When you see a trend or niche taking over an industry, it’s easy to think, “Did all of these just coincidentally get published at the same time?: More often than not, this is what is called to write to market.
Instead of authors and writers taking a story that they want to tell, they look at what is already doing well in the overall marketplace and create stories and writing similar to what is already selling.
As you can imagine, this can be a powerful tool for writers when used strategically. We’ll be going over what it is, how it works for both authors and freelance writers, and the pros and cons of such a publishing style.
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What Does it Mean to Write to Market?
When most people imagine writing books or articles, they imagine a writer who comes up with a unique story and then brings it to life. They imagine some wild tale that the author has been dying to tell and they finally put it all together.
Instead, people who write to market focus on the audience and growing trends first instead of a story they have already created. The audience and the trends dictate what the author writes instead of doing it the other way around. That is, unless, there is some magical overlap between the two.
For writers who already create content online, this might not be a strange concept. Any blog writer knows how important it is to maximize trends and write directly to the audience.
Write to Market: What it Means for Authors
If you’re an author who wants to write to market, you’re going to pick a trending topic that readers are currently buying and create a story that fits into that market.
One quick way to see what is hot and trending to write about is to go to your local bookstore and take a look at the new releases. You can also see some of the most popular books being sold on Amazon, updated hourly, as well. There are thousands of niches and topics to choose from.
If you look long enough, you’ll start to see common themes, patterns, and types of stories. These are exactly the kinds of things you’d want to make notes about if you’re considering doing this.
An example of this type of writing is to think of romance novels with the same types of covers and storylines that have been written over and over through the years. Some years they’re in greater demand than others, but overall it’s a popular style of book that continues to sell well. (50 Shades of Gray, ring a bell?)
Related: Romance Tropes
Let’s go through the pros and cons of choosing to write to market as an author.
Pros to write to market for authors
One pro of creating a book that’s written to market is that authors might get a chance to write about a topic that they’ve never written about before.
If you’re an author who is looking for some much-needed inspiration and wanting to change it up, finding a completely new topic might be the creative spark you need.
With a trending niche, keep in mind that time is of the essence. While this might be a pro or con for you, depending on how you view it, the good thing is that you’ll need to turn that draft around quickly to make sure you ride the wave of its popularity. The con is also that you’ll need to turn it around quickly.
Following a trend can help you get out of your writing rut and write about something you never have before. If you’ve typically written historical novels, it might be a good change of pace to write a horror book.
Cons for authors to write to market
One big downfall of authors focusing on a write to market book is that the turnaround time can take a long time with traditional publishing.
Authors who choose to self-publish have a better chance of riding the waves than authors who go the traditional route. This is because by the time a book goes through all the traditional editorial stages, often the trend is already over or at least nearing its end.
Related: Self-Publishing vs. Traditional
Another con for authors is that the book might not be a topic they want to write about. They’re going based on what is hot at the time instead of a story that they’re excited to write. That can sometimes make the projects drag on or feel tough to write and put in the hours to get it done.
You might also see your book not do well over the long term. It might only ride the wave of success for a short time and quickly fall off the radar.
Write to Market: What it Means for Freelancers
Unlike authors, freelance writers have much more flexibility when it comes to choosing what to work on.
Similar to picking a niche, when a freelancer chooses to write to market, they are taking a look around at what is popular or in demand for writing.
If you’re in any freelance writing groups, you might also notice which trends more writers are talking about, which might give you some inspiration for topics and niches to write about.
Let’s go through the pros and cons of choosing to write to market as a freelancer.
Picking a niche as a freelance writer
When it comes to picking niches and topics to write about as a freelance writer, often, the sky is the limit. There are more niches out there than you could spend your entire life writing about.
While it might be hard to pick just a few, keep in mind that you can always change it down the line. If you write for an industry for a certain amount of time and then decide to change your mind, you always can.
Generally, it’s a good idea to pick industries and niches you have some experience or knowledge in, only because it’s much easier to write about something you know than something you have to extensively research. Plus, it saves you a lot of time so you can get drafts out faster than you would with a topic you don’t know well.
Looking to get into a hot market? Take a look at this monster list of 115 potential markets to write for.
Pros to writing to market for freelance writers
One great benefit to this is a freelance writer is that you can quickly gain attention and popularity by riding the trending waves at a time.
This is also a quick way to start to grow a following, as you can hop on and ride a trend for a while instead of waiting to put together a huge, labor-intensive project.
As you can imagine, you might also be paid faster than you would with projects that take longer to create. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be paid more over time, but if you need the cash sooner than later, this might be a smart strategy for you.
Cons to writing to market for freelance writers
On the flip side, if you choose to do this as a freelancer, you’ll end up chasing trends. That can be a good or bad thing, depending on how you choose to direct your freelance career.
Having to chase trends means you will have to publish content at a quick rate to make sure you’re keeping up with the trends. This can prevent you from doing necessary deep work and deep dives into your specific niches.
Conclusion
Overall, riding a trend at the right moment can help catapult your writing career, but you’ll want to think deeply about if it’s a strategy that will work for you.
If you’re planning to become a freelancer, check out this free resource.