Is there a disconnect between what readers want to read and what writers want to write?
I don’t personally know all readers or writers but I do scan a multitude of blogs and other folks seem to think bloggers know what they’re talking about…
Many writing blogs advise “surveying” the readers then writing what they want.
Yet, I’m sure there are readers who rarely find what they like; just like there are writers who rarely think about readers.
Is the solution that writers should “somehow” find out what readers want and try to write something catering to this “knowledge”.
In that last sentence, the words in quotes indicate my belief that knowing what readers want is “tricky” at best.
Sure, you can look at the numbers of sales of various types of books and draw conclusions about what readers want, but…
What if the books sold reflect the taste of publishers and the readers are choosing their fare from a limited buffet?
Then, the “conclusion” about what to write so readers will like it (along with the usual motivation to make bucks) is a game being played on an exceedingly small field.
As far as the problem with publishers restricting what’s available to readers, self-publishing is beginning to widen what’s available.
As far as the slavish desire to warp creative potential by imitating what others have done just to satisfy an audience that could well be unaware other books could please them more, I must pause and gather my courage…
I feel there are way too many assumptions being accepted in the Book World:
Many readers assume they have to settle for what’s being offered.
Many writers assume they must cleave to a formula to succeed.
Many publishers assume the monetary bottom line is the place to begin their evaluations.
Hopefully, when self-publishing attains some measure of stability, readers will have easy and efficient ways to find what they Really want to read.
As far as the challenge of writers pleasing readers and still sticking to their own principles:
In a post from last January, Do You Write For The Reader or Should You Write For Yourself?, I said, “Read as widely and deeply as you possibly can. Read till you’re bored and then read more. Absorb as much of our Human Family’s hopes and dreams and challenges and fears and dangers and failures and quirks as you possibly can—absorb it into what you could call your internal Meta-Reader.
“Then, when you sit down to create, let that Meta-Reader decide what is absolutely necessary to write………”
What are your thoughts and feelings?
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Notes from An Alien 
Personally, I feel that the writer should write first for themselves and perhaps their muse. For me, this can be the only way to find one’s way along that long and winding path that leads to a finished work. Otherwise you can find yourself grasping at ridiculous straws to make an impact on an imagined illusory audience, like I found myself doing yesterday. I was in a store buying dvds and found to my astonishment that there were a great many dvds with the word ‘green’ in their name, likewise many also for the word ‘house’. Aha, I thought, so these are popular with ‘viewers’. So perhaps the name of my next novel should be ‘The Green House’. LOL. No it shouldn’t. It has nothing to do with houses of any colour, but for a moment, desperate writer as I am, I was seduced. Don’t be seduced. Write what you must write…
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I’m with you, Jane, on writing for one’s Muse….
She knows way more than "I" do and she has contacts in the Meta-Conscious Mind that guide my feeble fingers as I pretend that I'm writing something :-)
I really like your DVD experience since the “viewers” taste probably has much more to do with what DVD producers, a string of middle-men, and the store manager “hope” will sell, eh??
And, yes, being seduced is an occupational hazard of writers—unless the seduction is from one’s Muse :-)
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I believe that what readers want is a story that makes them keep turning pages and then say “Wow! I didn’t see that coming” at the end. If I do that, then I have succeeded as a writer.
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Gwen,
I understand what your saying but, if you want, could you relate how you’ve come to your conclusion?
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What would happen, if we only got the information others think we needed or … wanted? Well, our range of information would be rather limited, wouldn’t it? In terms of governments, such methods are called censureship.
I can only agree with you, Alexander. Writers should read as much as possible, keep an eye on people, think about what they see, feel the feelings they have witnessed, as intensely as their own. For me this is an integral part of writing, a way of forming little fragments of a story long before the story has ripened to anything resembling a plot. When I have accumulated several fragments, I find the novel develops without much planning. I have to write it down to see what it is about. I work on the wirtten text, that’s of course, but when I offer it to my readers I simply assume they know what they like and take what they need.
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Martina,
You said something very close to what I do to prepare to write a book:
“Writers should read as much as possible, keep an eye on people, think about what they see, feel the feelings they have witnessed, as intensely as their own. For me this is an integral part of writing, a way of forming little fragments of a story long before the story has ripened to anything resembling a plot.”
The only thing I would have to change in that is to replace “fragment” with “seed” :-)
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Alexander,
“seed” is an organic concept. I agree that as my “fragments” are in a continuing process of change they could be called “seeds” :-)
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:-)
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