Ignore your market at your own peril

I’ve never claimed to be an artist.

Art is a noble endeavor and those that undertake it should be commended in their desire to advance the aesthetic.  I don’t claim that I get everything that is tagged as “art”, but I appreciate the dialog that it starts.

What gets stuck in my craw is “artists” who claim that their being stifled by some external force.  They cry, “Insert your favorite publisher here don’t understand me.  If they were really innovators like they say they are, they publish my stuff.”

Ummm… no.  I’ve been a product guy for more than a few years and the markets don’t owe you jack no matter how good/avant guard/unique/special you think you are.  They (the markets… focus artists, this isn’t always about you and your art) have their own stakeholders that they need to satisfy.

If you’re looking to share your work, you can either put it out there yourself (create a website, do your own marketing, etc.) OR figure out what the people signing the checks are looking for.  No one owes you a living.

The latter is accomplished by doing your market research and getting your read on.  I’ve been doing this by loading up kindle with this month’s  offerings from magazines that I like to read and wouldn’t mind getting published in one day.  While it doesn’t guarantee me acceptance, it does give me a fighting chance to share my writing and moving one step closer to treating writing a paying gig.  After a couple of weeks of research (in between writing) there are at least three markets that I have a good feel for the themes and tone that they’re looking for, which goes above and beyond anything that you’ll find in their submission guidelines.

JA Konrath deserves a big shout out  for inspiring this post.  If you’re a writer or a reader interested in how the publishing business works, go check out his blog at:  http://jakonrath.blogspot.com

photo credit: Daquella manera