Authors should stop ignoring Gamers and the massive potential audience they represent

LoudPoet talks about how Orbit books are underestimating just how big of a Franchise, The Witcher was, even before the Netflix show

1. The Witcher 3 is widely regarded as one of the best Role Playing Games available
2. The latest Witcher release sold 20 million copies, well before the Netflix show arrived
3. The Witcher has been an incredibly popular book series in Eastern Europe and Russia
4. Witcher has been a very popular game series worldwide
5. Wikipedia has an entire article devoted to awards and accolades won by Witcher 3

The Witcher was not some obscure series that become well known after the Netflix series. It was a massive franchise (books) in Eastern Europe, and an even bigger franchise in Video Games (worldwide). The Netflix show created a TV series based on that franchise, which became very popular. That, in turn, jump started book sales in the US

The Witcher was a very big franchise, that broke into the US TV market very successfully

The good news is that there are lots of video game franchises, and quite a few video game genres, that are as big or bigger than The Witcher

The very big opportunity here is to realize that video gamers will read books about the games they love

That Netflix, Disney, HBO, Amazon, etc. will make TV shows about these games

Perhaps they will make TV shows about the books you write for gamers

There are 2.8 billion gamers on the planet

Yes, you heard that right

And they do read books

There are emerging book categories that are incredibly popular

1. LitRPG – Literature/Books based on Role Playing Games
2. Books based on Virtual Reality based Games – books where the protagonist goes into a virtual world and then has to live there. Ready Player One is a good example
3. We’ve seen Angry Birds and how it has spun off TV shows and Movies
4. Games like Minecraft have created a niche category of Minecraft books
5. There are lots of gaming categories and gaming franchises that can potentially become very big book successes

Let’s consider these 2.8 billion gamers

These 2.8 billion gamers would definitely read books written about the games they love

When given the opportunity, they do more and more things related to the games they love

They already

1. Watch animated shows about their games
   1. Examples include the Castlevania series on Netflix which is based on the Castlevania video games
   2. The Fate Grand Order animes and shows are another example. Where a mix of animes and games create a super strong franchise
2. Watch other video gamers play the games they love
   1. Yes, people actually watch other people playing video games
   2. The most popular game streamers are signing contracts of millions and tens of millions with YouTube, Microsoft’s game streaming service, Twitch (Amazon’s game streaming service), and Facebook
3. Go to Gaming Shows and Conferences such as ComicCon
4. Cosplay i.e. dress up as their favorite game characters
5. Buy merchandise based on the games they love
6. Buy In App Purchases in games, including cosmetic things such as virtual costumes, and virtual accessories
7. Buy posters and bedsheets and jackets and tshirts with gamer themes

The universe of games and gamers is expanding more and more. There is room for you, if you’re willing to understand the market and write for it

There are already a few video game franchises releasing books

The question is – Why are there not more authors writing books for video gamers?

Can you afford to ignore these 2.8 billion gamers?

Yeah, you can. If you want to miss out on a massive opportunity

Your options are

1. Write a Twilight clone and hope you catch lightning in a bottle
2. Compete with 1 million romance authors who are writing 50 Shades of Light/Dark/Black/White/Purple/ Orange
3. Write a Mystery or Thriller and hope readers mistake it for J. K. Rowling’s newest covert pen name

OR

1. Explore the opportunities that 2.8 billion gamers present
2. Many games are in categories such as Role Playing Games, Virtual Reality, Adventure, etc where you can write a book without requiring to sign deals and agreements
   1. You can’t write a Fortnite book
   2. However, you can write a Battle Royale book for gamers (Battle Royale is the genre of game that Fortnite is)
3. Some categories are already taking off
   1. Do some due diligence and see what books gamers are already buying

Don’t know about you. I’d rather be one of the first authors tapping into an audience of 2.8 billion gamers, than the 1 millionth author hoping to reproduce Twilight