FOLLOWS “WHAT IS WRITING TO MARKET?”
What is Writing to Trend?
The pros and cons of writing to trend for traditional and self-published authors
I have included links to extra sources of information that are affiliate links. This means that you won’t be charged extra, the authors won’t have their profit docked, but I might make a little something if you buy.Mixing up markets and trends
I was tripped up here for a while thinking that writing to market and writing to trend was the same thing.
This article has largely come about because I felt like a twit for confusing the two. I decided this was a gap in my knowledge that needed to be filled.
The trouble is when you look up writing to market and writing to trends people either tend to be very vague about the differences between the two, the people that do know often struggle to define it in a way that is clear, or there are books that delve in deeply to the topics.
This started out as a post about the basics of what I have been able to glean about what the differences between the two types are, however, there’s a fair bit to cover and so to break things up a bit I separated the two posts out.
Even so, there’s still a lot more to it than I could cover here and I will link to the things I have seen that look helpful if you want to delve in further. If I’m missing the mark at any point, or you have something to add, please feel free to leave a comment. I have also written a separate post about what writing to market entails.
What is a trend?
At first glance, trends appear to be similar to writing to market. You find a niche to write in, analyze the market, produce a book.
But it’s not the same at all. Trends in the market place can go up, down, or stay the same. It’s the trend writer’s task to determine which topic is doing what and make the most of it. There are different types of market trend, Bear, Bull, Top and Bottom, and I have linked to more in depth info at the bottom of this article if you want to get uber technical about these trend types.
But the basic summary of writing to trends is it’s the art of finding a topic or niche within a genre that is becoming popular and churning out stories in order to make the most of that interest.
Although a trend can become a permanent sub-genre in itself if it sticks enough for long enough, this would then become a marketable niche. Capiche?
Probably not capiche.
I’ll use an example
Let’s take epic fantasy as our example (the ‘epic’ being a sub-genre of fantasy). Under this sub-sub-genre within epic fantasy novels, I’ll make up a topic/ trope that people just can’t get enough of, something like Unicorns in Hats, as a completely unlikely scenario, or Friendly Dark Elves.
I’ll use Amazon categories to help us visualize (although I’m aware that Zon categories aren’t quite on top of all the genres and sub-genres). On Amazon, you can search for fantasy, narrow down the parameters to epic fantasy, and perhaps narrow it down further to horror fantasy. You can even narrow your search by fantasy character. So you can say ‘epic fantasy books with dragons in please, zon’ and zon will hopefully give you a list.
In our case we’ll search fantasy, epic fantasy, horror and at the moment there’s no unicorn specific genre, let alone unicorns in hats.
So, at the moment, unicorns in hats is a trend. It’s new, no-one knows how big it will get, how long it’ll be around for, or even if it will stick around, but people can’t get enough of it at the moment. Here’s where your trend writer jumps in and makes the most of this wave.
When a trend becomes a marketable genre
Let’s say unicorns in hats has been selling really well, but people want to see more unicorns with other things, and they’re bored of hats. Unicorns are not going away, so it becomes a sub-genre; it’s still popular so it’s a marketable one, but the hats go, leaving the trend writers who have written about hatted unicorns looking for the next trend to jump on.
So unicorns are now listed on zon as a sub-category, and people who have written books about hatted unicorns find those books aren’t selling as well as they once were, and will likely only have trickle sales unless this particular trend re-emerges.
Now, however, other trends may branch off the unicorns category, such as Unicorns in tutus. When you chase trends you want to make the most of the interest so one minute you’re writing about Unicorns in hats, and when the buzz has died down for that you write about unicorns in tutus.
But if interest in unicorns has a lull you may find yourself switching categories and launching yourself into writing about friendly dark elves, or completely genre hopping altogether to horror or romance.
Why this approach is solely for self-publishers
In order to write to trends, you need to be able to see that people were suddenly starting to get interested in unicorns in hats, write a story that incorporated that and release it at the pinnacle when unicorns in hats is the thing that your potential readers are talking about, then be able to switch and write about unicorns in tutus when the hats are out.
If you hit the timing just right you have a ready primed audience hungry for unicorns in hats and you can make quite a lot of money doing this.
But it’s not easy to tell how long the trend will last, and if you get your book at the tail end of the interest you’re likely to miss the moment.
This is fine for self-published authors who can write, edit, format, etc in a relatively short time frame.
Why it’s not for the traditionally published
This is not a good thing for traditional writers to be doing because a trend can be a flash in the pan and traditional publishing can be a slow process. Goodness knows how many trends can come and go before your book is even out, assuming you get representation at all.
By which time that trend you were writing to? Gone. Wave bye-bye. The trend will probably have fizzled out by the time your book is released. That’s not to say that a popular trend won’t reoccur, but it’s unlikely to happen just as your book is being released.
Also, when you are traditionally published, you’ll likely have an agent who will represent certain genres and won’t be interested in publishing your new horror if they’re interested in sci-fi.
Pros and cons of trend writing
Con: If you write to a trend rather than a market what you’re actually doing is chasing down every popular thing that happens to be in vogue. This can mean that you publish Fantasy one moment, sci-fi the next. It can mean that you don’t build a brand; so if you gain loyal romance followers, they won’t necessarily want to read your horror books.
Con: It means that if you publish something that misses the trend then not only do you not have a base of loyal readers have previously work loved your space operas, but you have missed the waiting audience that was really into danger kitten poetry and are likely to not reap the rewards of your work.
Con: It could also mean that your stories have a finite shelf life of interest. You never know how long a trend will stick around, or how big it will get. It’s a gamble, no matter how well you know the market, there’s always a risk. Then again that’s the same with any book that you write.
Pro: Writing to trend can work wonders for some and people can make good money from it. But you have to be able to not only be able to write quickly, and efficiently, but package and market your book as well.
Pro: It also means that you’re not tied down to a genre, so if you get bored of writing in one genre this could be for you. It also means that if there’s a lull in poetry, you’re free to capitalize on whatever people are most into next.
Pro/ Con: You can write to trend and then try to get it self published if you haven’t published your story because the trend flopped before you got to the market, or changed your mind for *insert reason here*. However, if you’ve previously self published your book you might struggle to get an agent to represent it if it’s not doing that well.
As with everything in the literary world, you never know how well a book will do until it’s released.
Tools
Note: all links to books are affiliate links. This means that you won’t be charged extra, the authors won’t have their profit docked, but I might make a little something if you buy.For studying trends
These books are quite pricey, and very unpithy in the name department, but they’re all about trends. They are not aimed at writers, BUT they teach you about trends and trend analysis. Have a look at both books and see which one you get on with. From the looks of it they cover similar aspects, but they have different approaches, and each offers something the other doesn’t. It will be down to personal preference which, if any, you decide to go with.
If you want to learn about trends I’d check either this one: Profiting from Market Trends: Simple Tools and Techniques for Mastering Trade Analysis by Tina Logan
Or
Future Trends from Past Cycles: Identifying share price trends and turning points through cycle, channel and probability analysis by Millard Brown.
If you want to delve more into the types of trends in the general market, such as Bear Markets, Bulls Markets, Market Tops and Market Bottoms, I recommend you read this wiki article.
Sources that incorporate both trend and marketing tools
Book: This book looks like a pretty down to earth book and could really go under both trends and market: Masterclass: Write a Bestseller: How to plan, write and publish a bestselling work of fiction (Teach Yourself) by Jacq Burns
Facebook: There are also plenty of writing groups you can join and learn from like 10 minute novelists, or 20 Books to 50k amongst a host of others. On these groups you can search previously asked questions, or ask your own.
Twitter: You can also ask #WritingCommunity on Twitter or search #writetips
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