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Debunking “To sell either to editors or readers, you must write what is hot.â€

GeekDavid

Auror
The inestimable Dean Wesley Smith demolishes another of the "Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing," and does it with zeal.

The latest to go under his razor wit is “To sell either to editors or readers, you must write what is hot.”

A quick excerpt, just to whet your appetite.

Attempting to write what is hot isn’t a new trend. It has been around since the beginning of this business. And the myth that you need to write what is hot, what is selling is as deadly today as it was fifty years ago. Honest, even in the new world of indie publishing, this myth will just kill your career and the fun in your writing fairly quickly.

This man has been author, editor, and publisher. I daresay he knows what he's talking about. Read what he says, and consider how it fits with your WIP or projects on your shelf to finish later.
 
When I first started writing, I was tired of all the boring books they made us read at school, so I decided to write a book that was going to have everything in it of my own taste. In other words, I'd never write what is hot. I think I speak for most people when I say that it kind of takes the fun out of writing if you don't even write what you like. I've always written stories that entertain myself to entertain myself, and I believe I always will :)
 
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GeekDavid

Auror
When I first started writing, I was tired of all he boring books they made us read at school, so I decided to write a book that was going to have everything in it of my own taste. In other words, I'd never write what is hot. I think I speak for most people when I say that it kind of takes the fun out of writing if you don't even write what you like. I've always written stories that entertain myself to entertain myself, and I believe I always will :)

I tend to enjoy bucking trends, so I'm probably never gonna attempt to "write what is hot" except by accident.
 

GeekDavid

Auror
You trendsetter, you. :)

Hunger Games set the trend, it didn't follow it. Same with Harry Potter, Twilight (as much as many here despise it), all the way back to LotR.

If you want to write a classic, write something that'll set a trend, not follow one.
 
One thing that seems to work really well is to take something that's hot in one market, then repackage it for a market that's not familiar with it. Take Fifty Shades of Grey--the author was able to get people who would never watch Secretary or read The Story of O to read her book, and they loved it, because to put it bluntly, they had no point of comparison. Same deal when a sci-fi movie is successfully marketed to people who "don't watch sci-fi."

Incidentally, this is part of why I like to combine ideas from so many sources. If I've got a bit of a movie, a bit of a manga, and a bit of a webcomic, at least part of it 's bound to feel fresh and new to a reader who doesn't 't know the source.
 
Read the article itself. Not exactly impressed--he's another author who's way too invested in this magic "voice" that's supposedly as unique as a thumbprint. I'd never have become a decent writer if I hadn't collaborated with, stolen from, and asked advice of others, then adapted the most useful parts of their writing style for my own use.
 

Philip Overby

Staff
Article Team
I don't necessarily believe in following trends because by the time you write something, the trend would be over anyway. However, one of the "hot trends" in fantasy right now is gritty fantasy. I just so happen to write gritty fantasy for the most part and I was doing so before the trend started. So should I stop writing what I love just because it happens to be a trend right now? How does that work?
 

GeekDavid

Auror
I don't necessarily believe in following trends because by the time you write something, the trend would be over anyway. However, one of the "hot trends" in fantasy right now is gritty fantasy. I just so happen to write gritty fantasy for the most part and I was doing so before the trend started. So should I stop writing what I love just because it happens to be a trend right now? How does that work?

The application is for each writer to decide on his or her own. I am most certainly not one who will stand over anyone demanding, "You must follow all the rules or you won't be a real writer!"
 
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