Top “Truth” Number Six: Follow the Market
Agents advise often advise writers to follow the market, and put out a list of “hot” books they are in need of. This advice can be confusing to new writers (and to seasoned vets like me, I confess it).
Following the market does not mean writing to the market. Writing to the market can be frustrating for any writers who can’t turn out a book in three to six months, because the market shifts often happen at the acquisition point, and aren’t reflected on the “hot new books” table at your local bookstore until a year or more later.
Following the market means knowing what agents were acquiring six months ago, what they are acquiring currently, and what they’re looking for that they are having a hard time finding (when an agent says she is looking for something in particular, that is a good sign that an editor has asked for it). Some agents and agencies actually provide this information on their website. You can also find this out by searching the deals news online at Publishers Marketplace.
Following the market can be crazy making, so I like to advise writers to follow it like they might follow a fashion trend — look at the trend on others, try it on if you think it might flatter you, but only buy it if you truly love it. Sure, vampires are hot right now — so hot that their imminent demise is predicted (wrongly) on a daily basis. But if you don’t like vampires, adding one into your book just to make a sale is likely to backfire.
So, what do you do if you have a quiet, sweet novel with not a trace of paranormality when that seems to be all agents are looking for? Brace yourself for a long hard search for the right agent, and don’t stop until you find that right agent, who loves your book and knows where and how to sell it (quiet, sweet, well-written novels are perennial sellers, and persistence will get you where you want to go if your novel is good enough).
Paradoxically, it can be easier to place a well written non-trending novel when everyone else is following the hot trend (agents are wading through hastily, and often poorly, written manuscripts on the hot trend, so your non-trending novel may strike a chord as something different).
For the truly adventurous writer, who abhors the current hot trend — or is afraid it will die before she can get the book written — you can try to predict the future. The odds of being successful at this are the same as the odds of winning the lottery (hey, I’ve had some $2 winners when I got a ticket with my emergency milk, that counts!). If you are interested in divining the future, it helps to study history (I just caught sight of bell bottom jeans in my local Target yesterday…I wore them last in the 70s). Trends cycle. And recycle.
It is also useful to recognize the difference between swimming against a trend, and jumping into the pool a little early and getting left behind when the trend takes off. I once knew a writer who had sold a time-travel romance when no one was looking for them. Some years later, time-travel romances became a hot trend, and no one remembered that she’d been a pioneer of the trend. She was a little ahead of the curve, for whatever reason, and there was not much she could do about it.
Following the writing market is like following the stock market — it is always good to know what’s going on, but jumping into the wrong trend can be a bad thing.
Next up — Top “Truth” Number Seven: The Agent Works for You
Top “Truth” Number One
Top “Truth” Number Two
Top “Truth” Number Three
Top “Truth” Number Four
Top “Truth” Number Five
