We Are The Market?

Among my favorite blogs are the blogs of agents, editors and/or their assistants, e.g. Chuck Sambuchino's Guide to Literary Agents and The Rejecter. I' ve had some writing friends say that an agent who blogs isn't selling, but we all need a little down time in my opinion. And, blogs by contacts in the industry are the first stop for those of us still struggling to secure contracts.

A little while back, I had a slight meltdown entitled Watch the Market . Then today, I read the Rejecter's latest blog article. In part, it explained the publishing market and why it is the way it is: readers buy the books, publishing companies track what readers buy, and editors contract for similar works, either as more of the same or with a slightly different twist. So, if I want to see more historical fiction out there, I have to buy more. Or, if we all go out and buy self help or memoirs, there'll be more of the same. Got it now? Good because if there's anything I love more than writing a book, it's reading one. Reading has been one of my first loves since I was a child and my collection has grown to the point where I now give away all my favorite fiction because my shelves are filled with the research books I need. But honestly, I never gave much thought to how I might be influencing the type of books that clutter bookstores.

This whole thing has a chicken or egg feel to it, though. We tell the publishers, "yes, we want to see more great historical fiction" so they publish more. Except, who really sets the market in motion: the writer who writes very well, the agent who makes the sale, the editor who accepts the manuscript, the marketing team's blitzkrieg of promotions or the readers, like me, who love the book / author and just want more of the same?

I'm going to be thinking about this one for a bit.

"Watch the Market"

Excuse me as I go off on a little rant here. Actually, isn't that part of what a blog is commonly used for? And last I checked, this is my blog. Hmm. OK, ranting away.

A dear friend of mine sent me an agent's musings the other day on how publishing trends are moving, in this particular agent's POV. Of course, I saw the words that make my eyeballs pop out of my head every time I see them: Watch The Market. What? Yes, watch the market; be attuned to what's hot and selling right now, so that you too can jump on the bandwagon with your homage to the style of whatever hot author is doing the aforementioned selling. Since I'm entirely too opinionated for my own good, my reply to my dear friend went something like this:

"You know what ticks me off? The agents who say as this one did "watch the market". It seems such impractical advice for those currently writing something and a disservice to everyone else. So you watch the market and see Gothic romances will be hot in the coming month. You go off and you write one. If you know the genre you get a head start but God help you if you don't. Six months minimum to write if you want something more than fluff, then edit the first draft because you're an ass wasting an agent's time if you don't try to polish it. Maybe you get requests for partials or maybe not. By that time historical mysteries are the next big thing coming down the pike. So now you've written this darn thing that no one can sell because you "watched the market". Whatever happened to writing what you love, pouring your heart and soul into your passion?"

Now I have seen variations of the advice the agent offered about watching the market - my favorite is "write what you love but make sure it's what hot and happening now". But I still have to ask; what's wrong with just writing what you love? Maybe I've got it wrong but for me writing is my passion, my love. If I couldn't do it for some physical or mental reason, I don't know what I would do but I'm sure it would involve going insane. There are so many stories sometimes bursting from my overworked brain that it takes true discipline to sit down and write a schedule of projects so I'm not dashing from here to there, and writing gibberish along the way. And it's safe to say in the years I've been doing this that I've discovered where one agent may hate a story, another adores it. Something along the lines of "one man's trash, another's treasure."

So my mantra and advice is: write what you love and then go out and find the agent or editor who loves it too.

Supply vs. Demand - Why Otherwise Good Writers Struggle To Become Published

I belong to three critique groups, with writers at varying levels of skill. Some have multiple publishing credits while authors (like me) are just waiting for that day when they can act the fool in a bookstore and get hauled off by the cops screaming, "That's my book! That's my book! I'm published. Yeah me!" Okay, well maybe that's just my plan.

Anyway, I'm reading the works of writers in the groups so I can offer my critiques. Which I haven't done in two months. More on why some other time (the blog has nothing to do with it). After all this reading, I have come to the inescapable conclusion: there's too many of us. How else can I explain that there are so many good writers out there and they struggle for so long to reach the goal of publication? Between competing with each other for markets in historical fiction, other writers of fiction, non-fiction authors, the occasional celebrity tell-all tale and let's not forget, Oprah's pick of the month, writers are a dime a dozen. Publishers have too many writers to choose among. It's a common theme among fellow writers; how do I make my work stand out in the crowd? I know some who've made it but for many of us, the supply of authors far exceeds the demand for books. Still we try, because if we weren't writers, what else would we be?