When looking at writing as a business rather than a hobby, one of the first things you hear over and over is the phrase “write to market”. What does that mean exactly? It’s simple, look around at what’s popular and write some version of that. If books with Daddy kink are selling like hotcakes, write a Daddy kink. If readers are clamouring for fake boyfriend stories, then write the fakest relationship turned to real love you can manage. This is a great strategy and can absolutely set you on a path toward a lucrative career.
So, what do you do when your muse is at odds with the market?
As an author, this can be extremely stressful and a little scary. Not only because this IS my livelihood, but because we always want to write books that readers want to read. This is something I started struggling with a few weeks ago when a giant plot bunny hopped over to me and demanded attention.
After talking to several authors recently I decided that readers right now are really looking for beach-y reads- light, fun, steamy, trope-y, nothing too heavy. So, of course, the bunny hopping around and keeping me from focusing on anything else is the angstiest bunny I’ve ever had. I started to fret, I knew this story idea had the potential to be EPIC, but if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it…? No matter how good a book is, it has to be marketable and readers have to want it.
In spite of my doubts about its marketability, I started to write. And as the story poured out of me and I fell more and more in love with the characters, I decided that if most readers weren’t LOOKING for angsty right now, I’d just have to make them fall in love with these men like I was. I made a marketing plan to catch readers attention and hopefully make them want something they didn’t even think they wanted.
The more I thought about it, the more it occured to me that I wouldn’t be blazing a new path at all. Was anyone hankering to read a teenage boy wizard before Harry Potter came along? Was anyone desperate for a homicidal prom queen before Carrie? When your muse is giving you something incredible, I say, follow it and maybe you’ll create the next market trend. And if your muse is sleeping on the job, then have fun writing some fake boyfriend stories in the meantime!