Study the market - maybe

Every person who gives advice on getting published will tell you to study the market you're aiming at.  They tell you to check out what agents and editors want.

To a point this makes sense, especially for beginner writers new to the publishing game.  In my years  as a creative writing tutor I've urged my students to do that when they submit their work.  We do need to know what's currently being published in our genre.  And we must know what genre our work fits into.  You would be surprised how many writers seeking publication can't answer that question.

For an SF writer there's another requirement, an awareness of what's been done before.  When I was editing Jade I googled lists of SF stories about sentient planets.  I discovered that none of those stories deals with the planet's sentience in the way that I do, and some don't try to explain the way the planet became sentient in any depth.  That was exactly what I was trying to do, so I felt reassured I had a new take on an old topic.

But I think the advice to study the market becomes less useful when we've read and written in our chosen genres for a few years.  When we've produced enough work to know which subjects ignite our  passions, and we've worked out our way of telling our stories, we need to stick with that.  That is who we are, as a person and a writer, and we need to stand up for our individual selves.

I've just been reading some advice about entering competitions.  I was told to check out the judge, and if she is a Mills and Boon author, to submit a story she will relate to.  Er... No.  In that case I decide that the judge is unlikely to appreciate my finely-crafted SF story and I don't enter that competition.

Whenever a new writer is 'discovered', his or her publisher raves about their fresh new voice.  But they can't find those fresh new voices if we don't have the courage to be ourselves.  If we're so busy studying the market that we're submitting identikit stories.  Ultimately, what gets us published is our difference, the places where we diverge from the norm and have something new to say.

So yes, study the market to understand it, but never lose your authenticity as a writer. Don't censor your voice to fit into a market.   If you feel you need to, it's far better to pass on that opportunity.