Writing for Self, to Sell, or Both #Marketing #Trends #choices

Torn between wanting to write what you enjoy vs. market needs? If so, read on.

 

Throughout history, people have been challenged to make choices. Joshua challenges the Old Testament people in Joshua 24:15 (KJV): 

". . . choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

As writers, we also need to choose. Do we simply write what we want to write and hope someone, sometime will be impressed enough to publish our work? Even though the genre is not selling well? 

Been there. Done that. I felt compelled to write my one and only Biblical novel when Biblical fiction was out of favor. It took 15 years and 50 tries before it sold--then generated a flood of approving fan mail.

Why did I stick with it? I believed in it and was willing to wait for the market pendulum swing. Important note: I also wrote and sold many other books more in line with market demands while waiting.

When I was first getting started writing in the mid-1970s I faced the "want versus needs" dilemma. I longed to write Christian novels. Unlike now, when the Christian fiction market continues to boom, publishers were not looking for that kind of material. 

As usual, my brother Randy gave me excellent advice. "Find a secular publisher who wants good clean books that are inspirational but not overly religious," he said. 


It rang a bell. For decades Mom and I had read Avalon career books. The titles didn't preach but characters could offer table grace and pray when in trouble. I approached them with The Heritage of Nurse O'Hara and ended up writing eleven books for them. Payment was modest, to say the least, but I gained valuable experience working with editors, learning what to look for in contracts, etc. This served me well; I later became among the first few authors with Christian fiction in the market.

Tip: Spend a half-hour researching the markets for every hour you spend writing.

• Each time a new marketing book came out I studied it diligently. I crossed out  book publishers and magazines I knew I would never write for. I wrote notes in the margins when stated needs reminded me of something I knew or had experienced that might interest the editors.
• I discovered there was a great need for personal experience stories and articles. Voila! Those I had.
•  I learned about magazine rights. 
• All rights meant just that. I could never resell elsewhere without permission from the first magazine or even include in a book--and they were under no obligation to grant it.
• First rights meant the piece could not be offered anywhere until the magazine printed it, no matter how long it took.
• First serial rights meant the right to publish first in a magazine.
• One-time or simultaneous rights gave me the opportunity to send the same piece to several non-competing places at once. This worked especially well with denominational magazines where the same magazines or church papers  wouldn't be going into the same homes.

This knowledge eventually led to more than 1300 magazine sales in addition to my book sales.

I was recently asked where to get ideas. My photo albums offered ideas galore. 
"Pussy Willows and Hideouts," "The Glorious Fourth," "Mary, Come Back," "The Gift of Wishing," Never an Angel," "Always Lilacs and Fruit Jars" and dozens of other well-received personal experience stories sold again and again then became part of collections. 


Recalling family memories added idea treasure. High on the list was the summer Randy spent as a lookout fire-watcher on a mountain near out hometown.  We talked about how every night at six o'clock Dad, Mom, and I raised a white sheet on a tall pole and waved it toward the mountain from our home in the valley. Randy waved a sheet back to let us know he was okay. 

As we reminisced, I knew the story needed to be told. I had sold other books to Pacific Press. They agreed to consider this one so I wrote the story,based on what what happened, only with names changed. Readers of all ages were delighted.




 
Jack jerked up in bed. There they were again—low, sobbing cries, the saddest sounds he’d ever heard. Jack knew what they were. Cougars cried that way. How much use was his frail canvas tent if a cougar didn’t play by the rules?

Jack battled fear of the dark, of being alone, of what might happen when he was forced to tell a band of loggers they had to shut down operations because of fire danger.  

It would take all the grit inherited from pioneer ancestors for Jack to stick with the job until either the rains came or his summer of fear ended.

Good news.

A few used copies of the original book are available on Amazon.com.

Summer of Fear has just been released on Kindle and as a new reprint by Pacific Press. 



Summer of Fear available at