Re: writing what sells – I’m not an author but I’ve often wondered what kinds of pressures authors feel to write to trends. By this, I mean, does it come from publishers/agents/etc…., or is there an internal pressure from the author herself to write to the market?

Also, in determining “what sells”, I often find myself wondering what would happen if instead of thinking, “We can publish x, but x doesn’t sell, “, a marketing department decided they really believed x was a fabulous book and tried to really sell it with prominent placements, big marketing pushes and just generally trying make sure people know about the book. I tend to think of this a lot because when I’m looking for a historical with a more unusual setting, I often find myself having to do plenty of book release research and go digging in the back shelves of a store because these books don’t always get tons of good marketing. I know some settings will probably always have wider appeal than others, but there also seems to be a self-fulfilling defeatism in the marketing of some books.

Also, I think one of your masks fell down….

*wink/grin*

The hero of my next book went from being a younger son, to the heir, to the actual title holder. The second change was necessitated by a wholesale change of plot, but the first was shameless pandering.

“There should be more happening here.”

I’m writing a book, but I can’t call myself a writer yet without laughing (maybe once I’ve actually finished something…). Still, as I write, I find myself throwing in more and more stuff into the story because the idea I started was read like puff pastry with only one layer. Too thin to pick up, and not much fun. I suspect that a lot of authors have the same impulse. “This is too thin! I’ll add a vampire! And a koala! Oohhh, and maybe a menage with regency lord and a plumber! Plumbers are hot right now, I wonder what I could do with one.”

I don’t know that this adds much, but the idea that art should be free of any commercial taint is fairly recent. If you look at the history of painting, archetecture, writing, and other arts, very few masterpieces were created without some sort of patronage system or monetary incentive. Michealangelo didn’t paint and sculpt for free, and church contracts heavily affected his choice of subject matter, but his work is certainly art. Would it have been better executed, more interesting, or more morally pure in some way if he’d done it for free, without any contraints on his imagination? Maybe, but it’s pretty awesome as it is.

1. It’s why I DIY’d. I think readers are far more accepting than they’re given credit for, and my email & reviews verify this for me. Now that I’m on All Romance eBooks and Omnilit (instead of depending on Amazon, Smashwords, and my own pub’s site), my sales are also verifying this.

2. Surprising (and a wee bit disappointing) to me, because I thought series readers liked to read in order, the book #1 I DIY’d is not doing as well as book #2. I can think of a couple of reasons: book #2 has a better (more enticing) back blurb and it’s 1/3 the length of book #1. That is NOT to say book 1 is not doing well, and I’ve come to accept that it’s very common for book #2 to be the gateway to book #1.

3. I can do what I want. The fanbase I’ve already got now trusts me to take them wherever I want to go. That was my goal. Thus, I don’t feel as constrained.

4. I’ve simply come to accept that I will never NOT have a regular day job. I’m going to write anyway. I’d rather have a residual income on it than no income, and every time a book pays for itself, I then have residual income. However, it will not be enough to live on. It will be enough to do lots of nice things like travel and remodel the house, things we wouldn’t have been able to do with our day job incomes alone. But I will still have to have the day job and I’m at peace with that.

5. I tried turning something I love to do into a business and I have no enthusiasm left to do it for enjoyment. I fear that if I do that with my writing, I won’t be able to muster anything but a grind mentality, and my well will dry up. My degree is in creative writing, and so I know what it feels like to write creatively on spec and I avoid it like the plague.

So all that’s just to say that I like my situation and the crappy day job is not only part of that situation, it’s critical to keeping me creatively productive.

Lots to digest in the art vs. commerce section of this post. I have Monday Brain, so am not confident this will make much sense – but I will say I generally abhor the practice of bandwagon jumping. Especially when the author in question doesn’t particularly “like” the bandwagon they’re jumping on. Frankly, if the author doesn’t want to write (or even likes to read) a paranormal romance (to use an example) but has gotten one published because the market is so “hot,” that dislike can very likely (and generally does) shine through to the reader. Lack of enthusiasm is hard to disguise.

That being said, authors want readers to read them, and they want to get published. Also, art, imagination, and creativity are all well and good – but authors also like to get paid. Westerns, the Edwardian era, World War II (etc.) may be where their heart lies, but it’s got to be insanely discouraging after a while to hear “Oh, nobody wants to read that, it won’t sell, have you thought about writing an erotic paranormal romance about tree nymphs?” Heck, I get discouraged hearing crap like that – and I’m just a reader.

If fate puts me in the position of having to write to supplement a min wage job so I could subsist, then I’d try to write what I think would sell. I wouldn’t have the same joy in writing, but I’d probably like it better than flipping burgers.

Is it necessary to think about marketability while writing? I think it depends on the writer. If the story you’re excited to tell is one that will really strike a chord with a large section of the market (like Stephenie Meyer or Dan Brown and so on), you’re way ahead of the game. If the story you’re excited to tell will suit a smaller group of readers, you have to decide if you’re willing to compromise your own bliss for monetary gain or fame. Is that the difference between a successful writer and a writer just scraping by? Learning to pay sharp attention to marketability and being willing to mold a story to better suit the market? I’m too new at this and I don’t know. My common sense says it does make sense, while my heart says no, you can’t do that.
I would like to hear what other writers think.

Thanks for the petticoat link! That entire site looks very interesting. I just adore research sites.

So Jessica, would you be a mask hugger?