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.

 

[Pamela Jo]

From Shakespeare to Brendan Sanderson it boils down to this. Do this and Bobs Your Uncle. I'd say we all would love to be able to make a living from writing, but have come to accept that probably won't happen. I support 13 Spanish Mustangs. We dream of them being able to earn enough to pay for their food. But we do it because it's the life we want. I think it's probably true of most of us on here. But not to be discouraging. To write to market you need to know what the market wants NEXT. With trad publishing it takes 2 years to get to market. Have a look at Hannah's post on bundling. The catch there is they want someone w a track record. The usual barrier to get into any job. An editor once told me,"Write what you want but SELL to the Zeitgeist." What every agent is looking for is something that is a risk-free, slam dunk, no brainer. Trending, not too new, a new take on an old formula-when they say genre crossover that's usually what they mean. Their whole game is figuring out the market. If you can do it for them-well, see above.

I officiate over a rotating clan of young aspiring creative types: actors, artists, poets, writers, game designers.... I'd say their advice would be don't forget to enjoy life-there is a reason that through history starving has always gone before artist.

 

[RK Wallis]

I think it's fair to say most of us dream of living off our writing, and dreams are healthy, but to write a book is hard work, to market a book is harder still, and to resonate with readers who give you the buzz of word of mouth that's like winning the lottery.

Never write to market. Readers can tell when your writing is 'work' and when you're writing something you love. Besides, the market shifts on a dime and a book takes time to write.

 

[SilverWrites]

@Sedayne Was the Freida McFadden part supposed to be a link?

Thank you all for your input!

I'm thinking now that the best solution would be to be a part-time author and work part-time in something else. (I already have an editing/ghost writing business which doesn't have consistent clients.) Thoughts?

 

[Sedayne]

Was the Freida McFadden part supposed to be a link?

No, just an observation. She's a practising physician. Her best-selling fiction writing is a second job.