mizmak asked:

Newbie writers are often advised not to "write to the market", and to write what excites them instead. I believe I've seen advice like that from you here. But when trying to snag an agent, they always ask, "What recent books is your work like? What readers will your novel appeal to?" Should a writer seriously reply, "I couldn't find the novels I wanted to read, so I wrote one, and therefore I can't tell you what its market might be"? Is there a better way to convince them to take a look? Asking for a friend.

neil-gaiman:

Nobody ever asked me those questions. But you can always answer b) with “smart readers who are craving something different”.

Also, some problems with “writing to the market” are:

  • by the time you wrote and edited your book, the market moved on
  • the market now consists of book acquired 1 or 2 years ago
  • what’s hot on the market goes in cycles but nobody knows which

it may mean: write to what the big houses know they can sell, they love getting the same thing over and over. currently that would mean no omniscient narrator, fast-paced 3-act structure, hero’s journey

new authors usually have to keep closer to tried and trusted selling points in tradpub.


the comps are meant to help your agent sell the book to the publishers. it’s perfectly fine to use aspects of books. I use Finna by Nino Cipri because my book is also queer and portal fantasy.

audience is similar with a different angle. your target reader may be housewives looking for escapism, mystery readers that love to try and out-think the story, fantasy readers tired of monarchies…

some things are hard to comp because there is very few things like them. (In that vein, please somebody rec me high fantasy with openly autistic protagonists)

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