You have to keep up with the market. You have to know what’s out there, what is selling, what is peaking, and what is upcoming.
The best way to learn that, short of working in the publishing industry, is to take a walk around a bookstore. Look at everything. Check out what is being featured. Publishers often pay for things like endcaps or summer reading tables, but the bookstores themselves can make their own choices based on what they are selling.
This should be a pleasant homework assignment, because you don’t need to anything you don’t want to do. Look at whatever interests you. You never know what that might be inside the treasure trove of a bookstore. You might think you’re not interested in sample college prep tests, but then something catches your eye, and you pick one up. You check it out and then you put it back. And you learned one small thing. Maybe you will never use it. But it’s filed away in your brain.
Or you might notice that a particular kind of fun mystery seems prevalent. If you don’t like mysteries, you don’t have to read one, but you now know something you didn’t know before. Knowledge is power. The genres are always changing. A romance novel today bears little resemblance to one that was published ten years ago. You can keep up by cruising around and keeping your eyes open. Sit down with a few books and read the cover copy and the first few pages. Then get another batch and do it again. Of course you can buy books and you should, but you can’t buy out the entire store.
You could also do a variation of this online, but there is nothing like actually being there, with the entire market at your fingertips.
If you don’t think this is important, you may find yourself out of luck when you spend two years working on a novel only to find out that it’s hopelessly out of style and it has a slim to none chance of selling.
This should be your first step if you want to write a book. See what’s out there and how you can fit into it. This should precede even your first germ of an idea. You are asking to enter a world that has its own rules, its own customs, and its own lingo. Learn the ropes before you jump in. And all you have to is take a walk.
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