Deborah Cooke: Author

This week, you get two writing/publishing posts back to back, because I went guest blogging on Monday instead of Tuesday. Don’t worry – tomorrow I have a guest author visiting!

This post has grown out of that discussion at the TRW meeting on Saturday. We were talking about the differences between writing to the market and writing the book of your heart. Writers always seem to think this is an absolute choice, but I like to recommend something in the middle.

First, let’s define our terms. Writing to the market, to me, is when an author looks at what is selling well and decides to write the same kind of thing. This is independent of what ideas he or she might have – the market information is the inspiration. So, I might look at the market and say “hey, vampire YA is selling really well. I should write one of those. Let me think of a story idea.” Market comes first with this perspective and the idea comes later.

Writing the book of your heart, to me, is at the opposite end of the spectrum. An idea slaps the author awake in the middle of the night and without regard for any market data, the author begins to write, writing the book exactly as he or she envisions it. When it’s done, the author tries to figure out where to submit it. The idea drives the process in this scenario and the marketing comes later.

Maybe once upon a time, when the book market was much larger, books of the heart always found a niche. In this current market, though, there is a lot less diversity and it is harder to find a spot for a book that defies expectations. (This is true of genre. It may not be the case in literary fiction or mainlist fiction.) So, what I advocate is a middle position.

What if you considered where your story idea might fit in the current market before starting to write it?

Let me dig into my box of discarded projects for an example. There’s a good one. I have an epic fantasy in there, which occurs in a world with an historical setting. Right now, it’s an ensemble piece with lots of characters, each on their own respective mission, and all those quests come together in the end. I really like the idea and what exists of the book, but it’s a huge project, one of those books that would be 600 pages long in mass market format if and when it was published. We’re talking about a year of research and (at least) a year of writing – which is why it’s in the box.

If I were going to work on that project today, I wouldn’t spend all that time without looking at the market first. What are the possibilities for this book?

1/An epic fantasy. I could write it as originally envisioned. The fact is that there isn’t a huge market for epic fantasy right now. I could look at the houses that do publish this kind of work, look at what they’ve published recently. I could also digitally publish or self-publish this work.

But there are lots of elements in this book. What if I tightened the focus?

2/ I could focus on the one romantic relationship, and write the book as a romance. It would be an historical romance with fantasy elements. Again, I can look at the market, and again I would discover that there is not an enormously robust market for historical romance with fantasy elements. I could look at what is out there and what is being acquired, could look at digital publishing and self-publishing.

3/ I could focus on the murder. I could structure the story around the murder that occurs and the one character’s hunt for the culprit. This would make the book an historical mystery with fantasy elements. Is there a market for this? I don’t know. I’d have to do some research to find out, plus to identify what elements are important in the marketing of such works. I have a feeling that the magical elements might have to disappear to make an historical mystery marketable, but I could find out for sure.

4/ I could focus on the novice who is coming of age and mastering her skills. This would make the book an historical YA with fantasy elements. I’m not sure how much historical YA is out there – or how well it’s doing – but there certainly is a healthy market for YA with fantasy elements. I’d have to find out more.

Now, which of these choices is most appealing to me will depend upon my own aspirations. There is no right or wrong answer. I might want to move into mystery and suspense writing and might love the idea of an historical mystery. I might be determined to see my book in a printed edition from a traditional publisher, in which case YA might be the best choice for me. I might be determined to self-publish my own work, in which case I could choose any of these possibilities.

The point is simply that by looking around before starting to write, I’d have a better chance of ensuring that my year invested in writing the book would pay the dividends that I wanted.

Does this strategy make sense to you?