Promoting Books Online: Fiction vs. Nonfiction

I have heard it remarked that there is no "general" nonfiction market anymore, and certainly my experience of the (generally loathsome) content of the bestseller lists would seem to attest to this. We have sales in a few narrow lines--self-help books of the "success" and health varieties, and gossip of various kinds ("true crime," memoir, biography, arguably also political rant), both typically connected with the name of a celebrity, and not much else, the public's tastes very narrow indeed (and it seems to me, reflective of sad delusion).

The result is that the potential audience for any one nonfiction work is unlikely to be very large outside of a very small number of categories--while, again, those who actually get much book-reading are probably online less than most. Still, it is arguably easier for those of slight promotional means to get sales for a work of nonfiction than for a work of fiction through an online presence for the simple reason that a reader doing an informational search may, in spite of the ever-more perverse functioning of search engines, find their way to such a work should it contain the information they are looking for (especially if those promoting the book take some pains to make it "findable"). Thus commended to their attention they may peruse it, and possibly take an interest, and maybe even buy it.

There is no equivalent way for someone to happen upon a work of fiction--one reason why so much store is set here by the authors already having "Names" for themselves, a thing which matters infinitely more to the Dauriats of Park Avenue than the actual content of the books, and online as offline success so consistently goes to "the bigger battalion" rather than the worthier one.