Dear Writer: Please, Don't Write for the Market
Dear writer,
I know you've been feeling discouraged about your story lately. Nobody you tell about it seems to find your concept interesting. It's totally out of touch with the current trends in publishing. It doesn't have enough action or comedy or romance for the tastes of most readers. You're convinced that no agent would ever want to represent it, no publisher would ever want to pick it up, no reader would ever want to buy it. It's almost enough to make you scrap this story you love and write something more "marketable."
But don't. For the love of art and beauty, please don't. Take the story you have, and make it marketable.
The truth is, there is not a market for action or romance or comedy. There is not a market for vampires or strong female characters or fairytale retellings. There is a market for one thing: a good story well told. That's what readers want. And if it's unique among the countless mass-produced "marketable" pieces of fiction out there, so much the better.
Did Tolkien write Lord of the Rings for the market? Hardly. His book was too long, his prose too ornate, his world too complex, his storyline too scattered. Only, this book that seemed doomed to fail was a masterful, gorgeous work of art. It became an incredible success and one of the most beloved classics of all time.
Did Antoine de St.-Exupery write The Little Prince for the market? Not at all! He had no clear target audience. Had he written an adult book for children, or a children's book for adults? Either way, it seemed like a major mistake. But his odd, beautiful little story has managed to change countless lives, my own included. Isn't that the greatest measure of success for an author?
Did Charlotte Bronte write Jane Eyre for the market? She didn't understand genre conventions. Her writing was too sophisticated and her morals too inflexible to fit clearly into the popular fiction camp, but the Gothic elements she freely sprinkled into her story appalled the literary highbrows. And she had to conceal her identity to have any hope of people taking her book seriously. But history has been kind and now both Charlotte and her writings are recognized as ingenious.
If your goal is to make a quick buck or become famous, don't write a novel for the market. It's too much work for too small a result. There are other, quicker and easier paths to fame and fortune.
If your goal is to write a book that readers will love with a passion, a book that will change lives, a book that people will still be reading years after your death... don't write for the market.
Write a good story, and write it well. Write without fear of being quirky, rebellious, philosophical, poetic, old-fashioned, experimental, and unapologetically you.
Write for love.
Write for the love of your story, your characters, your ideas, not the overdone tropes that algorithms tell you are selling at the moment.
Write for the love of story, of art, of beauty.
Write for the love of God and of others.
Dear writer, write for love, not the market.
Love,
A Story-lover
