#5 Who I Want to Be When I Grow Up (AKA Market Research & Social Media Chaos)
Ever wonder how some indie-published authors seem to magically break into the market?? Yeah, same. That’s why I’ve been diving deep into market research to figure out what’s working in my genre. Turns out, there’s a lot to learn—since I have yet to find a fairy godmother to grant me instant bestseller status.
Market Research: Studying Indie-Pubbed Success Stories
This week, I took a deep dive into the strategies of bestselling indie-published YA fantasy authors. My goal? To create a “who I want to be when I grow up” list—essentially a roadmap for my own author journey. No enchanted mirrors or magical swords, just good old-fashioned research.
And honestly? Even if you’re trad publishing instead of indie, I think this research process is valuable for you too. Finding other successful authors in your genre and seeing what they’re doing with social media and marketing might give you ideas for things you can do to boost your own books. Just a thought!
Doing Market Research Matters Because:
It helps you understand what readers expect.
You can spot gaps in the market (hello, YA contemporary fantasy with disability rep!).
Knowing what works for other authors = smarter marketing, not reinventing the wheel.
How I Found My “Who I Want to Be When I Grow Up” List on Amazon
If you want to see what’s working in your genre, Amazon is a goldmine. I tracked down successful indie-pub authors by checking category rankings, publisher details, and bestseller lists. Unfortunately, there was no breadcrumb trail to follow—just hours (and I do mean HOURS) of clicking and note-taking.
(If you know of a smarter way, PLEASE let me know!)
But I’ll show you how you can do this too!
How To Find Top Indie Authors in Your Genre on Amazon:
Start on Amazon’s website.
Enter the name of a popular book in your genre. (I started with Legendborn by Tracy Deonn since it’s YA Contemporary Fantasy, and that’s what A Little Less Invisible is too.) This is where knowing your comp titles will really help you out.
Press on the book title to open the page for it.
Press on the Kindle version of your chosen book. (I did not do this at first and I struggled. Don’t be like me. Start from the Kindle version. It’s easier to find indie-published authors this way, promise.)
Scroll down the page to the Product details section.
See where it says Best Sellers Rank and provides specific genres and rank numbers? That’s where the goldmine is.
Press on the genre tag you want to start with. (I’m gonna go with Teen & Young Adult Contemporary Fantasy eBooks). Open it in a new window, so you can get back to this page later if you want to explore the other tags.
A page will open with the bestsellers in that genre category from the #1 bestseller down. Now, most of these are probably traditionally published titles at the top, so we’re gonna have to do some more digging to find indie ones. But first! Take a look at the other genre tags in the hierarchy on the side of the page.
In my example, we’re in the Kindle eBooks>Teen & Young Adult>Science Fiction & Fantasy> Fantasy section. This is where my book will live once it goes live. (Cue panicked but excited sweats).
Within this section, there are sub-genre sections. My book, A Little Less Invisible, also fits into:
- Coming of Age
- Contemporary
- Fairy Tales & Folklore
- Fantasy & Supernatural
Your research should get you the same thing in whatever genre you plan to publish in. So note down any other genre and sub-genre tags you want to explore later as well.Alright. Onward! Now we gotta find the authors who indie-published in this top 100 list section.
I wish there was a better way to do this. And I MEAN IT. If you know of a better way for the love of the fae, please let me know!
But the best way I found to do this is look through the list for titles and authors that I didn’t recognize. For example, my list has Harry Potter in the top places, and we all know those weren’t indie-published 🙄.Find a book you aren’t familiar with (I started with Nicole Eatough’s Whispers of Enchantment series because it was #8 in the Teen & Young Adult Contemporary Fantasy eBooks list, and I hadn’t heard of it before).
Press on the book to open it in a new tab.
Scroll down to the Product Details section.
Look for the Publisher information.
If your book has an LLC listed as its publisher, or the publisher has been left blank, it was (most likely) indie-published.
Google the LLC just to be sure to see if it comes up anywhere as a small press. Again, if it doesn’t, it was probably indie-published.
WRITE DOWN THE NAME OF THE AUTHOR.
This person indie published their work and managed to get themselves into the top 100 list for the genre you’re writing in. They are clearly doing something right, so jot down their name to study what they’re doing later.
Go back to your other tab with the top 100 eBooks in your genre and look for more names you’re not familiar with. Keep digging until you’ve found a few more indie authors in the top 100 and add them to your “who I want to be when I grow up” list.
Once you feel you’ve exhausted that genre tag, use the Product Details links to navigate to other eBooks genre tags that match your book. Or, go back to the page with the genre hierarchy and sub-hierarchy sections and drill down through those to their eBooks tags. Then dig.
Repeat the process until you have a decent list of names (I’d recommend 10) or you’re ready to pull your hair out. If you hit hair-pulling stage, maybe take a break and come back to it another day 😬.
For example, I went back and dug through:
- Coming of Age Fantasy eBooks
- Fairy Tales & Folklore eBooks
- YA Fiction on Disabilities
- etc.After you have your list of indie authors who are doing things right, you might also want to look for books in your genres published by smaller presses, and a few books/authors who are traditionally published just so you can compare side-by-side— because knowing how they market differently can lead to some interesting finds. Use the Publisher information on the top books in your genre to hunt down some Big 5 books and some that were published by smaller presses. Note these authors down as well.
Important!!! Once you’re done compiling your list, have some cake and take a well-deserved break.
The End Result (for Me)
I now have a list of 10 indie authors, 4 small press authors, and 5 big name traditionally published authors in my genres. These are the people I’m going to start to study. Depending on what I find, I’ll add or subtract from there.
Next up:
Study how these authors promote their books and what strategies I might be able to use to be successful.
Set Google Alerts for these authors to track their marketing moves (will have a post on this in a bit).
Cry in the corner because, in doing this, I think I figured out why submitting A Little Less Invisible to agents didn’t go as well as I’d hoped 😭. (More on that in a future post.)
Market research took a TON of effort, but as I continue learning and building my own strategy, I’m getting a clearer picture of who I want to be when I grow up—at least in the indie publishing world. Hopefully you are too!
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p.s. Do you follow any indie-pubbed authors who market their books brilliantly? Drop their names below!