How did you know what to write?

[LBL]

Famous trad author says: "Write what you love, success will follow."

Yeah, okay, dad...

Famous indie author #1 says: "You must be intentional. To give yourself the best chance of success, you must pick a (sub) genre, write in series, and stick to that genre and series and keep putting out books."

Famous indie author #2 says: "You better love what you've written and what you've put out there on the market, because if it takes off and is successful, your audience is going to want more, and your wish to make this a full-time career is going to compel you to keep giving it to them. If you don't love it, you're going to find the whole thing a massive grind."

Believing the famous indie authors are right, I say: It sounds like you'd best figure out what you want your author brand to look like, what genre you want to be known for, what series you want to write long term BEFORE you start writing.

Okay, fine... but, what if you're just like every other author on the planet and have a notebook full of "brilliant" ideas and premises? How do you pick when knowing what you're picking is or should be the thing you're hopefully going to build into the thing (genre, series) you're known for and upon which you're going to build an author career?

How do you pick?

Flipping a coin, rolling a die, eenie meanie... these seem like pretty silly methods when you're talking about choosing the path by which you're trying to define yourself as an author interested in eventually going full-time.

How did you do it? How did you finally realize what you wanted to BE as an author and indie publisher... as a brand?

You just started writing whatever and it worked out? Please don't tell me that's what it was. Or were you intentional? If it's the former for most of the successful indies then, well... that's depressing.

[CaptnAndy]

I have published 19 books since 2012 which cover several different genres. I have written about what interests me at the time, and the stories have included Naval Action, Hard Science Fiction, Dystopian Settings, Current Events (Like Covid), and Alternate History. My current project is an Alternate History Novel based on an Element of the Chinese Treasure Fleet establishing a colony in California in 1407. A key element is the repeating air rifle carried by Meriwether Lewis when he reached the Pacific in 1805.
I had researched that rifle, and used a modern day version in my novel 'Bolthole Portal', where a small group are transported on a one-way trip to an unknown world.
While my writing choices may not be best for building a brand in a specific genre, I write to satisfy myself, because I recognize that at 77, I don't have that many productive writing years left.

[LilyBLily]

Pretty much the same story. I've written in three or four subgenres, and only slowly did I recognize that I feel most comfortable writing women's fiction. I like writing series romance, too, and since it used to be a slam dunk in KU, I've written a couple of romance series. However, my view on what a series should look like is not the same as that of the people who intentionally plan out four books about X, four sisters, four Dukes, four strapping young cowboys, or whatever. Probably the books would be better if they were, but I'm all about the themes and not repeating myself. The themes are different in each book. Un-series series.

You pick the story that most appeals to you, or you pick the story that you think will sell the best right now. Sometimes, if you are lucky, they're one and the same and you're right about the story selling. Sometimes not.

[cecilia_writer]

I had always read a lot of murder mysteries, and played around with writing them too. Once I started writing more seriously, I sent off a kind of humorous novel for a professional critique, and when it came back, the main message was 'this would be better if it had a murder in it, in fact why don't you write a mystery series featuring your central character?' So tha't was roughly what I did. I've also written a few other things just for a change.

[Lynn]

How do you pick?

Flipping a coin, rolling a die, eenie meanie... these seem like pretty silly methods when you're talking about choosing the path by which you're trying to define yourself as an author interested in eventually going full-time.

How did you do it? How did you finally realize what you wanted to BE as an author and indie publisher... as a brand?

You just started writing whatever and it worked out? Please don't tell me that's what it was. Or were you intentional? If it's the former for most of the successful indies then, well... that's depressing.

I just sat down and wrote something, knowing I liked it and would probably be happy to write more. I did literally just write what I wanted. However, a big caveat to that is the fact that I already knew *as a reader* some very important things about what makes for good reading and what makes me want to buy more books from someone. Series are good. Not giving the right payoff for the right genre is bad. Like, really really bad. Going too far with a tone change (from light to super dark) in a series or between series isn't fun. Jumping from one genre to another is annoying *for the reader*.

Is that planning out a brand? No. But it's not exactly random either.

I write for me, but I'm a reader. I love satisfying myself as a reader--not as a writer. I only write to read, to be honest, and that gives me a certain mindset that some writers might not have.

The reasons why it works for someone are varied and hard to pin down sometimes.

[j tanner]

Pick among your many ideas according to these guidelines:

1) You're passionate about the genre and the idea and would be okay writing in this genre for years.
2) It fits well in a genre that is reasonable popular with readers (decent Amazon ranks for the top 100)
3) It fits in a well-defined niche subgenre that gives you a smaller pool to rank in before the full genre
4) The idea is compatible with being a series

If you have multiple ideas that fit those criteria you can pick the one you're most passionate about or flip a coin. Those are the things about the idea that give you a slightly better chance at "success". The rest is up to your writing and marketing skill.

[R. C.]

For me, it was simple, I found an idea and did the Stephen King thing: I started typing.

For me, inspiration comes in waves and forced me to delve into several genre (genres?).  All the stories okay, one is good, none great.

For me, the future is historical fiction. It only required seven years of trial and error to find: I love me some historical fiction.

After I end the space opera (in production), something akin to a Leon Uris or Ken Follett is in my future. Months, maybe years, but soon enough.

Not sure this helps LBL's question, but it was cathartic for me.

R.C.

[TimothyEllis]

For me, it was literally type to get what was driving me insane out of my head.

There was never really a choice, although several ideas are still to be started.

Once I was well in, I started merging genres without knowing I was doing it. Then I stepped sideways, and the fans loved it, and now I have fans who love both sides of what I write, but not the other side.

If you've got a list of ideas, go with the one you think about the most, the one which runs alongside your passion, the idea which once you start writing that first page, you don't stop.

If you get out a chapter and then stop, it's the wrong idea. Stopping 20,000 words in is a common thing, but not at the end of the first chapter.

Which idea really gets your engine revving? Write that.

[alhawke]

I love taking day to day things and changing them with a twist. A.k.a. fantasy. That can also be sci fi, but sci fi can feel more dependent on science.
And I love love. Romance. For me, love and fantasy cover all my bases.
My personal tastes:
Mystery/thriller: too plot heavy. I like more freedom in my writing.
Historical fiction: too much research (though I dip into research with my historical epic fantasy).
Young adult: too young; thereby, too restrictive with content
Erotic: too hot
Horror: too scary

I definitely write what I enjoy. If the world loved one of my characters I'd be happy to embellish them.

There's an interesting tale I once read that Agatha Christie hated her character Hercule Poirot. She wrote like 33 books about him. Imagine that. That must have been torture.

[LilyBLily]

I love taking day to day things and changing them with a twist. A.k.a. fantasy. That can also be sci fi, but sci fi can feel more dependent on science.
And I love love. Romance. For me, love and fantasy cover all my bases.
My personal tastes:
Mystery/thriller: too plot heavy. I like more freedom in my writing.
Historical fiction: too much research (though I dip into research with my historical epic fantasy).
Young adult: too young; thereby, too restrictive with content
Erotic: too hot
Horror: too scary

I definitely write what I enjoy. If the world loved one of my characters I'd be happy to embellish them.

There's an interesting tale I once read that Agatha Christie hated her character Hercule Poirot. She wrote like 33 books about him. Imagine that. That must have been torture.

Christie loved to show how insular and prejudiced her smug Britishers were, and Poirot was the perfect character for that, since he simply never let their behavior put a dent in his amour propre.

[Writer]

My best advice is not to get too attached to any one brand early on. A writing career lasts for decades (if you're lucky) and sometimes takes unexpected twists, because you're learning new things about what you like and what you can sell. So pick a genre in the intersection between what you like and what you think will be profitable. Publish in it consistently for a couple years to see how it goes. You may find that your enthusiasm dies or you're never able to gain traction in that genre. So then you move on and reinvent your brand as something else. Use a new pen name for this one, a new mailing list and web presence.

A lot of people say to stay in one lane, and there's wisdom in persistence. But it's also true that the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing indefinitely and expect different results. So give something a good effort and, if a couple years doesn't start to show you some promising numbers, don't feel bad about changing genres. If you've addressed everything else you might be doing wrong and still aren't getting anywhere, it's fine to move on.

I don't know if that helps you any, but at least breaking down your career into a 2-year plan is less daunting. 2 years is a long time in indie publishing, so there's no need to set anything in stone beyond that point.

[idontknowyet]

There is no right or wrong answer.

You can write a book to market and it can bomb.
You can write a book that talks to your soul and it can bomb.

My advice would be to sit down and really think about why you're writing and what you want to accomplish.

Does your heart have a story it needs to tell? If so is there really a question.
Do you want to make a business out of this? Then approach it that way. Do you research. Have a plan off attack before you publish your first book. Be ready to pivot because as much as you do to prepare for your first few books, publishing is never quite what you think it will be.

SAVE Money. It can be cheap, but for the best chance of success you're going to need some money behind you for editors good covers and advertising. Whatever you think you need quadruple it.

Those are all the words of wisdom i have from publishing my first 14 books (3 of which are boxed sets) this year.

[PJ Post]

My advice would be to sit down and really think about why you're writing and what you want to accomplish.

So much this.

A lot of people say to stay in one lane...

For the purpose of sales, absolutely - on average, anyway. 
Good Branding requires a pretty consistent message, but there's nothing that says a writer can't have multiple brands to accomplish their goals. The good old days of writing whatever you want under the same name are vanishing, assuming they were ever really here to begin with.

[Vijaya]

I pretty much choose the project that's speaking the most loudly to me, usually it's a project on deadline, sometimes it's something else--an experiment. I've kept a sense of play in my writing, which really helps because I write for its own sake and it helps me become a better writer. Maybe this is why I love writing for kids of all ages, from concept books to young adult, both fiction and nonfiction. I say write what you love, what lights a fire in you, what makes all the sacrifices worthwhile. And good luck!

[LBL]

Thank you everyone for your thoughts. Reading over this thread, talking with friends, along with focused brainstorming has me FINALLY moving in a positive direction. I've taken what's been said here to heart. I think the idea I'm moving forward with is a good marriage of what I love coupled with what I think has a good chance of being popular/marketable.

Suppose everyone says as much during the infatuation stage with their works-in-progress, but as with anything in life, all you can do is ride the positivity train for as long as you can.

[alhawke]

Don't be surprised if your final novel is a little different than you planned. Good luck! 

[JRTomlin]

I was always obsessed to write about the Scottish War of Independence so there really was no debating except about which part.

[Lorri Moulton]

Photo courtesy of Pinterest

I write what I like...then find readers.  Probably not the best plan, but it works for me.

[oganalp]

Space and adventure in space. It was always about that for me. I would stare at Dune and Dune 2's (the computer games) art for hours. I would watch V, Star Trek TNG, Star Wars, etc., and dream about alien invasions, distant worlds, mysteries of space. They would buy me a sword as a toy, and the first thing I would do was play with it as if it was an Imperial Star Destroyer. I yearned and hunted for games where I could be inside the c*ckpit of a spaceship and use it as a home (not a fighter craft, but like a gunship or a capital ship).

No surprise, I ended up writing these sorts of stories.

[TimothyEllis]

I yearned and hunted for games where I could be inside the c*ckpit of a spaceship and use it as a home (not a fighter craft, but like a gunship or a capital ship).

Did you play the X universe games by Egosoft?

I went from the latter Wing Commander games after a gap to X2. Then 3 versions of X3. And now X4. The latter actually has a real bridge you can 'stand' on.

[R. C.]

...
I went from the latter Wing Commander games after a gap to X2. Then 3 versions of X3. And now X4. The latter actually has a real bridge you can 'stand' on.

I feel like I read the secret code initiating the uprising.

R.C.

[TimothyEllis]

...
I went from the latter Wing Commander games after a gap to X2. Then 3 versions of X3. And now X4. The latter actually has a real bridge you can 'stand' on.

I feel like I read the secret code initiating the uprising.

 

Actually, a Xenon invasion. 

[Eric Thomson]

...
I went from the latter Wing Commander games after a gap to X2. Then 3 versions of X3. And now X4. The latter actually has a real bridge you can 'stand' on.

I feel like I read the secret code initiating the uprising.

 

Actually, a Xenon invasion. 

Xenon... that was my favorite pinball machine in the early 80s 

[LilyBLily]

We always think it's just our private little world. Then we find out that millions of other people visited that world, too.