

• On bookstore sites, look at what readers also bought or use Goodreads lists for more ideas.
  
  

• Open to using AI for early research stages? Ask your preferred bot for recommendations after telling it what your book is about to see if it can tell you which published books are similar. (Of course, AI is still infamous for hallucinating things that don’t exist and aren’t factual. So obviously you’ll want to follow up on whatever your bot gives you.)
  
  

• Bring if you can at least bring your writer-hermit self out to a physical bookstore or library, you can ask the booksellers and librarians for help.
  
  

No matter your comfort level, there’s a way! Keep a running list and note the shared elements with your story. When you arrive at two or three that seem pretty solid, those are the books you should read—at minimum

For basic market delineations like genre, subgenre, and age category, you can simply look at the comparable book’s specs or pay attention to where it’s shelved. See which genre or category lists it’s been placed on. These are good indications of where your own book might fit in the current market.

Why You Must Read Comparable Titles

You’re not quite done yet! Reading the comparable titles will help you understand the possible content and tone expectations in that section of the market, such as the pacing, overarching themes, tropes, explicitness of content, or the language style typically used.

Don’t like following the crowd? That’s okay! But at least be aware of the expectations you might be intentionally upending. Don’t be the oblivious party guest.

You can join the conversation with a different opinion, but being informed about what’s already there will help you surpass reader expectations even if you aim to subvert them.

But you need to know what those expectations are in the first place if you want to take them on in a different way. It will give you a much better chance of success for your book without risking losing your readers. That’s why it’s still important to do your due diligence in finding your book’s place in the market.

Finding your market doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Start with the tools and resources available to you—like the flow chart and word count guide in the Enchanted Library.

Ready to make this process a little easier?

Sign up for your free account in The Inky Bookwyrm Conservatory today!

Categories: : book coaching, manuscript stages, self-publishing