Matthew Doggett is a full-time freelance writer, marketer, and indie author. He writes for Kindlepreneur and is always on the lookout for great nonfiction books about the craft of writing. You can find out more at www.matthewdoggettauthor.com

There's been a lot of talk lately about writing to market. Some authors feel that doing so is sacrificing their artistic vision as an author. Others feel that writing to market is their best chance at success. Some authors confuse writing to market with chasing a trend. Whether you’re a fiction writer or a nonfiction author, read on to find out if you should write to market.

What is Writing to Market?

If you’re not familiar with the term, writing to market means writing a book for an existing market — preferably one that you already know is hungry. Chris Fox is often credited with espousing the write-to-market mentality, and his success is perhaps one of the best pieces of evidence for such a tactic.

Writing to Market: Nonfiction

Most nonfiction authors write their books for a particular market. Some of these markets are tiny and niche, which is not a bad thing at all. In fact, if you can find an underserved niche and write a book that serves them, you can sell books.

In the nonfiction sphere, authors are usually writing books to answer specific questions or address the needs of their audience. These are the “How To” books that range from cooking to computer programming to finding peace through meditation. Though they can also cover nonfiction targets like biographies, philosophy, history and mythology, etc.

If you’re writing nonfiction, I think the answer to whether to write to market is a resounding “Yes!” If you don’t write to market in nonfiction, you are unlikely to sell many books. And making a living doing it becomes more difficult, even with the help of the nifty book marketing tools out there.

Writing to Market: Fiction

In the fiction space, things are a little different. There are cases of authors seemingly creating their own market (50 Shades of Gray and the Billionaire Romance Genre, anyone?) and being incredibly successful, but this is certainly not the rule. And for most indie authors trying to make a living off their book sales, finding this success is possible but not probable.

Instead, writing to market in fiction means doing some research on a certain genre, sub-genre, or sub-sub-genre, and determining if that market is underserved. If it is, it could be a good market to write for.

However, you may have noticed I’m missing a very important factor here: What if you don’t like that genre/market?

This is where people get tripped up. Some authors simply want to write what they want to write, never mind the genre or the market. If they never sell a book, so be it!

But the thing about being an author is that you are probably an avid reader, too. This means your influences are probably wide and eclectic, sure — but it also means that they’re likely based in existing markets.

The trick to writing to market is finding a hungry one that you’ll enjoy writing for! But more on that later. First, let’s talk about chasing trends.

The Difference Between Writing to Market and Chasing a Trend

To clarify, chasing the latest trend and writing to market are two different things. You may see that a book about Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi Kitten Werewolves recently hit number one on the Amazon charts. Everyone is talking about it. Should you write a book about these freaky felines? Probably not. That said, the Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi market is an actual market — and one to which you can absolutely write.

Now, that’s not to say that, if a great Kitten Werewolf story strikes you and you just need to write it, or you think you’ll really enjoy it, then go for it. Just don’t count on the trend still going strong when you get the book out there.

Trends come in waves. They spike, get incredibly popular, and then fade away. Markets are strong. There may be spikes within an overall market, but the baseline is still there, and there are readers constantly searching for books in that market.

How do you tell a trend from a market? Research. Checking the Amazon top sellers in categories you’re interested in is a start. You can also pay attention to the New York Times Bestseller lists, Goodreads categories, or a simple Google search to see what comes up.

You Can Have Your Cake and Eat It, Too

Writing to market is all about having your cake and eating it, too. This means that you find a market that interests you and has a sea of readers hungry for more content. And when you consider that there are over 14,000 book categories and sub-categories on Amazon, you should have no problem finding one you’re comfortable in.

Tip: If you’re not sure what category a certain book fits into, use this handy book category finder to help you out. You can also use it to search in a particular market to see the lay of the land.

Conversely, if you have an idea for a story you’d like to write (or have already written) you can try to match it up with an existing market. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t. But it’s always worth a shot.

How to Write to Market

If you decide to write to market, there are a few things you need to pay attention to for optimal success. Each genre has its own tropes — things that the readers expect from the books. With romance, a big trope is the “Happily Ever After” ending. If you market a book to the romance genre that ends without the two protagonists getting together, you’ll have some disappointed readers on your hands.

Get the Tropes Down

Make sure you get to know the market before you decide to write a book in it. Luckily, most authors find markets with which they’re already familiar, so they can spot the tropes. Read and read some more in the market. See what the bestselling authors are doing and let it inspire you.

Keep Length In Mind

Take book-length into account, as well. The epic fantasy genre is known for its long, sprawling stories — upwards of 125,000 words. If you write a 40,000-word fantasy book and sell it at a similar price point, you may not do too well in that genre.

Mind the Details

You also want to pay close attention to covers, blurbs, and titles, as well. You want your book to stand out to potential readers, but not too much. It needs to be unique and enticing but it also needs to fit with the conventions of the market.

Should You Write to Market: Conclusion

If you’re hoping to make a living as an author, your best bet is absolutely writing to market. However, if you have stories you want to write that don’t fit into a hungry market, you shouldn’t lose hope. Every book you write helps you become a better writer. Write the stories that make you happy. If you can get them in front of readers who will like them, all the better. If not, take what you’ve learned and try again — this time with some research into a market that is likely to buy your books and, hopefully, keep buying them.