[Writerpreneur OS] Lesson 0306: Your Choice of a Market Defines Your Income and Fame

The Market doesn't write books - it consumes them, And so gives you a profitable publishing approach.

An old saying goes that the life of an author consists of reading, writing, and arithmetic.

As Writing is not only an art but also a business.

Before books and magazines can be read, they must be printed. Printing is expensive, and someone must foot the bill.

The writer must divide his time between his study and the marketplace.

Some craftsmen shrink from the business of selling their wares and say they care only for the craft of writing. No doubt the craft comes first with every true artist. Yet, it is noteworthy that the greatest artists and most sublime poets have been good business men who drove hard bargains in disposing of their work.

This is a significant fact, and since we are working to follow the methods of the top masters, we shall do well to consider why they combined superior art with superior skill in business.

A writer has but little time for peddling his own wares. He will save time, energy, and money by studying the market and so finding some publisher or editor to sell them for him.

Getting published is not anything more than the means to an end. Most of the words which are printed bring their authors neither fame nor fortune. And certainly, the best writers have been persons who, first, simply wished to write well.

They found, as you will find, that a professional writer cannot do his best work without a market in mind. That discovery accounts for why so many people are eager to get their work printed — even though that work commands neither money nor prestige.

It is always more instructive to observe what a man does than what he says. In markets, as in other matters, it is the methods of the masters we should follow.

If you write, you must publish, if you are to do any quantity of excellent work. And when you publish, you must choose a market.

In choosing a market, these are the points to consider: look for a market

(a) that will handle your chosen subject;

(b) that caters to your chosen reader;

(c) that will accept your chosen model (short story, novel, or what not);

(d) that can comprehend your chosen style;

(e) that will understand and enjoy your chosen effects;

(f) that is financially sound, honest, and will pay the expense of printing and writing.

This last point is important. Writing, as Coleridge said, is a good stick, but a poor crutch. It may be a help to a man, but is not always a good support for him. The writer, particularly the beginner, will find his path much smoother if he has an income derived from some other source than writing—a job, an investment, or a pension.

There is much hard work in the craft of writing, and there are many markets to choose from. He who has other work to provide his daily bread will have the power and the leisure to choose his best market deliberately.

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