The Biggest Lie You Will Be Told About Being a Novelist

One of the most common pieces of advice given to aspiring novelists is to "just write what you love." This mantra is often repeated by other writers, by mentors, tutors on creative writing courses, agents, and even publishers. But here is another secret: it’s really stupid advice. Even worse: sometimes it’s a lie.

Why?

The idea that you should “just write what you love” glosses over a crucial aspect of the writing profession, which is that the publishing industry is deeply rooted in markets and market demands, genres and genre conventions, and ever-shifting trends. It is forever trying to anticipate about what booksellers want to see on their shelves, about what people online will chatter, critics will review, and journalists will write.

You should be aware of this, and you should be aware of what your corner of the market expects from you.

The Reality of the Publishing Industry

The publishing industry is structured around specific markets and genres. Each genre—whether literary, crime, thriller, romance, or historical fiction—has its own set of rules and expectations. These conventions help publishers and agents categorize and sell books. If you are writing something even vaguely commercial, your genre has established norms that readers expect. A thriller needs suspense, a romance requires a love story, and literary fiction “goes deep” and has (notionally) higher standards about prose and reader expectations.

To make it more complicated, agents and editors often specialize in specific genres and have deep knowledge of what works and what is selling within those genres. What's popular today may not be tomorrow. Publishing is an industry that works two years ahead. A book acquired by an agent today might not be sold for three or six months, and then not published for another eighteen months (or even longer) after that.

Certain themes, settings, or types of characters can suddenly become popular or unpopular. Publishers are businesses, and they need to sell books to stay afloat. They are looking for works that will appeal to current market demands.

Why “Just Writing What You Love” Can Be a Mistake

Agents and editors are gatekeepers in the publishing world. They think about many things (their company’s list and reputation, their own professional reputation, the artistic value of work) but they think primarily in terms of the marketability and sales potential of books they are thinking about acquiring.

Agents look for books they believe they can sell to publishers. They understand the tastes of different publishers. Editors work with agents to acquire manuscripts they can take for acquisition by the publisher for whom they work. They have a keen sense of what readers want and how to deliver it. They also know how much money the publisher will want to make from a book (which can vary very widely, and is very different to your advance).

Your book is the thing that will make publishers money or build their reputation. Remember this. It is the central truth of the industry.

Perhaps now you are seeing the limitations of “Just write what you love.” While it is vital to be passionate about your work, ignoring market realities can be very harmful. If your work doesn’t fit into an easily recognizable market or genre, it can be harder to sell. Agents and publishers have a hundred books offered to them every week. Earlier, I asked “Why not?” but agents and editors ask the opposite: “Why you?”

The answer to that question is that you have written a book that will either make them money or build their reputation, or ideally, both!

Industry professionals will pass on a project they actually love if they don’t see a clear market for it. Need convincing of this? Well, it has happened to me, the person typing these words. An agent once told me he absolutely loved a novel of mine but didn’t know how to sell it to a publisher for an amount of money that would make it worthwhile to him. A novel that I published to wide acclaim in my home market, the United Kingdom, was rejected by a parade of New York editors because they felt that it was not appropriate for the US market.

It happens all the time.

Your job is to avoid it happening to you.

Finding the Balance

Okay, I am overdoing it a bit. Obviously, you should write what you love. Another confession: I once had a go at writing a genre novel, to see if I could make some money (times were hard!) and I hated the experience. I found it tedious and difficult, and it did not come naturally to me. A novel is a huge, complicated thing. You have to love what you are doing, because it’s too much work not to.

None of this means you should only write to market trends, sacrificing your creative vision. But telling people that they should write what they love is, at the best of times, unhelpfully naive and occasionally downright dishonest.

I have heard writing mentors, who write very commercial romance novels or thrillers for a living, say these words, when in those two markets, you absolutely need to understand and engage with the rules of what you are writing. If I was being charitable, I would say those people have good hearts, are trying to make other people feel good, and are entirely delusional.

But I am not here to make you feel good about charging off without a care for what the industry wants. I am here to get you to a point where you can supply a publishable novel to industry professionals who think you are just what they are looking for and can’t wait to sign you.

“Okay, so what do I actually do?”

- Keep abreast of industry news. Be aware of what is being sold in your genre and in the industry more broadly, by whom and to whom.

- Be open to feedback and willing to make changes that enhance your work’s marketability, especially if that advice comes from people within the industry.

- Don’t be too precious about your vision, but be aware what your vision is.

- But also, you know, write what you love. It has to be fun. It’s too hard work for it not to be enjoyable.

Just know that this is an industry, and you can succeed in it, if you understand its rules and give it the product it wants.

“What about my literary masterpiece?”

Obviously, the less commercial your work, the less you have to worry about this. If you truly have a vision unlike anyone else’s, a voice so utterly original it will take away people’s breath, you should pursue that. Don’t let anyone put you off. Be open to advice. Still learn about who is interested in work like yours, but if what you are doing is distinctive enough, go for it!

Do remember you are still in a market. Literary novels are also marketed, given jacket covers, described to booksellers, pitched to radio shows and podcasts within the rules and conventions of its own market. But distinctiveness, vision and individuality is part of what they sell.

But if you are writing for the market, in historical fiction, thriller, crime, romance, etc, you are absolutely in that market. Don’t forget that. If someone tells you, in good faith, to “write what you love” in a genre or commercial space, thank them for it, and go look at that week’s publishing news to see what’s selling.

This is an excerpt from How To Write A Novel Chapter By Chapter available here: https://www.amazon.com/How-Write-Novel-Chapter-Outlining-ebook/dp/B0DJ8TMVWL?ref_=ast_author_mpb

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