writing market

The standard advice is good advice. But there are as many ways to be a writer as there are writers. I have five novels in print and two coming out in 2010. By 2012 I plan to be finished my ten novel series. It is nothing like any of the trends in vogue when I got started in 1999. But it was the story I'd been developing all my life and the only one I was strongly motivated to write. You can google "Okal Rel" or "Lynda Williams" to find it in the world. I still have a day job, but I love my writing life and I do have to declare income from writing - but only for the last few years. Before that I wasn't making enough to worry about it. I used to get very disheartened by the good advice that urged me to give up my project and do something much more like everyone else was doing. I don't think I would have succeeded with that strategy in any case. All in all, it's a dilemma for me whenever a fellow writer asks how to get published because the writing world isn't like school - you can do all the right things and still fail. So much depends on things beyond your control. Going to conventions where you meet the people who make books and the writers who fill them is a good way to start learning what might be your way in. Your way might not be someone else's way. Of course, you can't do it your way and expect publishers to be impressed. There's heartaches and doubt and investment and slogging any way you take it on. So why do so many of us keep doing this? Because every time you do a reading, appear in a classroom, get an e-mail from a reader saying "Where's the next book!" or have one of those wonderful hours of "flow" when the world you are creating comes alive ... well, it's addicting. And how many addictions are as positive? :-)

Hi George. Researching involves a lot of reading. Your market would similarly define the type of readers that you will be targeting to introduce your book. A practical advise would be getting involve and participating on writer and reader forums. Actively participate and post posts that leads to answers to your questions regarding your market.

Met Ramos
BookWhirl.com

If selling your fiction is your primary goal, you should read what is selling in the market you are hoping to break into. If you walk into any bookstore and go to your genre, you can get a huge amount of information at no cost. Take mysteries, for example. You don't need to focus exclusively on the best-sellers (though every publisher is looking for one). Every book on the shelf was signed by a publisher. If an author has several titles, chances are they sell well. Check the copyright page of books that interest you. If the book is in its fourth, fifth, or sixth printing, chances are it has sold pretty well.

Select a variety of titles and then head to the library to check them out and read. (I'm big into not spending money unless you like something.) Don't just read to copy what others are doing, find out what authors appeal to you. Chances are you will be more enthusiastic about writing your book if it is in a genre and style that you really enjoy.

Pretty much the same can be said for shorter works as well. See what is in the kind of magazine you see yourself writing for. And check their blurbs on Websites and The Writer's Market to see what they say they are looking for.

Good luck!