Sometimes Change Is Necessary

As we all know, the publishing industry is always changing. Editors come and go. New lines start and older lines go away. And always, book buyers change their minds as to which genres they want on their shelves. For this reason, a successful authors need to always be thinking of ways to adjust their writing.

Let me first of all say, I am not talking about major changes in your career. I am really referring to minor adjustments in what you write and how you write.

When I refer to minor changes, I am simply referring to elements such as sensuality level, plot focus and even the length of the story. Through making a small shift such as this, authors may be able to open up doors they had not seen in the past.

For example, author might write pretty hot contemporary stories set in the mid-west. By simply toning down the sensuality and focusing more on the relationship building or the theme of the story, that writing can now potentially move into either single title lines or even in the direction of women's fiction.

If you are really thinking about this early on (yes, this is another plug for plotters) you can actually write the same story in two different versions. Characters stay the same, plot essentially stays the same, but because of the small tweaks you have made, you can now market the book to a wider variety of publishers.

Now, I should say this is not a requirement of being successful as a writer. You can certainly stick with what you are doing and be successful. But adding that variety might create a little more flexibility for you and even create a little more longevity.