Craft Chat Write to Market

[SilverWrites]

Hello,

I'm aiming for the ambitious goal of becoming a full-time author. It seems the best way to do this is to build a huge author platform and write to market. Does anyone have experience writing to market? Seeking advice and productive conversation.

 

[Sedayne]

Not many writers can make a full time job out of fiction writing. Nice work if you can get it. Many successful authors need other income streams - teaching, editing, ghost-writing for famous people - or other professions altogether. Even for someone like Freida McFadden, writing is a second job.

But if you are young, and just starting on a career, you may be able to carve out a path with the right self-promotion and a good backup plan.

As for writing to market - it's difficult because the market is constantly changing and by the time you finish a novel, the market may have moved on to something else. Got to think ahead and predict tastes. It must take some discipline and skill.

I could be wrong, but I don't think the few successful, famous authors in the world are writing to market; they write what they love and are lucky that it chimes with so many readers.

For me, I just want to write what I enjoy writing and take the time to get it as good as it can be. If other people want to read it, that's a bonus. But I wouldn't risk my mortgage on trying to turn it into a career. And I have the luxury of a steady income from another profession (It's a poor state of the publishing business when my job in nursing is better paid).

Sorry, that's probably not the advice you were looking for, but I honestly can't think of many people, apart from celebrities, who are making a full-time career out of writing.

I'd be interested to know what other writers think about this. It's never been part of my plan, but I find the idea fascinating.