# Fiction vs Non fiction - Why are there so few SciFi publishers/agents?



## Manole Dan (Nov 5, 2010)

The title doesnt need any explanation. Just browse the web and you could count the SciFi publishers/agents on the fingers of your hands, whereas the non fiction ones are getting more and more numerous.


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## ML Hamilton (Jan 23, 2011)

It's the political trash that everyone keeps buying. That's what all publishers think the public wants because the public is told they want it. It's a vicious cycle. When I go to a book signing, I'm always placed in front of tables of political "nonfiction", which is reduced 30% to 50% off the original price. In all the book signings I've done, I've watched people leaf through these books, then walk away.


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## Teresa Edgerton (Jan 23, 2011)

At least in the United States, and I would imagine that it is the same in Great Britain, nonfiction has been outselling fiction for as long as I can remember.  Most people like to feel that they are learning something, or that a book will help them to do something.

Publishers do not tell the public what it wants.  Why would they?  It's doesn't matter one way or the other to them.  They respond to trends in what people are buying, they don't create them.

Right now, _bookstores_ are discounting books in order to sell them, because the bookstores are in trouble financially.  And the books they discount are the books they know will sell a lot of copies that way. Your book or mine ... if they discount it, how many more copies will they sell? Even if it was twice as many, it wouldn't be enough to keep the store in business.


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## bearmountainbooks (Jan 24, 2011)

I'm pretty sure if the public started madly buying sci/fi and fantasy more agents would put their hat outs for it and more editors would publish it. 

That said, I really don't think publishers have their fingers on the eyeballs of what readers want.  They wait for sales from one thing to guide them and that's sort of a losing cycle because it takes so long to find, edit, get book approved and out there...

It's much easier to become famous and THEN get a book deal.


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