Writing Commercial Fiction

I belong to Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers which supports writers of novel length genre fiction. So. Ever since I began, the bias of all my critique groups and the organization itself was for me to sell, to become a published writer, a novelist. That's my bias too.

That doesn't mean that if you want to write biographies or publish a journal of essays or anything else, I don't understand or support. It just means that when you're on this page, you'll hear about publishing and the focus will be on publishing.

There can always be a tug of war with what you want to write and what an agent will represent and what an editor will buy. That is a decision for every writer to make -- how much you want to change your story so it will be published. Know your limits. Is your hero not as sympathetic as most romance editors want? Will you change him or not? Have you broken rules that might diminish your readership and thus will cause your work to be harder to sell? (All right, I'm thinking killing dogs/pets here).

YOU decide whether that is integral to your story. I think I said that I wanted Ruis Elder in Heart Thief to be less sympathetic, to really be angry enough at society to steal, not just because he wanted to preserve the machines. I wanted that for a long time, but when I realized that he was unsympathetic enough that the book wouldn't sell, I reluctantly changed him. Now I'm very glad I did.

Just be aware of your choices and make them deliberately.

May you know what you want and get it today.
Robin