If I were smarter, I’d be writing to market; cranking out books targeted to best-selling trends. Right now, that’s Romantasy with a magic or military academy, enemies-to-lovers, dragons and a dystopian setting. to sell well. Writing to market means digging into a specific genre and sub-genre, sticking closely to the conventions and tropes of that story type.
That includes the book cover, blurb and promotional material. Any book written to market has to look like it belongs on the shelf next to the best-sellers in that genre. Fit in, before you stand out.
The books needs some kind of twist to make it marketable to the core audience of that genre. There has to be a unique selling point to draw readers to your book and not the thousands of others crowding the market. Something USP cool or intriguing enough to draw readers in, not just plain daft for the sake of being distinctive.
“She’s a veterinary nurse, he’s a smoking-hot, bad-boy were-rabbit.”
Well, maybe. In today’s market, who knows. It might just go viral.
Writing to market too often falls into formula cliché. Heaps of pseudo-scientific book analyses detail every single plot and character element down to the protagonist’s third-leg measurement. When everything looks and sounds the same, readers quickly tire of cookie-cutter stories and move on.
And that’s the trouble with writing to market: it’s the market. Markets move. Fashions change. The Market can be a fickle mistress. By the time you write your magnum opus, the market may have moved on.
Which is why I don’t write to market, I write for me. I may not sell as well, but I’m invested in the stories I want to tell.