Do you write for yourself or write for the public?

"Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self."– Cyril Connolly

Should you write a novel for the market or for yourself?
by John Fagan

Most writers want their novel to be read and ultimately make money out of their hard work. Whether some will admit it or not, this is a big element of writing novels. There’s not many people that will be satisfied if it’s only their husband or granny who read their novel and told them it was beautiful. Almost all writers want their work to be read, liked, and to get something back from it.

There’s lots of advice from agents, publishers, and writers alike saying that you should research your market and write something current – something that fits with what readers’ what. After all, it’s a business and a business needs money to survive. 

This poses an important question: should you write your novel for the market or for yourself? Well, if you are in the latter category, and are feeling pressured into writing something you don’t want to write in order to suit the current wants of the market, here are three good reasons why you should only write for yourself.

Reason one: Your novel won’t be good if you don’t care about it

You can make money writing exactly for the demands of the market and many have, but is that the best thing to do? Harper Lee sure didn’t think so and thought that any writer worth their salt only wrote for themselves. William Goldman, author of The Princess Bride, was on the same page as Lee regarding this and said that you can only write what you care about or simply put it won’t be any good. 

Reason two: History tells us nobody knows what will sell

Goldman also let loose a trade secret – nobody has the least idea what’s going to sell. So you should write what moves you and hope you can translate that emotion to your reader.

Even if you write a great novel that meets the needs of what is current and selling, and by every indicator should be a bestseller, history tells us that might not be enough. Novels we see as masterpieces now have flopped in their own time, while should-be failures in terms of quality have been best sellers. Herman Melville’s classic Moby Dick was shunned in his own time and took generations to even be appreciated. The same happened to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. The truth is nobody knows for sure what will sell. So write a novel you are passionate about and give it your all.

Reason three: Fads change at a moments notice

If we look at the YA genre we can see why writing aimed only at the market is a dangerous thing to do. 

The success of J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, the best-selling book series in history, resulted in several similar novels after a slice of the magic money pie in the demand for young adult fantasy with magic children. Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians is one that was successful, but there were countless failures and many writers wasted years writing novels to suit this fad only for it to end as readers wanted something different. 

A new fad took over and similarly the success of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight kickstarted a new wave of vampire and werewolf novels. There were success stories in this – Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy and Maggie Stiefvater’s Shiver were less successful than Twilight but still bestsellers. However, that fad ended too and there were countless novels shelved as interest in the market moved on again. The popularity of vampire novels shifted to dystopian ones after Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games arrived and the cycle continued. 

Decision time on writing for yourself or the market

For every success in writing to suit the demand of the market there are countless failures.
If you write solely to fit a market’s demand there’s a chance that by the time you have your novel ready, the fad has moved on to something else or if it hasn’t, you could get lost in a sea of similar imitators. You’ve got to get your timing right if you are going to do this and it’s a dangerous game to play.

Write what you want and make it the best you can. That’s your best chance of writing a bestseller. Who’s to say you can’t do both and your novel fits? Writing for yourself first and foremost is the best way to produce your best writing.

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Come and join us on our latest podcast - Wellness and relaxation

https://anchor.fm/happyldnpress/episodes/The-Relaxing-Guitar-Bros-talk-about-making-music-erm2rb/a-a4r6ibg

Come and Meet John Gerard Fagan 

A Scottish writer and Creative Writing Assistant Professor. He writes in both English and Scots and in a number of genres, including Japanese historical fiction and crime noir. He moved back to Scotland in late 2019 after being in Japan for the last decade.

Do you have a point to make about literature?
Join our community 

On Twitter @HappyLDNPress 

& Instagram @happylondonpress

www.HappyLondonPress.com

Are you in need of a weekly fiction fix
Subscribe and get it sent straight into your in box

* indicates required

Email Address * 

First Name 

Last Name 

Email Format

• html
• text

More thoughts on the subject of do we write for ourselves or the market from other writers 

Mary Gentle 

“What are the signs that a novel is bad?”

There is only one sign that a novel is bad:

You’re reading the novel. You put it down. Somehow, you never pick it up again.

That’s it.

The purpose of a novel is to be read. End (as they say) of story. If it doesn’t do that, then it fails at being a novel. It also fails at anything else it might be for — because no one will ever read it to find out.

(I’ve had people over the years who told me that they found themselves awake at three in the morning because they had to finish a novel I’d written. I always regard this as the greatest compliment possible.)

Ah — you are probably saying to yourself, by this time — but what if it’s a bad book? What if it’s badly written; aimed at adults, but in a style closer to Janet-and-John? What if it’s an immoral book? What if it corrupts, philosophically, and stylistically? What if it’s a fifth-rate copy of a much better book?

Doesn’t matter.

If you stop reading it, and never finish it, that’s a bad novel.

I’ve done a lot of academic lit crit over the years, and what I take away from it is just how much depends on personal taste. I love Dostoievski, and couldn’t give a rat’s fart for Tolstoy. This has nothing to do with the quality of either Russian writer, but reflects the fact that (in various translations) I find one a joy to read, and the other like having to wade through semi-dry cement.

From a different viewpoint, the courts have from time to time declared novels obscene (in the UK, Lady Chatterley’s Lover) and then years later un-declared them. The novel obviously didn’t change; people’s personal tastes did. Why should that define whether a novel is good or bad?

One assumes that, say, a writer-for-hire’s TV novelisation will be “worse”, qualitatively, than the latest literati novel. One assumes it in the UK because people are terrible snobs. :) And yet there are gripping TV novelisations, and dreary literati novels, exactly the same as there are dreary novelisations and gripping novels.

You can tell which is which because you stop reading them.

Once you’ve read them you can decide whether (a) you’ve spent two hours of your life reading that, which you’ll never get back, or (b) you intend to order all the other novels by that writer in case they did the trick again. And also (c) decide whether you have been morally corrupted or just disgusted (Yes, I do wish I could unread Last Exit to Brooklyn, thanks); or (d) if you have been personally changed by reading the novel, or (e) have had your two hours on the beach greatly enhanced.

Novelists spend much time considering the best way to tell their story. Sometimes they can “play it by ear” — for example, many naive romance writers do this, in the sense that they believe utterly in the story they write, and can pass that conviction on to the reader. Some novelists believe it’s a case of technique, and certainly the market of how-to-write books is there to help them if they do. Jack Bickham’s Scene and Structure is unrelentingly convinced by this, and if you happen to be a writer interested in technique, I recommend it. If you’re on the “inspiration” side of the writing equation, however, don’t touch it! (Most of us are probably somewhere in the middle…)

My personal opinion — since we’re speaking of personal opinions — is that, as a writer, you should never ask if you’re writing a “good” novel. It’s the wrong question. It’s a question that every reader will answer for themselves. And that bookmark left permanantly sticking halfway through the book — that’s the sign that it was, for them, a bad book.

Dave Wheeler

Let me tell you from my experience what I feel is most important.

1. Read. Any good writer reads on a regular basis. Myself I am a big fan of the Kindle app I have on my smartphone. I always have a new book that I am working on and since it is on my phone I can pull it out and

read a little throughout the day while I am on the train or standing in line at Subway. Even if I don't have time to sit down and just read for fun I still get a lot of reading in on the go and it is important to be an avid reader if you want to write well. If you don't enjoy reading then you are probably barking up the wrong tree. If you find a writer that you like pay attention to the way he or she crafts the narrative and the way his words flow from one sentence to the next.

2. Learn your grammar. While it is not necessary to be an English major to be a good writer or even a great writer having a strong grasp of grammar will pay dividends for you down the road. Your sentences will flow better and you will be able to express your thoughts much more clearly. Proper grammar will be what sets you apart from the mediocre writers.

3. I would recommend that you read, "On Writing" by Steven King. I am not a huge fan of the way Steven King writes but this book is half autobiography and half dissertation on what it takes to be a good writer. I found it to be a very eye opening and motivating book from one of the world most popular authors.

4. Write. This appears like a smart choice but truly this is basically the main step and one that many wanabe authors ignore the most. Don't invest times, weeks, or months brainstorming ideas. Only begin composing and even if it appears as though what you are actually writing is complete trash (if you are brand-new it might very well be) simply stay with it and you will begin having plans and you will discover your style. Keep With It long enough and you'll be in a position to just sit down and write all day at any given time with very little energy.

5. Put your self on the market. Write, complete something, and then let others see clearly. Whether or not everything you simply blogged is a hot mess it is essential to share it to be able to get feedback. Study on the critique and use it to improve your writing. It is possible to offer your tale to friends and family or you believe you have anything worthy of being published seek out a representative. I do not suggest distributing right to the publishing houses, you're going to get a better package and in most cases you're getting found easier if you undergo a real estate agent.

If that you don't need get that path or if no body desires to pick-up your manuscript then you can always self-publish on Kindle. You will possibly not make the maximum amount of cash but that shouldn't become your objective. If you do really on Kindle you could see your self with a loyal following that may create your next book so much more successful.

Adam Melton

In today's world, publishing a book is not the biggest problem. There are quite a few services that allow authors to self-publish, and most distribution networks only take a cut of sales. Even those that charge you to publish through their service generally only demand a token fee.

As long as you can clearly write and organize your ideas, you can publish a book. Actually, the "clearly" and "organized" parts aren't even necessarily a barrier to entry (although those will help you get noticed).


The real problem today is not publishing your work, but promoting it, and making sales. There are quite a few blogs that can help you explore the world of self-publishing and promoting (I'll list a few free resources at the bottom). The biggest thing to keep in mind is that, except for a very select few established authors, the days of writers being able to be a separate themselves from the promotional side of their work is long gone.

Richard Cowen

Step one: have an idea.

This could be ‘I want to write a story about guilt and redemption’ or it could be ‘I want to write a story about people piloting giant mechs against equally giant dinosaurs’.

The former is called a ‘theme’. Pretty much everything that happens in the story comes back to guilt and redemption and the novel overall says something about it. Literary fiction loves this approach to writing a novel but a good theme is recommended in any novel.

The latter, let’s call it the story’s ‘premise’, is also perfectly fine and is the kind of attitude that leads to franchise fiction, or generic romance novels (though usually with fewer dinosaurs and mechs), or hard-bitten action thrillers. This is the more fun and mass market end of commercial fiction. But, as mentioned above, a good theme is recommended, even if that’s only a justification for the giant fighting robots.

(The theme of the film Pacific Rim, for example, could be said to be ‘unity as strength’ or, less poncily, ‘teamwork is good’: the Jaegers require two pilots to work in harmony, the Jaeger project itself is a multi-national endeavour that is being threatened by individual nations cutting funding in order to protect themselves, and even the patriotically-themed star Jaeger crews only succeed when they coordinate their duels with their opposite numbers from other countries, and the protagonist’s arc over the story is learning to work as part of a new team after his brother’s death, while the two scientists learn to stop being rivals and combine their efforts against the kaiju. All of this is a justification for giant robots hitting giant monsters.)

I often start with an idea for a cool (to my mind) story, only fleshing out the thematic elements later as the characters and plot develop.

My first (unpublished, and probably in need of another polish before I send it to any other agents) novel started out as an investigation into a war crime in a fantasy setting. After the first draft, it became clear that the story was about conscience, the things that people do when they don’t have one, and the sense of duty conscience instills into those that do. (I won’t say it’s an excellent analysis of those themes, but it’s a good excuse for a story featuring demons and psychopaths and politicians, and it does tie things together a bit.)

Step two: flesh out the idea.

You’ve got your theme and/or premise. You can either just start writing, or you can plan the plot out first.

The advantage to the former is that you’ve harnessed the energy and excitement you’re feeling for a new project and are putting words on the page. Words on the page are important if you’re writing a novel; whether they’re good words can be judged later, when it comes to redrafting. The downside is that you don’t necessarily know where you’re going and you may eventually write yourself into a corner, or face-first into a wall.

It’s probably better overall to plan the novel before you write it, so that each scene leads onto the next, while you can also lay seeds in earlier scenes that foreshadow later events or character reveals. This can be painstaking, but it gives a good framework to lay your words onto.

Think of your plan for the novel as being the poles of a tent, while the words are the canvas. Now picture that tent without the poles to hold it up. You can still sleep inside it, but it’s going to be a rough night.

A quick aside: JK Rowling knew how book seven ended even before Harry Potter got his first owl from Hogwarts. Meanwhile, George MacDonald Fraser wrote the first Flashman novel with no plan at all, merely inserting Flashman from Tom Brown’s Schooldays into historical events and seeing how he avoided dying.

My personal approach, as a writer without pretensions towards entering the literary canon, is to use that initial burst of enthusiasm to get words onto the page, regardless of where they might lead. I don’t necessarily know how the story’s going to end, or if I do have an idea for the end-point, I don’t know what happens in the middle that takes us from here to there.

My current project started with the basic idea ‘a dwarf accidentally destroyed the world by digging too deep’. What followed was a bit of post-apocalyptic grumpiness from a guilt-ridden dwarf with anger management issues.

After about 10–15,000 words, or sometimes less, I get a feel for the world I’m trying to write, and the plot of the story becomes clear. At this point, I stop writing and instead start planning the future events of the story, scene by scene, until I reach the end. Who the characters are, why they’re doing what they do, and where they’re going next becomes a lot more clear during this process.

Step Three: Keep on writing.