Factory fiction

When a publisher discovers they've got a hot title, they want more of the same. When their competitors discover that they have a hot title, they want similar titles. What you might have thought of as a creative art becomes a creation factory, a fiction factory.

You've got to remember that publishing is a business, a tough business, so the publishers are looking for opportunities to make money. Yes, the top publishers will, occasionally, put out a book that has intrinsic value, something special. But these few books aren't expected to make much money. They might even lose money. But they give the publisher prestige and prestige attracts books that will make money.

As a writer there are plentiful opportunities to get your work published if you can master the requirements -- the template -- of the fiction factory. If you can do it and do it well, your career can thrive and, if your career thrives, you can dare to write an occasional piece outside the fiction factory template and your publisher will humor you by publishing it.

If you want to be a writer you have to think a bit of what kind of writer you want to be. It's always going to be hard work -- your hard work -- but how you approach the industry will, to a large extent, determine your economic success.