I was at a conference this last weekend and once again, I was talking to writers about the concept of writing the book of your heart vs paying attention to what the market really wants. I have talked about that here before as well as on my other social media channels. And sure enough, I ran into several authors who immediately launched into what they believed to be "rational" reasons why ignoring the market was fine. Each of these statements were "yeah but..."
Here is what it comes down to. We see the world through blinders. Writers in particular see the world that way. We are so focused on our stories that we don't see anything outside of that world.
Except, we need to.
We need to stop and think if that story will really sell.
We need to ask if people will really care.
We need to ask if there are enough people out there.
In one of the author's cases this weekend, his comment was, "Well, I guess I can always just always hope that it works out."
Sure, that is an approach you can take, but honestly, I don't know about you, but I just do not have a lot of free time on my hands to just throw away months on a gamble like that. When I work with my authors, we discuss just that. Sure, a publisher might say they are interested in seeing something that they have, but that author has to decide, if they want to give up their writing time that they are making money on for a gamble of something that may not succeed.
Again, I want you to write what you want. I want you to enjoy writing. But if you want to want to do this professionally and make money out of this, then you do need to think rationally about this and not just live wishfully.
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