For you, how much does marketability play into deciding which idea to pursue?

As a SF writer, it's my perception that the market for fantasy is MUCH BIGGER.

There's nothing wrong with writing to market, except that the market can change very quickly, and not always in your favor. I'd say write what you personally find more compelling - a novel takes a long time, and keeping your own interest long enough to finish is Job #1.

Welcome to the forums!

I'm a little more attached to Idea #1

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I know the general idea is to "write what you love" but I do love both ideas, just one to a lesser degree than the other.

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I think you answered your own question. If I were you, I'd write the heck out of Idea #1, because it's the one I love. Especially since you say you are new to novel-writing, I would suggest you go with the one your heart is in. That way it will hold your interest and you will be able to stick with it through to the end, which is one of the greatest hurdles of novel-writing. Also, while you're writing the one you love, you'll be able to learn the craft a little bit more as you go. Then you'll be able to apply the stuff you've learned to the one that you believe is more marketable. Basically: learn the craft on the one you love.

With all of that said, please keep in mind that what is "marketable" is very fickle. It comes and goes quicker than writers can write. It also depends on the genre, which you mentioned. Another reason to write the one you love even more.

Good luck!

I had the same problem for a while, between a hard SF story and a spec fiction one. I felt like hard SF would be an easier sell, and spent a ton of time outlining the story, but for some reason I kept putting off writing it. I finally realized what I really wanted to write was the spec piece, and once I started that, I didn't stop until the first draft was done.

I've written my share of screenplays and have read and written notes on hundreds. Maybe thousands. Writing a novel may take a little longer, but there's so much more freedom, it's a lot more fun. Screenplays give you a lot of good experience though, with structure, pacing, and dialogue.

Keeping marketability in mind makes sense. It's practical and increases the odds of offers/acceptance.

That said, I recently started a mss that likely doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell, but I'm having so much fun with this story I'm glad I'm writing it. (someone remind me of this if I ever finish and try to query it)

How much more marketable is the sci-fi idea? What is the difference in accessibility? Just because an idea might have a slightly more complex elevator pitch doesn't mean it has less of a chance of being successful than 'He's a robot with a heart of gold (literally). She's a cop with the digital ghost of her dead partner haunting her cell phone. Together, they solve crime.' There's something to be said about a more unique premise done well as compared to something more by the numbers (something I've sure you've seen a lot of in the world of screenplays).

Of course, if your fantasy idea can be described as, 'it's like Jodorowsky's 'Dune' but trippier.' it could still be a very good book, but probably limited by being much less accessible to your intended market.

amergina said:

What's marketable (or the hot thing) now isn't necessarily what's marketable down the road, so I'd go with the book I feel the most passion for, because that'll come through in the writing.

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A comment that I've heard several times is that if you're tailoring your ideas to try and follow what's hot, you're pretty much always going to miss the boat. Like when something big hits, like Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Twilight, publishers are going to see what similar projects they already have on hand and strike while the iron is hot. Authors who start writing after that are going to be caught up in the glut, and due to lag, that craze is probably also going to be past its peak by the time they can submit.

For your first book, write what interests you the most because you'll need a lot of personal attachment to the story to help get it done. Just get it written. After that, worry about marketability perhaps.

For MS1 I didn't consider marketability at all; for MS2 it was my main consideration.

ZachAttack said:

I'm a little more attached to Idea #1, a Fantasy, but I know that Idea #2 a Sci-Fi, is *much* more marketable. It grabs your attention and piques your interest (if you're interested in the genre, at least) from the get-go, which makes me think that it would be easier to get my name out with.

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If you are only "a little more attached" to the fantasy, I do not see any difference in choosing one over the other (in as much as your heart is in it). It sounds like your heart is into writing both; i.e. possibly, you are likely to write either to completion.

With that said, I'd choose the one that your gut tells you to write.

For me, I prefer the challenge of trying to write a more popular book. Hit or miss, I gave it my best shot. That is me though.

Just worte this in another forum.

After many years of doing otherwise, I now write only that which I love.

The difference is amazing, in every way. So, I say again, to one n all.

ONLY WRITE WHAT YOU LOVE


And upon re-reading, choosing between to lovers is apparently difficult, if the poets/ pop-stars are to be believed.

Me, never a doubt. But in fairness, I do live a sedate secluded life. (Happily)

Thomas Vail said:

How much more marketable is the sci-fi idea? What is the difference in accessibility? Just because an idea might have a slightly more complex elevator pitch doesn't mean it has less of a chance of being successful than 'He's a robot with a heart of gold (literally). She's a cop with the digital ghost of her dead partner haunting her cell phone. Together, they solve crime.' There's something to be said about a more unique premise done well as compared to something more by the numbers (something I've sure you've seen a lot of in the world of screenplays).

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A much different world. A script with a cool new premise may be optioned quickly, but when it comes to actually getting a film produced, by the numbers always wins. Well, not always, but it's a much easier road.

IMO, sci-fi will always be more marketable than a high-concept spec fiction story, not just for me as the writer, but for the agent and publisher as well. I couldn't even come up with some good comps for my spec story, so how is anyone going to sell it? Again, not impossible, just a lot more difficult.

None. I have a lot of things that I know there is no market for, but I write them anyway just because I want to.

For you, I'm gonna ask what's most important to you. If sharing the idea because you have a passion for it regardless of it's marketability is what you value then I'd say go with the one you love most, but if you are desiring more of a fanbase, write what you think will appeal more to an audience.

It all boils down to what your goals are for the story.

Thomas Vail said:

How much more marketable is the sci-fi idea? What is the difference in accessibility? Just because an idea might have a slightly more complex elevator pitch doesn't mean it has less of a chance of being successful than 'He's a robot with a heart of gold (literally). She's a cop with the digital ghost of her dead partner haunting her cell phone. Together, they solve crime.' There's something to be said about a more unique premise done well as compared to something more by the numbers (something I've sure you've seen a lot of in the world of screenplays).

Of course, if your fantasy idea can be described as, 'it's like Jodorowsky's 'Dune' but trippier.' it could still be a very good book, but probably limited by being much less accessible to your intended market.


A comment that I've heard several times is that if you're tailoring your ideas to try and follow what's hot, you're pretty much always going to miss the boat. Like when something big hits, like Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Twilight, publishers are going to see what similar projects they already have on hand and strike while the iron is hot. Authors who start writing after that are going to be caught up in the glut, and due to lag, that craze is probably also going to be past its peak by the time they can submit.

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Sometimes it does work out. A lot of people made serious careers in the slipstream of Harry Potter, the DaVinci Code, Twilight, and Game of Thrones, for example. Many readers, upon finishing something they loved, want some more of “the same but different” which is where the slipstreamers jump out of the bushes and provide this service.

These larger trends can last for a decade and more. And even with shorter trends—a real “franchise pro” writer, of the type who fund their writing passion by knocking out Terminator and Star Gate novels for example—some of them can bang out a solid competent potboiler in a fortnight, perhaps while drafting something they really love, if such a difference exists, especially when the basic format is already preexisting, and the new hit has provided a formula to copy and possibly simplify. Certainly not all, but some of these folks can run circles around any new hit, and provide a money-making duplicate before the first month of the original on the bestseller list is over.

That’s about specific success rubbing-offing. When a genre or a subgenre becomes more popular than before, for example say paranormal steampunk detective stuff, a franchise pro can reverse engineer a couple of popular books and start producing them with one arm behind her corset.

So for enough writers it does pay to study what the market wants, and to provide the relevant products, especially if they are super fast writers, of which there are more than enough.

But when one is just starting out, then, since the point is basically learning skills and then reaching one’s natural skill ceiling for the moment, in this case writing what you really, really love can only help, while forcing yourself to write something, is likely to be detrimental and enthusiasm sapping.

Of course, if your fantasy idea can be described as, 'it's like Jodorowsky's 'Dune' but trippier.' it could still be a very good book, but probably limited by being much less accessible to your intended market.

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Hihi, one imagines a blurb along the lines of “When the blurry thistle resumed its primal throb, cosmic force deities gnorked the meinorgh’s libnabs.”

I have four novels I am eager to write next and as I am excited by all of them, I will decide based on the one I think is most likely to sell. Tastes change and I may not be able to find a publisher when I finish, but as my reading and writing tastes are commercial fiction, it seems a natural way to schedule myself.

To echo what Scythian says... Many successful indies do exactly that (ride the trend waves and produce very quickly). Izzy Snow has been known to write 40k words in a day.

But even they would generally agree that your first novel should just be whatever interests you enough to finish. Marketing is of no consequence if you have nothing to market.

I try as hard as I can to ignore the question of marketability! But it creeps in. Hard to accept that few will ever want the novellas I'd rather write than a novel.

flowerburgers said:

I try as hard as I can to ignore the question of marketability! But it creeps in. Hard to accept that few will ever want the novellas I'd rather write than a novel.

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Length, I think, is an entirely different question than genre. In some genres, novellas sell brilliantly.

lizmonster said:

Length, I think, is an entirely different question than genre. In some genres, novellas sell brilliantly.

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I thought we were talking about marketability in general? In any case, literary novellas are not particularly marketable, nor short story collections. I haven't heard of them being marketable in other genres, but I could be wrong! Which genres did you have in mind?

flowerburgers said:

I thought we were talking about marketability in general? In any case, literary novellas are not particularly marketable, nor short story collections. I haven't heard of them being marketable in other genres, but I could be wrong! Which genres did you have in mind?

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We were talking about marketability in general. Just pointing out that length is a different vector.

It's my understanding that romance and erotica novellas can sell tremendously well. On the other side of it, 200K of anything is going to be a rough one to move.

Well, if I ever decide to switch from literary to erotica, I'll be in luck!

I write contemporary romance, and now that I'm self-publishing, I don't think much about marketability. I know there's at least a small audience for the general sorts of books I want to write, and I don't need an enormous audience.

Novellas are BOOMING in SFF, they're considered to have made a comeback, and you can have literary SFF. In addition to tor, many magazines and presses now take novellas.

Harlequin said:

Novellas are BOOMING in SFF, they're considered to have made a comeback, and you can have literary SFF. In addition to tor, many magazines and presses now take novellas.

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Yes, but those are (for the most part) short story venues. Short stories are a far more brutal market than novels, IME, and too many of them don't allow simultaneous subs.