Writing to Market | Find Your Voice
So…it’s 2023 now…and already I feel like the year is taking the control right out of my hands—which sucks, particularly because I’m a control freak.
I don’t know about you guys, but I made quarterly goals, resolutions and a very detailed publishing schedule for each step of the writing process for this year, and already I’m altering it. Which drives me NUTS.
However, there’s some good that’s come from it, which is what I want to talk about.
You may or may not have heard the term ‘write to market’, but basically, it means that you write a book with the market in mind. You do your research about what’s selling the best in your field (fiction, or romance or whatever) and then you craft a story that shares a general vibe with those popular books, hoping that people will buy your book because it shares similar qualities with the books they love. Now, when I first heard this term, my brain started screaming out ‘sellout, sellout’. And I’m sure some of you feel the same way. BUT, as my one year anniversary as a published author is coming up at the end of this month, I’m reevaluating my opinion…
Yes, writing a book JUST because it’ll sell well, is in fact selling out. However, choosing a genre or trope or type of story that sells well, and then adapting it to match YOUR PASSIONS is not selling out. Let me explain.
First, let’s pinpoint what you’re good at; the things you like about your own writing. Whether it’s how you manage romance, the way you do plot twists, the fact that you’re good at multiple POV’s, your general writing voice or the rhythm of your writing. Whatever it is, list out the things that you’re good at, the things you like about your writing.
For instance, I like the vulnerability I give my characters and how honest they are, I like that there’s always a bit of snark, I like my long sentences because they have rhythm (which makes me happy) and I like that my romance is always based on comfort and support rather than just attraction. (Also, I swear that this is the least narcissistic list ever, but I wanted to give an example)
Okay, now that we have our list, let’s study it. I’m willing to bet that none of the things you wrote are things that are boxed in by a certain genre or length of novel or type of books, be it trilogies, standalones, duologies, etc. For me, the things I love about my writing have nothing to do with any of those contingencies. In fact, I can pick up the things I love about my writing and transport them into any genre, or any situation and they still work. This means that no matter how you choose to write, whether you only write passion projects that you’ve loved for years, or whether you write stories that you tailor to be accepted by wider audiences, you can ABSOLUTELY bring your style into that.
The next step is discovering which types of books sell well. Now don’t fall down the rabbit hole with this like I did! It’s easy to see what other people are doing and start questioning what you’re doing. I see tons of people doing well writing romcoms, and so I felt the pressure to write them too, because clearly that’s what sells. So, I scheduled a romcom to be released this coming fall (this does not include my novella). The problem is that I chose a topic based on what others were doing and forget to include myself in the decision making. SO, when you go looking on the bestsellers list on Amazon, or you hear people raving about certain books on Instagram, take it with a grain of salt, and pay special attention ONLY to the books that inspire your own creativity.
This is the problem I found for myself. I didn’t feel that inspired by the romcoms I saw, but felt I should write one anyway to build traction. But what I should have done was follow my gut! Instead of latching onto a genre or trope or story that’s popular, scroll through lots of popular books until one INSPIRES you! I wasn’t inspired to write a full length romcom, but the minute I let my mind and my gut start to lead me, I felt a passion for the ever popular fae books.
Immediately, I felt some imposter syndrome, because I knew that the story slowly painting itself in my head wouldn’t be exactly what I’d seen other people do. My style wouldn’t be the same, my story structure wouldn’t be totally the same, but that’s the point! You need to find something that yes, you think people will like and buy, but also something that you LOVE! And the thing that people will latch onto about your books is the writing style that you bring to the table! They’ll get attached to the way you develope your characters and the way you tell a story. So yes, choosing story topics that are more popular is in fact a smart idea, but the brilliant part is choosing one that inspires you, and not trying to conform yourself. Never lose what makes you different—build on it! It’s what people will clamor for.
So all in all, I am going to ‘write to market’, but I’m going to do it my way. I’ll write a book with the market in mind, then write something that’s pure wish fulfillment for me personally, and then write to market again, and so on, because you CAN do both, and in fact it’s great, because each type of writing brings more support to the other one, sharing the love between your books. The key to doing this (I think) is choosing projects that inspire you, and always making sure that you use YOUR voice, and not the voice you think people want.
This isn’t initially what I was going to talk about today, but it’s what felt right and honest for me. Because this is what I’ve been struggling with the last few days, and I know I’m not alone. It’s hard to make your art an income, and it’s hard to balance between what you think people want and what your instincts tell you, but at the end of the day, all you need is to write the story laid on your heart. Because your gut (and God) are never wrong.
