Am I writing the right stuff if I want to get published?
From what I’ve read, it would seem that the publishing world is currently saturated with fantasy fiction writers.
Would I be better off writing in another genre? Or is this not worth worrying about?

Any thoughts would be appreciated...

I think it depends on whether getting published is the most important thing to you, which isn't a bad thing by the way.

If you want to write for the sake of writing, do it for enjoyment and feel you want to write in that genre, do that. If you want to write to get published then a good researching of the market is needed, and you need to be able to spot trends and latch onto them in a quality way before most other people.

By the way I don't think that one is more intrinsically worthy than the other, but it does depend what motivates you to write in the first place.

Although I do write for pleasure, I have to admit that I do want to be published.
However unlikely that may be…

Cool. There is thread on this somewhere but the upshot was that you need to be able to research the market and spot trends before they develop.

Hopefully someone will remember where and know how to provide a link to it

Grindy, there’s nothing to stop you doing both. I know of one woman who writes short stories for women’s magazines which gives her an income to live on and time to work on the literary novel she is also writing.

If, like me, your motive is to get published to earn money to free up more time to write, do whatever you think will sell. You have to bear in mind, though, that writing out of your natural genre will take time. As JA points out, you’ll have to do extensive research to familiarise yourself with your new genre and all that it entails. For instance; if you chose to write Crime, you will have to read loads of crime novels to analyse why they are so popular – which they are – and you’ll also have to research police procedure, forensic facts and procedures, medical details. You’ll have to learn about post-mortems, methods of murder and the effects they have on a body, possibly ballistics… the list goes on and on. I know all this because this is what I decided to do about a year ago. And I still feel as if I’ve only just scratched the surface. Mind you… it’s a fascinating subject if you’re not too squeamish…

Good luck,

Dee.

I write for pleasure too but, damn, do I want to get published!...there I've said it :P

I can't imagine switching genres, or how difficult that would be (for me) to do. All the ideas for plots in my head for novels always lead to the genre that I write in (which is still a little unclear to me but I think I may have created one of my own)...modern woman romantic fiction...is there such a genre?? I love watching forensic and crime programs but I don't think I'd ever be capable of writing a book in that genre. Maybe that's because I'm not too overly excited about it. I have to think about this now actually - decide what other genre I can write in. I can experiment! I have to admit that my short stories don't fall in the modern woman romantic fiction category - I think they fall in the To Slash Your Wrists By category. Hmmm..interesting.

Nahed

I dunno. I read a lot that one should read the market and identify trends and stuff....but then I feel unless I'm writing what I care about, and what I enjopy, I'm not going to be producing my best stuff..
I couldn't grind away, (oops, sorry G!), at some spy/military caper, cos it would bore me stupid and that would show. I think it must be possible to get a balance, and I do tend to believe good writing will find a market eventually, though I admit that may be criminally clueless of me.

Sigh
destined to remain forever unpublished

tc

Trends with books, as with everything else, change with the wind. Yes, certain genres like fantasy and crime are incredibly popular, but at the same time there are already a multitude of authors who are successful in this genre.

I think the best books are clearly the ones that the author really cared about, and wrote for themselves as much as anyone else. The other point is that by the time you write a book, get an agent and sell it to a publisher, anything from 18 months to five years could have elapsed, so whilst I agree that you need to study the market, there's also little point in jumping on a bandwagon that may have run its course by the time your're finished.

But there are other popular genres besides crime and fantasy - lately I can't believe the amount of historical fiction (and non-fiction) around, covering everything from Renaissance artists to scientific discoveries; classic literature to the Samurais of Japan. And with blockbusters about the Trojan War and Alexander the Great on the Horizon, I'm sure the popularity of such titles will continue.

Many publishers have the same problem as many agents - they don't know what they're looking for, but they'll recognise it when they find it. None of which is very helpful to you, I know. But I do think there's some truth in that if you've got a really great book, someone will want it eventually.

Katie

Grinder,

Just write, write and write some more, without trying to categorise your writing. You will be doomed to disaster if you try to adapt any natural creative abilities into a genre just because there appears to be more demand for this and specifically one that is not 'within'
you.

Market research into these factors will only provide you with 'indications' not definitive answers.

Instead of worrying yourself about genre - and there are lots of unclear borderlines - you might look at the general market needs as applied to media. You will quickly appreciate that Television is an insatiable and unsatisfied beast when it comes to its need for
more and more 'food'. This is unlikely to diminish.

Len

I guess the message is ‘write more worry less’.
Many thanks to all…

TC

Poetry is a weird one. It seems if you want to write poetry then you're almost destined to die unpublished and then become a super star. It would be good if someone could really do something for it. TC, I'm looking at you kid (kid! i don't even know how old you are! you might be 104 or something).


I agree, just write, then come to WW for a shoulder to cry on.

Actually I think we should start a revolution against published authors, so site experts be afraid! Come the revolution...