Blogger: Rachelle Gardner
I often hear writers debating whether it’s best to write what you love, or try to write to the market. I think this is a false dichotomy. You need both. To build a long-term writing career:
Pay attention to where your passion intersects with the market.
Most writers start out writing what interests them (obviously) which is the way it should be. But things change once you transition from writing for fun to writing for fun & profit. The profit part requires you to think about what you can sell.
As a writer, you’re probably interested in a variety of topics and genres. So if you want to sell books, it’s a good idea to identify which of your favorites are doing well in the market, and go in that direction.
Sometimes you don’t need to think about this until you reach a point where what you’re doing isn’t working. When you’re just starting out, you go with whatever you’ve got. But if you’re not having the success you want, maybe it’s time to look at what you’re writing and how well it fits with where the market is. Is there another topic or genre that you enjoy just as much and is more marketable?
I’ve had this conversation with several of my clients who have books published, but the market is changing and they need to reconsider their direction. One client was writing in a specific nonfiction category that wasn’t selling well, so we brainstormed to identify what else she is interested in, that would still capitalize on her brand but would be more marketable. I’ve had a couple of other clients who wrote a specific genre of fiction, and when the market became glutted with that genre, made a slight transition into a related genre that would be more likely to sell and that they enjoyed just as much.
The concept applies across all walks of life: you can follow your passion as long as you’re not expecting to get paid for it. But when you’re going into business, other considerations besides passion are necessary—like what you can sell.
Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams had an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal in which he goes so far as to say, “forget about passion.” He advocates more of a work-horse mentality.
For most people, it’s easy to be passionate about things that are working out, and that distorts our impression of the importance of passion. I’ve been involved in several dozen business ventures over the course of my life, and each one made me excited at the start. You might even call it passion. The ones that didn’t work out—and that would be most of them—slowly drained my passion as they failed. The few that worked became more exciting as they succeeded. ~Scott Adams
Whether or not you agree with Adams, the point is still the same:
If you want to create a lasting writing career, continually pay attention to where your passion intersects with what is selling.
Don’t get caught asking pointless questions like, “Should I follow my passion or follow the market?” Do both!
Do you tend to follow your passion, or follow the market—or both? Do you agree with Scott Adams’ advice to forget about passion?
Photo by Denys Nevozhai on Unsplash
If you reject your heartfelt passion
be warned, you throw away the Cross.
You may find fun in life’s distraction
but it’s your God who bears the loss.
If every hair on your head is counted
and the fall of each sparrow’s known,
then who are you to have doubted
that the words you write are not your own?
If there’s one soul out there somewhere
in Zanzibar, on a tropic beach,
don’t you think that God would care
that only YOUR words make that reach?
Trust, and write your Godly heart,
and let the Maker play His part.
Too many writers take either “passion” or “write to the market” to extremes. Passion won’t pay the bills – jumping on every new market bandwagon won’t either. So I agree with your post. I think writers have to write what they enjoy – but what good does it do to enter the publishing world if one refuses to look at the realities of that world? It’s no different from any other business. Before entering a market – or when sales start slowing – you look at what you need to bring to the table in order to stay alive in that market. And you have to be willing to make the changes needed. You don’t have to quit making furniture (your passion) – but you may need to make end tables instead of chairs.
The idea of maybe just doing a slight redirection to find a better place for passion to intersect market makes a lot of sense. I can see where, sometimes a writer would need to really change course. But, sometimes, maybe making a slight transition to another genre, or related topic will still be effective in merging passion and marketing.
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