Welcome wonderful readers to another Path2pub debate! Topic: Should we writers pursuing traditional publication write books that we love, or what agents/editors are looking for on their wishlists? Should we write the books that excite us, or what is trending in the market? This topic came about after a few followers on Path2pub Twitter told […]

Debate: Write What You Love VS What The Industry Wants? — Path To Publication

Happy Wednesday, Writers! We’ve been talking a lot about self-publishing recently, and while this post is about traditional publishing, I believe that nearly everything in here is something that we have to think about as self-published authors, too. Maybe, in some ways, it’s even more important for us to think about this, because we don’t have anyone to market for us. A big part of what’s going to sell our book is how popular the genre is currently.

At the same time, however, I firmly believe in writing what you love. I’ve read too many half-hearted books that were obviously written for a trend (and probably were only published because of that trend too – I’m telling you, the quality can get really questionable). If you don’t love your story, it shows. And the great thing about self-publishing is that you have some room for trial and error. Obviously, we don’t want to waste time writing something that won’t sell, but I can tell you from experience that even though my books are failures from a sales perspective, I still love them, I’m proud of them, and I’m so glad that I put them out into the world. Nothing that you put love and effort into writing is a waste of time – and who knows, your book that may not have much of a market now could have a huge market a year later.

In any case, I encourage you to read through this article to get a few different perspectives on this debate. It’s a really great read and I think you’ll benefit from it.

Happy writing!

-E.J.

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