I'm all for writing what makes me happy, but I'm not doing this to appear
artistic, or to make some name for myself as this mysterious creature who toils away for the sake of creativity. And I certainly don't feel as if I sold out because I write what I do. The genre I've always been most drawn to writing is romance. I don't follow trends. If I did, I wouldn't be working full time outside the home. If I wrote the way others do - authors I know, and who write for the same house I do - I'd be cranking out the same book over and over again, and only changing the names and a few details. They make the big bucks. I've been told to do that if I want to make the big bucks, too.
But there are still ways to write what makes you happy, and doesn't make you feel like a hack at the same time, yet also allows you to stay true to readers' tastes and the market's needs. That is also part of this process, and is part of being a professional in the way you treat this business. It's called knowing your audience and your market.
The fact that I choose *not* to cater to the group of readers who don't mind (or perhaps, don't even notice they're doing it?) reading the same book over and over again isn't because I consider myself above it, or because I think I'm better than that. It's because I'd go stark raving mad if I couldn't write something different. Something unique. Something no one else has done, or at least has not done in the same way I did. Once upon a time, that used to mean something. It still does, to me at least.
Maybe his comment was meant to be tongue-in-cheek or something along those lines. What do I know? Never heard of the dude before this thread, so forgive me if I stepped out of line by commenting on what he said.