Waiting for Lightning to Strike Isn't a business plan. It's wishful thinking.

Defining your audience is not the enemy of your art. It is the thing that lets you keep making it and keep supporting your dreams.

I want to start by saying the people who got mad at me are not wrong to love story.

Few months ago I wrote about marketing, audience, packaging, and positioning, and some authors were taken aback. (which of course, is part of the point of writing it)

The main gest: Story should come first. Authors should not be thinking in terms of markets and audiences and read-through. Story, always, first.

I have big thoughts about this. And I want to be careful here, because I am not about to tell you story does not matter. Story is the whole point. If the book is bad, none of the rest saves it. A great cover on a boring book just helps more people find out it is boring, faster.

So let me say it plainly. Story first. Yes. Absolutely.

However, if story matters the most, we also need to find Readers to read it. That part of the equation is equal to the story, if not greater.

Read the rest: https://substack.com/home/post/p-205281063

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Waiting for Lightning to Strike Isn't a business plan. It's wishful thinking.