"If we reject you, change your genre" - rejecting that advice

"If we reject your story, then we'd suggest you try another genre."  I found this piece of advice recently, from an editor on a website asking for submissions for an obscure anthology.  

The editor also said that he'd like to see more romance stories.  The implication was that a science fiction writer like me should just give up writing in my chosen genre, the one I love.  Then I should  write some fluffy story about romance, just to have a chance of being published in that anthology.

No thanks, I'll pass on that one.  This is writing for the market taken to ridiculous extremes.  And for me, it's definitely a bridge too far.  For me, writing romance would be prostitution of my art in a way I'm not prepared to go.  I don't believe in that stuff, and I'm certainly not prepared to write it.

So how far should we go in bending our writing talents to meet the demands of this mysterious thing called "the market?"  The more I've learned about the market, the more I've come to realise that stories are bought or rejected according to the whims of individual human beings.

"The market" consists of a collection of people who are making choices as to what goes into their publications on the basis of their individual prejudices.  That's the bottom line of submitting to any editor or agent.

And I've come to realise in the last year that I'm just not willing to compromise on the types of story I write to please one individual.  If an editor isn't engaged and enthused by my story, then the chances are we have nothing in common.  It's time to move on and find someone who does.

So they reject my story?  So what?  That just means I sent the story to the "wrong address" as Barbara Kingsolver says.  And my task is to find the right "address" for that story, the editor who is on my wavelength.

Because I really believe in my stories, and that they have something important to say.  So I won't be taking the egotistical suggestion of a minor editor that I change the whole focus of my work just to squeeze a story I can't believe in into his anthology.