Saturday 15 May 2021

Why 'Write What you Want' isn't my favourite philosophy...

Whenever I ask the writing community on Twitter about lucrative book genres, best selling topics and market trends, I get some helpful responses. 

Then the "write what you want!" crowd wade in, with the message that writing for market is somehow unethical, wrong, and doomed to failure because it's not necessarily your first choice of subject. There seems to be a view that it's detrimental to the creative process. 

Apparently we should forget about what sells and write for the love of it. This, even though many of my fellow authors are considering quitting, because their books don't sell.

I think we all want to sell books really, and I know chasing markets can be difficult, because they change faster than you can write. But at the same time, I don't think there's anything wrong with writing to meet market demand. 

I've been writing professionally for the past decade. I make a living writing, but I'd like to get away from begging magazine editors for the next job, and I'd like to create more books that people actually want to read.

Of course I write what I want - I've written a novel that I started over 30 years ago, a funny book on guinea pigs, a travel book about Scotland, and a load of writing books. But none of my books have sold even 200 copies. 

If I find a niche that sells better, it will enable me to be less dependent on editors for piecemeal work, and more self-sufficient. It will also take my career in a direction I'd be very happy for it to go.

So when I query whether I should be writing in different genres, no it's not 'because I want to' specifically. But I do want to sell books. I might enjoy experimenting in a genre or niche that's outside of my usual comfort zone. I might learn something. I might become a huge success, and what's wrong with flexing your writing muscles in different genres or niches anyway?

In my magazine writing career, I've written about war, druidry, pets, wild animals, cooking, and lots more. It doesn't mean I'm an expert, or even particularly interested in some of them, but they're all different, and that makes life interesting. I was writing about off shore wind farms yesterday, and about the Leprosy Mission the day before. I've learnt a lot by writing in different subjects for an incredibly diverse array of magazines and newspapers.

So let's apply this to books. Apparently the market for self-help books is solid - I have flops in that niche too, but I also have a good idea for a new self-help book. So it's good to know that the niche as a whole is doing well. Perhaps my next self-help book will be a big hit.

I'd heard about incredible sales in erotica - should I be getting kinky, I asked? Replies were very mixed, but honestly, it might be fun. I'm not ruling anything out.

So yes, write what you want, but don't dismiss people who want to write for market. With all the demoralised complaining about low sales on twitter, writing what people want to buy might actually have some merit, and provide a degree of satisfaction that you'll never get from a book that doesn't sell.

Seeing sales roll in gives you confidence too. Knowing that my work sells in magazines gives me confidence that it's good. The fact that editors sometimes ask me to write about something that doesn't interest me is a compliment, not a flaw. That's reassuring when your books aren't selling, because the fact that you've written things that do sell well, means you know it's not because you're a bad writer.

Writing for market is OK. And your writing will get better with practise too, so when you're ready to complete that novel - the one you've been wanting to finish for 30 years, you're better placed to do it and succeed.

2 comments:

  1. I totally get how an editor asking someone to write about a topic that doesn't interest him or her is a compliment. And congrats to you that it's happened!

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