I’ve posted before about hearing from readers when it comes to learning how they find independently published works of literary fiction. So I have put together a survey with 8 questions (actually 9 questions, but one asks for an email address, which doesn’t count). Its brevity is intentional and will hopefully make readers want to participate. The more you ask of people, the less likely they are to respond and all that. On the other hand, the questions still need to be meaningful, and I think they are.
I’m not ready to release the survey yet to readers because it’s in draft form and I need feedback. As my intent is to develop a mechanism to more easily bring high-quality works of literary fiction to readers’ attention, then I better ask the right questions!
So here is a link to a draft version of the literary fiction reader survey. By way of posting this draft, I am inviting comments. Do you think these are the questions I should propose? Are they the right ones? Am I missing any? Are any extraneous?
Again, I want to keep this simple to increase reader response so although I’m willing to add a few new questions, I’m not looking to create anything like a 15-question survey. If a lot of great questions are proposed during this feedback period, I may simply want them to replace less impactful ones.
So that’s it. Please feel free to propose additional survey questions you would like to see in the comments section. Or email them to me at jay@jaylemming-author.com. Or send them to me via the comment box on the right side of this blog.
I won’t be posting much more on this topic until I’ve collected feedback and am ready to launch the survey. In the meantime, I’m going to spend time reaching out to other figures in the writing and editing community to gauge their interest in bringing readers to participate in the survey. Finally, per Rohan Quine’s valuable comment in my last post, I expect I’ll also start looking around for surveys like this one to ensure I’m not reinventing the wheel.
Thanks for your assistance. Also, here are a couple related blog posts and pages of possible interest, if you haven’t read them yet.
- A New Model for Marketing Literary Fiction: 2016 Literary Fiction Survey Results
- Next Steps for the 2016 Literary Fiction Survey
- Interview List: LitFic Survey for Writers
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I’m going to do some thinking about this, but I know that when I read Question 5 (or 4 – the numbering is double and shifted): ‘Do you read literary fiction because’ I was looking for the answer ‘because I’m tired of the bad writing and silly plotting that happens in so many books’ or ‘because I prefer well-written work in any genre to some of the more popular books out there.’
Not sure how to phrase it, but I have an expectation of both quality and control: the writer of literary books doesn’t write me good reading by accident, but by design. If ‘rules’ are broken, it is by intent and for a greater purpose. Does that make sense? Is that what you meant by ‘contemporary equivalent of the classics’?
And on your last question, ‘published by a smaller, indie press’ is ambiguous. ‘Small press’ already has the connotation of ‘regular traditional publisher but only produces – for commercial purposes or as a labor of love – a few books a year.’
Possibly the critical difference in my mind is who is in control? If it is the author (who may choose to use an editor, etc., and pay for that) or is it the press (which usually publishes more than one writer)?
Indie gives WRITERS the control to decide when something is publishable. That, to me, is the key.
I applaud your intention to do the survey, and would be happy to place a link on my blog, but my feeling is you’re going to get one chance (or maybe an annual change?) to do this, and get any response.
And I feel readers are skittish about ‘literary’ as a description – one of my reviews says the reader liked Pride’s Children because it was ‘literary but not pretentious.’
Since we already have ‘literary’ as a category at the 800lb. gorilla, I say go with it – and shape it a bit with your suggestion of sub-categories. And possibly some way to connect ‘indie’ with ‘quality,’ however subjective quality may be.
bli
Jay, found you on Alicia’s website. Regarding your survey, those are all good questions. I’m re-evaluating how I spend my time online, whether it’s browsing or marketing.
I would break social media down, mentioning twitter and facebook specifically, as ways readers find books.
Also, I would think many readers use bestsellers as a way of finding books. I don’t see that in your survey. Otherwise some good questions. Good luck in 2017.