Not only has the Ready Player One movie boosted the book back up to popularity, but it has also created an interest in more stories taking place in a video game setting. This puts the spotlight on a blooming niche genre known as LitRPG that has been slowly rising to popularity for some time. Like Ready Player One, LitRPG books take place in worlds driven by video game mechanics. But as YA author Taran Matharu stated during a panel at the London Book Fair, publishers do not want to touch this genre yet. But why is that? And what does that mean for those who either love the genre or want to contribute to it?
Research shows that the litRPG genre is dominated by male readers. Around 90% of its readers are male and a large number of these readers only read in this genre. For publishers, this rings uncertainty in sales. Furthermore, because of the nature of these stories, not everyone will understand the appeal. It creates a barrier that could take years to overcome for many of the juggernaut publishers. What is likely to happen is that smaller LitRPG publishers —such as Portal Books— will emerge to help establish the genre.
For the moment, self-publishing in this genre seems to be a gold mine. The lack of industry support for the genre creates demand for readers who exclusively want to read these books and this means there’s an opportunity for LitRPG authors to publish their works and position themselves as early adopters.
Advice for LitRPG authors
My advice to any writer interested in writing LitRPG is to write a series of books now and self-publish them to become a brand name.
I don’t mean just writing a first draft of a story and hitting publish immediately on Amazon. Take the time out to extensively edit your work to professional standards and invest in a beautifully illustrated book cover and get your work out there before the market becomes saturated. There is already an abundance of amateur writers publishing work in this genre, but it’s the ones that have been fully thought out and carefully crafted that will shine and lead the wave.
A successfully self-published series has the potential to pick up publishing deals later. Once it’s clear that the audience is there. Some new writers may not feel comfortable enough self-publishing, in which case I suggest submitting your work to Portal Books (linked above).
If you have already published a LitRPG book and would like some advice or promotion, then feel free to shoot an email using our contact page.
—Featured image design by NibelArt
