Literature trends like real estate

Yesterday I was looking over an email I got from a real estate broker. I'm on his mailing list and, about every week or so, get a missive suggesting what our house would sell for in the current market and reporting sales and offerings in the neighborhood. He also includes a graph showing his suggested price for our house along a progression of dates. The numbers rise, fall, and rise again. Tomorrow? Who knows.

Now all this while, while our house had been rising and falling in value according to this agent, I've been hard at work peddling stories I've written -- novels -- with, thus far, no success. The rejection emails from agents generally say something like "it's not right for my list."

Thanks to Albert "Ricky" Stever, I'm encouraged by the realization that markets aren't fixed; they aren't set forever. Themes agents and publishers are looking for today won't be the same in a future tomorrow. So what I'm writing now might have to wait for a culture shift in readers' interest until they align with what I write and what I want to write.

But I can wait. That's not an option open to every writer. You have to live; you have to somehow make money. (I'd like some too!) But, from watching that real estate curve, the changing numbers, I'm confident that what I write will, at some point, align with what readers are looking for, publishers who want to give it to them, and agents who serve as the go-betweens.

 

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