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Monday, February 28, 2011

Coping and copping out

My first children’s book was set on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts; my second in Jamaica and the third is set in Trinidad.

When I completed the second book, a friend said to me “that was smart, setting this one on a larger island so you will have a larger potential audience.”

I must confess that I had no such motive. I envisioned my characters in these places and so, off they went.

Now I find myself torn between writing what comes to my mind and writing for the market. With my current WIP which is based in Ghana, I am concerned about turning the publisher off by making the plot more complicated than the children’s books she typically publishes. I know, I know – if she does not appreciate my work, she may not be the right publisher, and so on, but in my reality, the pond has very few fish. I have decided to write it as I see it, but, because I understand her reality, I am prepared to rewrite if the publisher is interested in a simpler story line.

On a more basic level, I wonder whether I should begin writing books with more mainstream appeal instead of focusing on the Caribbean and Ghana. That issue, I have tabled to tackle another day, perhaps in another post.

3 comments:

  1. Selling is important. That's certainly true, and I think you can combine what you want to write with what is likely to be commercially successful. Still, in the end I generally go with what I want to do rather than what I think will sell specifically. I guess I'm lucky in that I don't have to make a living from my writing so I don't have that added pressure.

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  2. You never know.

    My friend Chris Benjamin, here in Canada, has made a tremendous splash with a novel about a kid growing up in Malaysia.

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  3. If you try to shape your vision to fit the market, your manuscript will look like every other book on the market. You are a writer, not a marketer; the market it outside your purview. Write well -- your own vision in your own voice -- and let the rest sort itself out.

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