Do You Have A Back-up Plan?

So here is a question for you? You're writing in a specialized sub-genre and everything is going great. Your books seem to be doing well and the world looks wonderful. But then the market shifts. Out of the blue, your genre is no longer something that is fashionable. Now what?

As we know, publishing is always shifting and turning. This is what makes the job so difficult for editors and agents. One day something is hot and then the next, we wouldn't be able to give the books away. We all wish we could make those predictions and see it coming but that is simply not going to happen. For a lot of authors, they have really fallen victim to this market shift and found their careers at a brick wall or even dead.

So how do you deal with it?

When things like this happen, you don't really need to panic. You simply need a back-up plan to get you out of it.

I am someone who always believes there can be an easy solution to a problem. O.K. it doesn't always happen, but in many cases, a few small tweaks and turns can get you out of the situation.

Let's say that Regency romances die. Not all historicals but this time period is simply not going to work right now. Instead of jumping into a completely different genre such as paranormal, look at what seems to be working and modify the time period. Maybe moving it into the Victorian era will help out. Maybe moving it back in time will help.

I saw people making the shift out of chick lit in much of the same fashion. With a little tweaking and some world building, the stories about witty couples in Manhattan turned into witty dialogues with vampires.

The thing is not to panic but to always be thinking. Always have some ideas in your notebook that you can go to, just in case. Remember, you don't need huge shifts, but just those small tweaks.