If you’ve written a book or thought about writing a book, chances are you’ve heard the term “write to market”. This is a way of writing books that appeal to readers by writing a variation on what’s currently popular, i.e. “the market,” with an eye to creating your book specifically to market. That is, if you write what’s popular, people will read it and you’ll sell more books.

There is nothing inherently wrong with writing to market. For some authors, this is the way that they become successful. Instead of exploring new ground, delving into a potentially controversial topic or writing a book that may only have a niche audience at the moment, they are appealing to a wider audience. This can, and often does, prove to be a successful endeavour. And for those authors that can craft their books around these popular themes, they can create the books that readers want to see and are more likely to have a lucrative time writing books.

However, just because writing to market has a built-in audience (if you can market successfully, which is an entirely different kettle of fish, but that’s not the point of this article) does not make it the best way to write a book. Sometimes, authors who choose to do something different, unique, new, are the ones who are the more successful. They may not have a ready-made audience, but when they find their readers, those readers are rabid for their work because it fills a void for them.

I have personally found this to be the case with disability representation in fiction, as well as asexual (though not necessarily aromantic) romantic representation in books. Those two categories were perhaps in existence before, but not explicitly so, and often not with those characters taking centre stage. I find that I am almost always going to insta-buy a book with a disabled MC, or a story that has ace representation. (Also, I have an excessive fondness for books with dragons, but that’s a different matter entirely.) These books are still not widely popular, though they are gaining in recognition. That is to say, the market for such things is a lot smaller than a mainstream love story.

The thing is, though, that the market is everchanging. 

People want to see themselves in stories, and the more variety in those stories, the more people see themselves. Such is the case with BIPOC, neurodiverse, disabled, lgbtqa+ readers and authors. Even people who just have a difficult family life would like to see themselves in a story. Everyone has that unique thing that they want to see, and the more authors explore different themes, tropes, storylines, etc., the more likely it is that someone (or a lot of someones) will pick up a book that means something more to them than just a book they enjoyed.

The market also changes because people get bored. Easily.

Take the Marvel movies, for example. When they first came out, people were very interested in these stories. Cool special effects, superheroes, saving the world, a reimagining of some of the most popular comics from the heyday of comics, enough story to be satisfying with enough action to attract those who just like to see things go kerplooie, these movies were an instant hit. Then, they expanded. A new story, same characters. Or new characters adding to the story. It was great, entertaining, and people couldn’t get enough.

Until they’d had enough. 

Disney bought Marvel, then decided to squeeze every last drop of profit out of the franchise that they could. There were spinoffs of characters that no one cared about. The storylines became derivative. The new movies required people to have seen all the previous ones, no matter that the audience only wanted to watch the one movie about the one character. There were television shows exclusive to Disney+ that were somehow essential to the storyline. 

What had been new and exciting and interesting quickly became, “Oh, no, not another one.”

Profits on the Marvel franchise have plummeted. People no longer cared.

The market, in a word, moved on.

It’s the same with books. In the fantasy world, Sarah J. Maas took the market by storm. Suddenly, Fae and magic and mates and desperate, dark love stories were all the rage. People put out books with titles so similar (A Blank of X and Y) that it became a meme. Readers devoured anything even remotely similar to those SJ Maas books and authors of both the indie and traditional variety did exceptionally well by riding on the Maas coattails. 

I have noticed a shift, though, in the fantasy book world. SJ Maas is still very popular, as are Fae and mates and all that, but what else is currently popular? Dragons. Rebecca Yarros wrote Fourth Wing and suddenly the readers wanted books about dragons. Dragon riders. Dragon shifters. Magical dragons. Talking dragons. 

(Incidentally, Fourth Wing also had disability rep, but a book club discussion I attended confirmed that most people were more confused by that than pleased at the representation. Alas.)

Neither of these trends is bad, nor is riding on the coattails of popular authors. Academy magic books soared after Harry Potter. Tolkien still influences epic fantasy. George RR Martin…well, he’s kind of a hit or miss these days, given how many people are annoyed at the fact that his series is still incomplete. What matters, I think, is that people can tell the stories they want to tell. If that means putting them in the context of the current trend, great! If that means forging new trails, then that’s perfectly acceptable, too. 

In the indie world, books and themes and popular tropes move so much faster than the traditional world. Indie authors have more room to explore controversial topics and write about issues that are near-and-dear to their hearts. However, the traditional publishing world tends to drive most of the marketing trends of books because they have a larger read (mostly) than the indie world. Sometimes the indie authors will take the world by storm and be picked up by the traditional publishers, which then shifts the market a bit more. Generally, though, the traditional publishing world is a much slower beast, with authors publishing one, maybe two books a year. 

This means that popular trends as created by the trad world can last a little longer than a few months. They can last years, and that gives other authors a chance to explore that market and create something wonderful. 

For me? Well, I try to write stories that mean something to me. If they have popular elements, that’s perfectly fine. If not, well, I don’t mind much either. I don’t intentionally write to market, but invariably popular elements end up in most stories, simply because I read something and liked it, so wrote a variation on a theme.

Of course, marketing such books becomes slightly more difficult. As if it weren’t difficult enough. Oh, well! I’m stubborn enough to persist, and who knows? Maybe the market will shift and suddenly everything in my books, from disability rep to the fact that I can’t write a sex scene to save my life, will be popular. 

The post Word Nerdery: The Strange Phenomenon of Writing to Market first appeared on Tarney Brae Creative Endeavours.