r/IndependentAuthor

FINDING #1: "Algorithm Content" vs Real Books

The biggest pattern: readers are drowning in AI-generated "trope soup" but can't find real, well-written books.

FINDING #2: Specific Tropes With Underserved Demand

2.1 Monster Romance
2.2 M/M Romance
2.3 Reverse Harem / Why Choose
2.4 Dark Romance

One thing that is common among all the above: High demand but, oversaturated in cheap AI versions but underserved for quality

FINDING #3: Non-English Readers

Translation gap is massive
Readers in Germany, France, Spain constantly complaining about lack of English books in their language and vice versa

Readers complaining about bad translations (AI translated books ruining the experience)

FINDING #4: Fiction With Prose Quality

- Want literary-quality prose
- Want romance in their fantasy
- Cannot find enough books that meet this bar

Almost nothing is being written to this standard in romantasy/women's fiction right now. The market is flooded with "trope checklist" content.

FINDING #5: AI in Romance

"Has AI stopped you from trying new authors?":

"Yes, definitely. I am sticking to authors I am already familiar with and who were publishing at least prior to 2023"

"I feel terrible for new authors but I don't really know what else to do"

BUT: "No and I think it's a shame that people won't try new authors for fear of AI Slop"

Readers suggesting: check author bios, social media, posting "this is not AI" disclaimers

Many readers either can't tell or don't care about AI, especially in the "smut" category

AI + Romance/Smut Readers:

They care about QUALITY, not about AI per se. The complaint is:

Bad writing (formulaic, trope checklist)

Obvious errors (character ages changing mid-book, timeline jumps)

No originality

If an AI-assisted book is well-written, has a good story, and doesn't have obvious errors — many romance/smut readers won't notice or won't care.

BUT: The readers who ARE sensitive to AI tend to:

Stick to known authors from before 2023

Check for AI covers, virtual voice narration

Avoid Kindle Unlimited for new authors

Look for "not AI" disclaimers in author bios

FINDING #6: Men's Fiction

"There are no books written for men anymore"

Multiple comments from men saying they can't find fiction they want to read

Men going back to older authors (Clancy,icks, etc.)

Traditional publishers have largely shifted to female readership, leaving male readers underserved. Action, thriller, sci-fi with male protagonists — undersupply

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Hopefully someone finds this useful/

If you have anything to add, please do!

So it's been 102 days since my debut launch, and this is a bit of an update (raw facts).

Just an FYI, I am doing this because I want to guide new authors with some DO's and DO NOTs (basically shit I wish someone told me before I started), but first let me tell you all what I've achieved so far.

Time for some stats (from Jan 26 - May 8):

Total sales online (Amazon and IngramSpark channels) - 989
Total sales offline (local bookstores in AU and the US) - 550
Total: 1,539 books.

Achievements to date:

Became an Amazon bestseller in the Horror Suspense and Ghost Thriller categories (not #1, but top 50. Highest I got was #12, which was Horror Suspense).

James Rollins endorsement: Yes, that's right, he read it, reviewed it, and gave me a blurb.

Mind you, he never made a Goodreads review. He sold over 20 million copies of his books, and 1041 (my book) was his first ever Goodreads review.

Andy Weir: No, he didn't read it, but he did reply to my email and tell me he would get to it. He was busy with his movie launch (Project Hail Mary) and his toddler. Doesn't matter, the fact that he replied was super awesome, man!

My strategy (basically shit I did with my ADHD brain):

I sent over 300 free books (physical books) to big TikTokers (TikTok book influencers).
I sent over 100 free audiobook promos to TikTok followers.
I grew my followers on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.
I created a 1041 ad challenge on TikTok that gained over 40k views on TikTok across all competitors accounts and that includes the hashtag 1041book. (You can find my TikTok (@Davidgulasiauthor); the video is there.)

MY ADVICE!

DO NOT THINK, "I'm an indie author, so I'm going to talk about my stress of not selling books online."

Keep your pride, and if no sales come through, don't try and get people to feel sorry for you to gain likes and comments, because they do not lead to sales.... (you can still try this to see if it works, but many people fail doing this).

(Don't be that person that makes content for the sake of making content.)

DO NOT ignore other indie authors and be jealous of them; instead, you should be working with them to promote each other's books. IT WORKS! It is also great to grow your network like that.

DO NOT go to other people's videos and endlessly promote your books in their comments sections UNLESS they asked to see your book.

DO NOT use AI for your cover and social media posts. It's not going to help you. I UNDERSTAND that AI is something that we cannot control, and it's free, BUT remember lots and lots of people do not like it. I'm just saying, you do you, but I hired a guy on Fiverr to do my book cover, and he recorded the process while designing it, and it cost me $100 USD.

As an indie author/booktoker, only 2 authors have reached out and offered to send me their books, that's it. (That's not good. Indie authors should be hustling, not just sitting back waiting for money to land in your lap.)

DO
Reach out to more people.

DO
Engage with followers.

DO
Spend time and a little bit of coin to build a site and grow your website database.

DO
Keep writing. Do not stop. Make another book, and another, and another (if you can, of course).

DO
Use Amazon and get on Kindle Unlimited!!!! (I can't stress enough on this point.)

I made a database of people and connected with all of them. (Shit part is you need money for that. It has cost me more than 3.5k USD to date... no bullshit, that's a lot of fucking money. My wife has absolutely no clue I spent that much on this shit lol, so please shhhh.)

If you don't have the money, then you can send people your e-books instead, but you need to hustle, hustle, hustle....

My book's hype is still out there, but who the hell knows, it might die out before I release book 2.... doesn't really matter. (What I am trying to say is do not care about progress, just keep pumping away.)

Honestly, I just want to get this information out there. I feel like there is a lot of BS on here about self-publishing, I just wanna be real.

By the way, the book I wrote is called 1041: Not All Highways End.

If you have any questions, guys, I'll be more than happy to answer them. I'm not a professional author, so I'm not coming on here trying to pretend like my book is massive or something, I'm just sharing my experience.

Yes, I did have a crazy ADHD overspending stupid strategy. HOWEVER, the book is messed up lol. I wrote it because I was cursed by the numbers 1041 my entire life. It's extremely visceral, gory, scary, and messed up. I guess the fact that so many people reacted to my book is a good thing, so that's probably got something to do with it. Also, because I look like a hairy Teletubby, I'm not exactly a good-looking dude that's great on camera, yet I'm still out here lol.

I really want more indie authors to do well. I'm sure there are heaps of you here that have done much better than me.

I really, really hope you all succeed, guys!

Cuando era adolescente, creía que mi destino era el arte. Estudié literatura y fotografía, hice algunos trabajos de modelo y actué en un par de pequeñas obras de teatro. Mi realidad actual es completamente diferente: trabajo en la cocina de un restaurante y lo que más hago durante el día es pelar patatas. Mi mayor aspiración es que el chef renuncie algún día para poder ocupar su lugar.

Hace unos años, escribí una novela que me parecía muy profunda. Gasté mucho dinero en la edición y la portada, pero sobre todo invertí muchísimo tiempo. Me llevó años escribirla. La subí a Amazon, pero nadie la descargó. Estaba convencida de que la novela era buena (quizás más de lo que realmente era), pero no vendí ni un solo ejemplar.

Un día me harté. Dije: «Si eso es lo que quieren, les voy a dar exactamente lo que piden».

Escribí Criada para el multimillonario en menos de 5 meses. No invertí ni un centavo: ni en la portada ni en la edición profesional (seguro que le faltan comas y puntos). Está llena de escenas absurdas y personajes totalmente clichés: el millonario que se enamora de su empleada mexicana y la esposa trofeo adicta a la cirugía plástica y a las pastillas. (En serio, mi abuela ya veía esa basura en las telenovelas de las 4 de la tarde). Para asegurarme de que fuera realmente mala, incluso añadí un conflicto con la mafia rusa y un niño con orejas enormes al que llaman Dumbo.

La novela es pura basura. Está llena de exageraciones, parodias, escenas absurdas y locura tóxica. ¿Pero saben qué? La puse gratis durante dos días y la gente la descargó. Ahora no sé si sentirme orgullosa o avergonzada.

Si quieres ver el resultado de mi crisis existencial, el libro está en Kindle Unlimited. Léelo bajo tu propia responsabilidad. (FREE TODAY)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GZQ396ZB

PD: Si no te gusta… pues qué se le va a hacer. Mañana volveré a pelar patatas como cualquier otro mortal.

hey everyone just wanted you all to know that o have published my first book of poetry. I have put so much effort into it. I don’t know how to promote it better. but I’ll share it’s link here. hope you all like it.

Songs for Universe: A book of poetry

https://amzn.in/d/0c09ThEy