A Piece of Advice from an "Unpopular" Author

“You may as well write what you want to, because there’s no predicting what will sell.”

I was listening to a writing podcast the other day and the guy being interviewed said  to make money at writing you should ‘write what’s popular’. I guess to a certain extent it’s true. Give the people what they want, the customer is always right and all that. But then I was reminded of the above quote by the incredible Judith Guest.

I have a book full of quotes, many of them about writing, that I’ve been collecting for over a decade. But of all of them, this one has probably defined me as a writer the most. It gave me permission to be the author I wanted to be, it relieved my anxiety about writing at a time when I was taking it very seriously and trying very hard to get published. It didn’t happen then. But I kept writing. I didn’t worry about who would like it, or if it was any good (okay, I didn’t worry a lot). Because somehow knowing that you can’t predict what people will want to read gave me the freedom to write whatever I wanted.

And then the indie publishing guru guy on the podcast tells me to write what’s popular.

So lets go down the list of most popular genres in my chosen field of YA. Sci-fi? Not really. Fantasy? Nope. Magic? Pass. Dystopian thrillers? Can’t get into it. Romance? Not yet.

So, I’m pretty much screwed in the “popular” department.

Except…maybe not.

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