Write for Yourself, Not Your Readers

why following your creativity is the smartest writing strategy

Writing for the Market vs. Writing for Yourself

I once had a reader ask me if they should write for their audience or for themselves.

The exact question from Sophie Auston was:

My debut novel was approved by my editor, but by my audience? Not so much. I am writing another one, and I am hearing a voice telling me to change my writing to what readers want to read or it will sink, but I don’t want to. I love my unique voice. What am I supposed to do in this case?

It got me thinking about how so many writers (and artists in general) lose themselves and their creativity in external factors, whether that be money, success, validation from others, etc. And I have some strongggg opinions on this, so I wanted to share it with anyone else who might be struggling with this dilemma.

My immediate reaction to this question was… NOOOOO!!!

Absolutely not. Do not, by any means, write for other people. ESPECIALLY if you don’t want to.

Yeah yeah yeah, I know there are circumstances where writers are approached by publishers to write a book that fits in with the current market trends. Or maybe a writer uses this approach as a strategy to sell more books, as that is their sole source of income. And I mean, you do you. But personally, I don’t think it’s a smart way to go about it, especially long term.

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Write What You Love

My advice to any writer is to write what you want to write. Because YOU are the one that has to spend a ton of time with your book. A reader? They’ll fly through it in 10 hours. You, the writer? You will spend hundreds, possibly even thousands of hours writing your book.

Writing a book is hard. It requires persistence and determination. It requires you to make sacrifices, like giving up sleep or saying no to social plans. We need to nurture our relationship with writing and protect it at all costs, because if we don’t enjoy it, then it’s going to be very hard to keep going.

If you aren’t passionate about your story because you’re not writing what you want to write, you’ll risk falling out of love with writing. And that is the number one thing that should be avoided. Because otherwise, we risk burning out and giving up. And what’s the point of writing if we hate it, anyways?

Interests Are Always Shifting

Another reason that you shouldn’t cater to your readers is that their interests are constantly changing. For example, a reader could be going through a difficult time when they read your first book, so they write a review saying it was too depressing and they wished it were more cheery.

So you listen to them, and you make your next book much cheerier. But that same reader could be at a different place in their life when they read it, and they could say they wanted something that made them feel emotional, like your first book did.

We can’t predict what our readers will enjoy at any given time, as their preferences change due to their own lived experiences. So it’s not even worth it to try.

Also, the market as a whole is always shifting. What is trending right now probably won’t be in a few years. Romcoms were huge 5 years ago. Now? It’s all romantasy.

And since the publishing industry is so slow, if you started writing a romcom five years ago, by the time it comes out, the market will have moved on to something else. It’s nearly impossible to create for the market purely because of timing. Instead, you just have to write what you want and hope that the market aligns with your book when it’s released.

Readers Can Sense Your Passion

Another reason that you should enjoy what you write about is because readers can sense if you had fun writing a book. There’s just something about it. An extra uumph, an intangible spark that people can pick up on. So if you hate your story, they’ll know.

And OK, fine. Maybe they won’t always be able to tell from the writing itself. But guess what will be a dead giveaway? Your marketing. Because if you aren’t in love with your story, it’s going to be very obvious when you’re talking about it.

Your readers might meet you at a bookstore and gush about your book, but you won’t be able to return the same enthusiasm. You’ll despise doing interviews. You won’t have fun creating social media content for it.

It will all just feel blah. And as a result, you’ll spend less time and effort on marketing your book. The painful writing process will spill over into a painful marketing process. Your misery will drag on, and it’s just not worth it.

Don’t Fear Disappointing Your Audience

Now, if you’ve already published a book (or multiple books) and have an existing audience, I imagine it can be even more tempting to want to write for them. Like if you’ve branded yourself as a romance author and you’ve written multiple beach reads that people love, it can be hard and scary to make the shift to writing mysteries.

But my argument here is that even if your current audience isn’t the right fit for your next project, there are plenty of readers out there who do love mysteries. Sure, you might have to do a bit more work to find them, and you’ll probably have a smaller audience at first. But if you’re passionate about your story, that’s the most important part. Because then you’ll put in more effort with both the writing and the marketing of it.

And you might end up being way more successful in this new genre than your old one. So don’t let your fear of disappointing your current fans hold your back from what could be even greater.

Also, there will probably be some crossover between your current audience and your new audience. Some of your existing romance fans will also enjoy mysteries, so they’ll be happy to read your new genre. Or they’ll just love you so much as an author that they’ll read anything you write.

As creatives, we can NOT give in to fear. We have to follow our creativity and our hearts. That’s where the magic lies.

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What are your thoughts? Do you think people should write for the market or for themselves? Share in the comments below!