Write from the heart or What Sells?

It's a really hard question. The artiste in us wants to write from the heart, the bills say write what sells. I used to think it impossible to write anything but from the heart, and it is different for everyone, but lately I do think with experience it becomes possible to utilise a mixture of style and commercialism to achieve our writer goals.

Authors approach this in different ways. Some start in a genre, carve a niche and stay there. Barbara Erskine comes to mind. Some see what genres are selling and sit down to write the same. Others start writing what they love and gradually choose to move towards more commercial genres. Yet others are lucky enough that present commercial genres are what they write anyway. If you want to make money you have to look at the market, look at what's selling and sometimes make an abrupt U turn. A lot of NYT bestselling authors moved from historical to paranormal/urban fantasy, historical to comtemporary women's fiction. And others straddle a few genres, getting the best of all worlds.

Looking around, seeing what's selling and seeing what how you can make that work for you is smart and savvy and something authors should be doing constantly. There will be genres you can't easily move into because they're so way out of the comfort zone and that's a pity, and would probably be a disaster anyway if you tried it, but if it's a genre you could feel comfortable in and you see it selling well, as an author you'd be crazy not to try. It's just important to remember you need to feel comfortable in the genre (for example I would never write YA, despite having raised two sons because I don't have the contemp language to make it sound convincing, but even having said that I could twist it to give it a fantasy edge and worldbuild myself into the genre). Some genres I could probably write, but they'd need a heck of a lot of research to make convincing, so I factor that in when choosing where to go. An example here is Amish romance. You don't have to be Amish to write it, but I bet it helps, LOL. Contemporary romance is selling well right now and we all have some contemorary location we know well so that genre is wide open to all of us. Historical, that depends again on the amount of research an author is willing to do in order to write convincingly. And probably their academic background and interests. Fantasy romance, paranormal and urban fantasy, I think these are more genres that are wide open to everyone because they're based on...fantasy. A skilled world builder can create the whole framework for their stories right out of their heads. The only rule here is to keep your worldbuilding consistent and logical. It's your world. Just make it work and people will believe it. Sci fi and space opera is a little more tricky, but even here you're mostly in the realms of fantasy so again, as long as the world is a logical one it will work.

And now for a quick caveat. If you are going to hop then hop and stay a while. Maybe write a series or a set of linked books. It's better for audience building. But even as I say that authors come to mine who hop around the genres quite happily and their readers follow them because they love the style rather than the particular genre.

As Konrath always says, don't be afraid to experiment. If other people are doing well in a genre there's a chance you might, too. But if you don't take that chance you'll never know. Even if it's just one short story to test the waters, you owe it to yourself to be the most successful author you can. And never be intimated by the success of others, thinking you'll never be able to replicate that. If one person can do it, then two can and three and so on. John locke, million seller on amazon wrote a book basically saying I did it and you can too. If he didn't think others could replicate his success he wouldn't have written that book telling people how he did it. It's not a race, there's plenty of room for all of us, but successful people are out there being an example of what is achievable. And that's how I hope they see themselves.

I'm lucky that I feel comfortable writing paranormal romance and contemporary and can easily move between that and my first love, fantasy romance. Nice as it is to write what we want, fantasy romance isn't a big seller and I do need to put the energy where the return is. So this year I'm back with the paranormal as Candy Nicks (to add to my historical vampire story Can I Keep You and my contemp vampire Interview Series) and as Alexandra Marell I'll be writing lighter contemps with mystical elements set in Italy. There I'm using a setting I know well, the town I was born in. My niche isn't a deep one, but I'm reining it in a bit in order to carve at least a nichette for the next few years.

But, before all that I need to finish my fantasy series Lords of the Dark Fall. I'm on book two, Marcellus right now and nearly 80, 000 words in. The first came in at 110, 000 and this one looks to be doing the same. It's only a two book series, but two long books. Hope they'll both be out in spring with only a short gap in between.

So, what's the message from this ramble? if you see something or someone doing well and think you can do it too, then try it, even if it's just a testing the waters short story. If it doesn't work, nothing lost. That's not genre-chasing, that's savvy marketing. If your niche is working for you, then carry on. If not, don't let anyone tell you something is out of your league and don't let anyone tell you you'll never replicate their success. As I said, it's not a race, but you might even find yourself whizzing right on past them. Just remember to wave when you do.