What You Want to Write vs. What Sells: How to Find the Sweet Spot
This workshop looks at the practical overlap between creative passion and market reality.
Many writers start with a story they love, then only begin thinking about genre, audience, comparable titles, cover expectations, pricing, newsletters, and promotion after the book is finished. But those choices can affect whether a book finds an agent, a publisher, or readers.
Using her own relaunch as a case study, Gina will walk participants through the strategic thinking behind The Unlikely Murder Club, a cozy-adjacent mystery series positioned for readers looking for funny, warm, ensemble mysteries with older sleuths.
The workshop will discuss how to identify a genre or subgenre, study bestseller lists and comparable authors, understand reader expectations, recognize useful tropes, and think about covers and sales copy as signals to the right audience.
While many examples will come from Gina’s self-publishing experience, the workshop will also address how the same market-awareness tools can help writers pursuing agents, publishers, or hybrid paths.
Understanding where a book fits, how to describe it, and what comparable titles exist can strengthen query letters, pitches, back-cover copy, online listings, and conversations with publishing professionals.
Participants will be invited to apply these ideas to their own work through short exercises and group discussion. They will consider questions such as:
- What am I really writing?
- Who is this book for?
- What books are closest to mine?
- What does my genre promise readers?
- Where does my book meet those expectations, and where might it resist or confuse them?
The workshop will also briefly touch on newsletters, series strategy, Kindle Unlimited versus wide publishing, and promotional tools such as BookFunnel, Book Report, K-lytics, and book blasts, understanding that each of those topics could become a workshop of its own.
Participants should leave with a clearer sense of how to connect the book they want to write with the readers already looking for that kind of experience.
About Gina X. Grant
Gina X. Grant writes quirky cross-genre fiction and is the author of the popular Unlikely Murder Club series. After stepping away from writing for several years, Gina relaunched her author career by studying the market and positioning her series for readers of books such as The Thursday Murder Club. She has served on the boards of Toronto Sisters in Crime and Toronto Romance Writers, and is a member of the Writers’ Community of York Region and Novelists Inc. As a hybrid author, Gina brings both writing and practical, hands-on publishing experience to this workshop.