Niche marketing ideas for books

The more I begin to familiarize myself with Inie publishing the more I'm glad I decided to go this route. My Book The Vagabond King appealss to too much of a niche market so it would be virtually impossible for a traditional publisher to make money on. I wasted years looking for a publisher. However, on the internet everything is niche marketing. There are millions of niche markets out there each appealing to millions of people.

Now, The Vagabond King is kind of a tough book to categorize. It is a literary coming of age novel about a 16 year old boy named Chris who discovers the man he was raised to believe is his father is not after his mother dies and he is haunted by a dark and mysterious apparition that forces him to question his pampered existence and embark on a spiritual quest.

Seeking sanctuary in the house of a middle aged waitress with a degree in philosophy and a penchant for sex, he discovers that she lives with her father. Chris finds himself out of his element and, ultimately, transformed by a cigarette smoking, beer swilling immigrant who spends his final days limping around the house in his boxer shorts, listening to blues records and making Chris get him fresh cans of beer.

The Vagabond King weaves mythology, science and religion into a metaphysical mystery as Chris learns that, like the old man’s skipping blues records, the roles we are playing have been played many times before.

Now that that bit of shamlesss self promotion is over I'll let you in on the idea I had to get deeeper market penetration with your books. To market a book you've got to put it into a marketing box (Thriller, YA, Romance etc). Now, The Vagabond King is not actually a YA novel but that, perhaps, is the market it most closely targets. Had I gone the traditioal route it would be placed on the YA shelff in the book store. But, I have read that a book store is the worst place to sell a book, simply because of all the competition. Now, here is where my idea becomes a benefit. Within each book there are sub niches. For example, my book contains themes of blues music, African history, Hungarian history, spirituality, Ancient Mesopotamian history, Astronomy and others.

So now, when marketing, I can target much more than YA websites to gain some attention. I can also target websites that focus on the themes contained within The Vagabond King. Every book has sub niches contained within it. I'd love to see if it works for any of you out there.