Why Do People Read Novels?

I had a long and successful career as a marketing communications writer in the financial services industry. I learned early on that successful marketing requires an ability to make an emotional connection with the customer. In other words, your brochure, website, tweets, video, emailer must show how your product can make your prospects feel smarter, lovelier, sexier, more popular, or cooler. 

Doesn't matter what you're selling, every customer is a human and every human has certain desires. Keeping those needs uppermost in mind, my brochures sold a lot of sexy mutual funds and annuities! 

It appears the same thing is true when seeking success as a novelist. Know your audience. Start with the question: Why do people read fiction?  I think people read for the same reason they watch movies, stream Netflix, go to plays, attend ball games, art galleries, concerts, etc. They seek escape. They want to leave their troubled world for a while and immerse themselves in someone else's.

Writers eagerly embrace the demand--purple romances for the love-obsessed, mysteries for those who like to solve puzzles, fantasy for those who want to leave this world entirely, high-brow literary tomes for those who never stop being English majors. Authors who are successful in any of these genres have a sophisticated understanding of their audience and know how to push their buttons.

Unfortunately, I don't write fiction that way.  You see, marketing communications was my job and I was good at it. But I didn't find it rewarding. I wrote novels in my spare time, which I did find very rewarding-- and fun. It was my escape from my troubled world. It freed me from having to write with a single-minded focus on a commercial audience. 

My books are written for an audience of one: me! I write the kind of books that I like to read. I never get tired of reading my books--maybe it's the voice, the characters, the style, the themes, my narcissism. 

But the risk of writing for an audience of one is that such a bespoke approach will never appeal to a mass audience, which is required to win a publisher's interest.

While that is frustrating, to say the least, I don't envy successful authors of romance, mystery, fantasy, YA, and other standard genres. Because they are locked into writing a certain kind of book, otherwise their audiences will abandon them. Thus, writing book after book becomes a job and they are required to churn out the same thing year after year. 

Not much different than being a marketing communications writer in the financial services industry.