I don't mean to say that one should try to write to the market or sit down and attempt a formulaic work. But speaking as someone who is struggling to figure out what to try next, I will say that if I had to do it all over again, I don't think I'd have written the books in the same way.
I actually think, oddly, that if I were doing this all again I would actively spend less time trying to write to market. I don't know whether it's that I, personally, wasn't all that good at deliberately writing to market--but in large part, trying to write to market resulted, for me, in weaker books that were no more marketable than the stronger ones.
I finally realized that in my case, writing the books I wanted to write resulted in books that were more marketable, rather than less, at least based on the resulting feedback as I've marketed them.
This might change again at some later point in my career. And for someone else it might not be true. But it was an interesting realization.
I'm sometimes not sure we really know enough about the market for writing to market to be all that viable a strategy.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2004-08-02 08:50 pm (UTC)I actually think, oddly, that if I were doing this all again I would actively spend less time trying to write to market. I don't know whether it's that I, personally, wasn't all that good at deliberately writing to market--but in large part, trying to write to market resulted, for me, in weaker books that were no more marketable than the stronger ones.
I finally realized that in my case, writing the books I wanted to write resulted in books that were more marketable, rather than less, at least based on the resulting feedback as I've marketed them.
This might change again at some later point in my career. And for someone else it might not be true. But it was an interesting realization.
I'm sometimes not sure we really know enough about the market for writing to market to be all that viable a strategy.