Craft Chat 'Write for the top ten percent of your readers' - King

[David Newrick]

The quote 'Write for the top ten percent of your readers' is attributed to Stephen King.

After giving it a tremendous amount of thought I bore this in mind in my own writing for novels like Scenes From A Dying Planet and my WIP. Before I write anything on Litopia about my thoughts on this quote I just wondered what everyone else made of it. It always interests me to hear other people's point of view and, in the past, has led me to completely re-consider my original thoughts. So what does it mean to you?

 

[Pamela Jo]

I have no idea what this means. And it makes no sense to me.

 

[Hannah Faoileán]

Write the story you want to tell and want to read. Write it to be accessible to as many readers as possible. Read widely in your area of writing. Know your likely readership, but don't pigeonhole them. Don't pick and choose who they are and slant your narrative accordingly. That way you would only get 10% of your possible audience.