Should You Write to Market?
Today I have the great pleasure to introduce you to Mariëlle S. Smith is a writer, editor, and writing coach. Here she is talking about ‘writing to market’, an often recommended course of action for new authors.
Mariëlle is also sharing with us a month-long competition, where you can win eBooks, a few paperbacks, and a coaching session. Scroll down to find out more.
‘Write to market.’
If you’ve been anywhere near a platform of self-published authors, you will have come across these words.
The idea is simple, and it’s no wonder so many preach it: if you write books in already popular genres, and manage to write enough of those books per year, you’ll be a full-time writer in no time.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to become a full-time a.s.a.p., nor with writing to market. However, everywhere I looked, it kept being put forward as an EITHER you write stuff that lights up your soul (and fail) OR you write to market (and succeed).
A necessary evil
Believing that writing to market is a good strategy is one thing. Seeing it as a necessary sacrifice or evil to make it in the business?
I don’t think accepting or taking for granted that writing books we don’t really want to write is just another part of the process will do us, nor the genres we write in, any good.
We’re wasting valuable time
Because of the assumption that writing lots of books in popular genres equals success, many authors devote time and effort on books they aren’t that crazy about. The idea that something written to market has a larger chance of becoming successful absolutely holds water, but that doesn’t mean there are any guarantees.
Yes, we could influence that by becoming marketing masters, but the question is whether we want to put that kind of effort into books we didn’t come here to write in the first place. Besides, if we can master the marketing of those books, why not those we actually yearn to write?
Speaking of no guarantees, the popularity of genres fluctuates as well. If we decide what to write based on what (sub)genre is popular now, we might end up writing books that are no longer that popular once we’re finished.
We get stuck writing books we don’t want to write
One of the best ways to sell more books is by writing more of the same. That means that, if our written to market books do hit it big, we have to keep writing similar books. Of course, we can do other things if those books make enough money, but if we want the money from those books to keep coming in, we’re at least partly stuck in that genre.
It beats the purpose of indie publishing
Self-publishing has many benefits, such as higher royalties and control over all aspects. Yet, one of the main reasons why self-publishing has exploded the way it has is that it enables us to write what we want without traditional gatekeepers telling us otherwise. It allows us to prove that readers are open to a lot more than those gatekeepers think. To me, preaching what genres to write in defeats that original intent.
Readers won’t thank us for writing something we don’t love
I remember a post in a writing group by someone who hated romance but wanted quick and dirty tips on how to write it so they could tap into what they believed to be a goldmine.
Remember the ‘No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader’? The same applies to passion: if we don’t love the story we’re telling, our readers aren’t going to love it either. They will catch on that we don’t actually care, which won’t help our ratings.
We can have it all
I remember when my co-writer and I first started talking about writing together. We were looking for something fun and light, to give us a break from our individual writing projects. We also wanted to write realistic stories about women who love women, because there’s such a lack of representation when it comes to those.
This is how we ended up writing a series of lesbian novellas. Not because romance is one of the most popular genres out there – lesbian romance is by far not the most popular subgenre under that umbrella – but because it was the most popular genre that matched our initial aims.
We do have a choice
Can you imagine what it felt like to have that strategy confirmed six months later?
During the 20booksto50k conference in Edinburgh last summer, award-winning romance author Lyz Kelley asked whether she could test a presentation on writing to market on a bunch of us. Obviously, I was skeptical, but I did love Lyz’s vibe and obvious passion for writing and I was curious about what she had to say.
As soon as Lyz started talking, I felt so validated. Lyz, too, started not from the question of genre – what is the most popular genre right now and what story could I be writing in it? – but from the question of intent – what are the stories you want to write?
The second step for her – like it had been for us – was figuring out what genres a story like that could fit in. And here is where we get to choose. What genres seem available to what we want to write? Which of those genres is most popular right now? Which set of tropes resonates most with the story we have in mind?
Heart first, genre second
It all depends on our starting point. If we put genre first and base the story we’re going to write on the rules of that genre, we might end up writing stories that aren’t entirely – or not at all – aligned with what we want to write deep down. But, if we start from the kind of stories we want to write and then pick a popular genre that matches that intent, we’ll have found that middle ground. We will be writing to market while writing what lights up our soul.
Or, in the words of Lyz Kelley, ‘If you write to your pillars, you will write the books of your hearts.’ As long as we listen to our hearts first, and choose genre second.
Mariëlle S. Smith is a writer, editor, and writing coach.
Next to her non-fiction work, she is currently working on a YA fantasy series.
She lives in Cyprus, a small island in the Mediterranean Sea, where she organises private writer's retreats, is inspired 24/7, and feeds more stray cats than she could have ever imagined.
You can find Mariëlle online here:
Website: https://mswordsmith.nl/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B07SH94N7D
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18455235.Mari_lle_S_Smith
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mariellessmith/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mswordsmith/
'To celebrate her editing and coaching business turning six this month, Mariëlle is giving away all her eBooks, a few paperbacks, and a coaching session. Go to http://mswordsmith.nl/giveaway to join.'
Over to You
How do you feel about writing to market? Have you followed this advice or ignored it? Comment below and start the conversation.
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