What Does It Mean to Write To Market?
And how do you do it?
A couple of writers that I work with write to market. They do so well that they’ve left their jobs. One was a teacher. One was a lawyer. Another did something in sales.
But it got me thinking about what write to market means.
And how to do it.
WHAT DOES WRITE TO MARKET MEAN?
According to Doug Landsborough of Dabble Books,
“At its core, writing to market is about striking a balance between creative expression and commercial appeal. It's the art of crafting stories that not only capture your own voice but are also tailored to meet the demands and interests of a targeted audience.”
So it’s about striking a balance between art and money and still be true to your voice while catering to readers.
This sounds to me like a relationship.
According to Eva Luna,
“Writing to market is basically creating stories that readers in a specific genre want to read. It’s about understanding what readers love and delivering it in a way that feels fresh and exciting — without defying genre conventions.
“Let me give you the example of romance. Romance has a pretty clear definition. Two people fall in love and have a happily ever after. If one person moves to Mars at the end and the lovers are separated, it’s not a romance. If they die, it’s not a romance. If they divorce, it’s not a romance. You get the idea.
“So, back to my little moment of epiphany: after reading those 50 romance novels, I felt ready to write one of my own. I chose a niche within romance that by then I was very knowledgeable about and started typing away.”
On The Cobblestone Road defines it in two ways, really, (and you should probably check out all three of these sources if you’re into it because they are helpful):
They break it down to two ways:
Copying the plot formula of bestsellers
Identifying your audience and target them
Sara A. Noë for Cobblestone writes,
“When some people recommend “writing to market,” they’re suggesting that you should study the plotlines of bestsellers in your selected genre and basically employ a copy/paste strategy with slightly different characters and settings. When I attended a writing conference several years ago, this is the method that one of the keynote speakers used to build a highly profitable career over several decades.
“You’ve no doubt seen this yourself. My go-to example is the Hallmark structure. Fans keep going back for more stories even though they all generally follow the exact same formula. If you’ve seen one Hallmark movie, you’ve pretty much seen them all.”
Sara is not a fan and I enjoy that about her post because it’s honest. She also has an excerpt originally from Now Novel that summarizes Christopher Booker’s The Seven Basic Plots: Why we tell stories (2004) about typical formulas defined by the plot.
“Overcoming the Monster. This is a story of a ‘terrifying, life-threatening, seemingly all-powerful monster who the hero must confront in a fight to the death’
“Rags to Riches: A story of a ‘humble, disregarded little hero or heroine who is lifted out of the shadows to a glorious destiny’
“The Quest: A story in which ‘a hero and his [or her/their] companions go through a succession of terrible, often near-fatal ordeals’. Often they receive ‘guidance from friendly helpers’
“Voyage and Return: A story where an individual or group travels ‘out of their familiar, everyday, ‘normal’ surroundings into another world completely cut off from the first’ (p. 87).
“Comedy: Stories that (historically) revolved around confusions such as mistaken identities and precarious situations played for laughs, often involving a main character ‘who against all odds finally achieves the happy ending’ (p. 134).
“Tragedy: Stories that typically feature a protagonist ‘becoming more and more ensnared in their predicament’ (p. 176), often an ‘incomplete, egocentric figure who meets a lonely and violent end’ (p. 180) due to making the wrong choices.
“Rebirth: A story that ‘marks the move from one universal pole of existence to the other, from death to life’ (p. 205) in showing how a character moves from an imprisoned or trapped state to freedom and renewal.”
Jessica Brody’s SAVE THE CAT WRITES A NOVEL breaks down typically plot structures into similar categories, too. Brody then gives the typical beats and tropes of each, which is pretty brilliant.
Is that sort of thinking formulaic? Yep. Do we get lulled by the predictability of the Hallmark structure? Yes, Sara says, but she also notes that sometimes some of us like that lulling, that escape, that pattern. And the market tends to like it a lot.
IDENTIFYING THE NICHE
But what about that other aspect—finding the niche—finding the audience and writing to it. I always think that seems hard.
So how do you do that? Sara and Doug both break it down with a lot of commonalities.
RESEARCH THE GENRE YOU WANT TO WRITE IN
How do you do that? You read like a scholar.
READ OVER 20 BOOKS IN YOUR GENRE
We actually did this in my MFA program through reading lists each semester.
Sara suggests taking notes on:
“Common plot structures
“Character types
“Typical story arcs
“Reader expectations.”
LOOK AT GENRE CONVENTIONS
Much like that Save the Cat expectation list for different plot structures, you want to have an understanding of what readers expect in your zombie hamster romance novel. Different genres have different expectations.
As Sara writes, “Each genre has specific rules. In romance, the couple must end up together. In mystery, the crime must be solved. In sci-fi, there are expectations about world-building and technology.”
LOOK AT READER PSYCHOGRAPHICS
Doug talks about finding that ideal reader for your novel.
“How old are they? What's their day job like? What TV shows are they binging? Heck, what's their favorite snack?” he writes. “Then psychographics come into play. It’s not just about age and location. It's about what makes them tick. Get to know their values, interests, and lifestyle. The more you know, the better.”
LOOK AT THE TRENDS IN THE GENRE
Doug suggests looking at forums, Goodreads reviews, Facebook groups about your genre and see what people are into and not into.
Another good way to do this is to look at the top lists on Amazon for your genre and search for commonalities an differences. Are they meeting genre expectations or subverting them?
BE YOU
So in all of this is a lot of looking outward, right? But you still want to be you with your own voice and feel.
As Sara writes, “Writing to market doesn’t mean copying or leaving your creativity at the door. It means understanding the playground and then bringing your unique voice to it to deliver a story that feels familiar yet fresh and exciting.”