What Should You Write?
post by Michelle Griep
"No one knows the right answer,
no one knows precisely what will happen,
no one can produce the desired future, on demand.
Some people are better at guessing than others, but not by much.
The people who are supposed to know rejected Harry Potter, Tracy Chapman and the Beatles."
I've come to the conclusion that nobody knows anything, especially when it comes to publishing. What will the next big bestseller be? What genre is going to take off in the next year? Should you write young adult or romantic suspense? Nobody knows. And if anyone tells you they do, they're lying.
I've got a writerly buddy who was told not to submit anything to any publisher because her sales numbers were less than a bajillion and no one will look at it. It took the wind right out of her writerly sails, needlessly, I say. Who the heck knows if a publisher will base their decision on sales numbers? Sure, sales could play into the decision, but if the story is a killer, those numbers won't mean squat.
So here's the deal . . . write your best, your most passionate, pour your heart and soul into the story that you want to write. Will it sell? Who knows. But you'll have created some art that's uniquely you no matter what others may say.
Besides, the only people that really know what will sell is readers, because they're the ones coughing up the cash . . . and they aren't giving any hints.