Ingrid J Adams – What Happens When You Don’t Write To Market

“Can you make the main character a vampire? Vampires are so hot right now.”

“Can you move the whole story to a magic school? That’s what’s selling at the moment.”

These are actual excerpts from emails I received from publishers when I was shopping my debut novel around.

Everyone tells you to write the book that’s in your heart. 

Writing it is one thing. 

Selling it is an entirely different matter, as I found out the hard way.

When I started my debut series eight years ago, I’d never even heard of ‘write to market’. I was an artist! A creative! I was going to write the book I’d always wanted to write without doing a single iota of research into the literary landscape.

I was sick of reading the same old stories over and over, and I naively assumed everyone else was too. I thought people wanted different. That they wanted unique. 

I was wrong.

It’s human nature to like what you know. And publishers are hesitant to take a chance on anything that doesn’t fit neatly into the box of what’s currently trending. 

When I sat down to write my four-book paranormal romance/contemporary fantasy/spiritual lit series, I had no idea just how large a rod I was making for my back. Did I mention it’s set in the 90s, between the Northern Beaches of Sydney, the deserts of Arizona, the wild plains of Arnhemland, and the steamy streets of New Orleans? 

I grew up reading epic, heart-wrenching novels that ripped my soul out and stayed with me long after I’d turned the final page, and that was the feeling I wanted to recreate.

I wanted to explore the concept of a love that spans lifetimes, and delve into soul mates and soul family and reincarnation and fate versus free will. I have a background in psychotherapy and kinesiology, and I wanted to write about the human experience as I’d witnessed it in my practice.

So, yes, I wrote a paranormal fantasy with no faeries, vampires, werewolves or dragons. It’s set in the real world, drenched in 90s nostalgia: flannel, platform slides, surfing, walkmans blaring Smashing Pumpkins and The Cranberries… A time before mobile phones and social media consumed our lives.

Early reviewers said the same thing: “It’s like nothing I’ve ever read.”

The first thing you’re asked for when pitching or marketing a book, is comparable titles. 

There literally aren’t any for this series. Believe me, I’ve searched. I’ve paid professionals to search. I’ve had literary marketing professionals with 20 years’ experience tell me, “In all my career, I’ve never struggled to find comparable titles for a series. Until yours.”

Yup.

As I mentioned, publishers loved the premise, but apparently it needed vampires or a magic school to make it marketable.

My MC is a hot, blond Aussie surfer who spends most of his time outdoors. Basically, the opposite of a vampire. I refused to make the change.

Readers often say that the settings in my books are as much a character as the people who inhabit them. I love to travel, and I’m always scouting my next location. I want to bring the world’s beautiful, rugged, real places to life on the page. So, swapping all that for a magic school? That was a no go for me.

Another publisher loved the story but wanted me to tone down the offensive language, make it more ‘politically correct’. But I grew up in the 90s, and I wanted to capture that era as it was: raw, gritty, unfiltered and, yes, a tad offensive. How can we learn from history if we rewrite it through today’s lens? I wasn’t about to sanitise the past.

Maybe it was ignorance. Maybe it was arrogance. But I refused to change the heart of my story for anyone. 

So, I decided to create my own publishing house and publish my series my way. I’m not going to lie. It’s been a long slog, and I’ve had to move mountains to get where I am today. 

I posted relentlessly on social media, hired publicists, marketers and book coaches, and signed up for countless virtual book tours. This was where I began to gain real traction and find my people, readers who fell in love with my books and stuck with me the whole way.

I found that people either ‘got’ my series and adored it with their whole chests, or didn’t understand the concept at all. And that’s ok. Not every book is for everyone. The hardest part of being a writer is finding the readers who get you.

Book one, Descended, was the hardest to gain traction with. But by book two, Transcended, I’d hit my straps. By the time Intended and the finale, Ascended, came out, I had a loyal readership, and Descended had reached number one on Amazon.

I have readers tell me this series is their favourite of all time, that it’s their Roman Empire. I have readers DM me from trains, mid-commute, ugly-crying over my characters while complete strangers stare and quietly edge away. I get messages at 5 a.m. from readers who’ve just finished the big finale, haven’t slept a wink, are emotionally wrecked, and have decided work can bloody well wait.

Does that make it all worthwhile?

Abso-f*cking-lutely. 

Knowing what I know now, would I do it again? Look, I’m a glutton for punishment. I was writing this series if it killed me. So yeah, I’d write the damn thing all over again.

But my next series? I’m not saying I’m selling out; I’m far too pig-headed for that, and I’ll always be me. I’ve learned a thing or two about the business of writing, and I’m done making it harder than it needs to be.

So, let’s just say I’m wising up: same stubborn writer, more market savvy. And, this time, I’m adding a werewolf or two.

—

Ingrid J. Adams is an Australian Amazon bestselling author whose novels explore the place where psychology, spirituality and the paranormal collide. 

Living in Manly, Sydney, with her husband, four sons and a cavoodle, Ingrid writes emotionally rich contemporary fantasy exploring destiny, reincarnation, soul connections and the enduring power of love. 

Her path to authorship has been anything but conventional. Holding qualifications in journalism, business, health sciences and psychotherapy, Ingrid has worked across media, health and wellness, psychotherapy and energetic healing. After being diagnosed with the rare autoimmune disease Immune Thrombocytopenia (ITP) in her early twenties, her fascination with healing, human behaviour and spirituality deepened—questions that now sit at the heart of her fiction. 

Publishing independently through Three Bees Press, Ingrid has built an international readership with The Descended Series, a completed four-book saga that blends psychological depth with supernatural mythology and explores the enduring connections that transcend time. 

. Visit ingridjadams.com to find out more.

Descended: A Completed Contemporary Paranormal Romance (The Descended Series Book 1 )

In the quiet between worlds, some hearts echo louder than time.

Everyone loves Indigo Wolfe. But all he wants is for someone to truly see him.

Radiant and reckless, Indigo moves through high school like a legend come to life. But beneath the popularity he wears like armor, he’s unravelling. Haunted by feelings that aren’t his, voices no one else hears, and visions he can’t explain, he’s consumed by a magic he doesn’t understand and can’t control.

Then he meets her, a girl who truly sees him. A girl he somehow remembers. Because he’s loved her before. In other lives.

But fate is never kind for long.

When they’re torn apart, Indigo is thrust into a hidden world of secret magic and ancient echoes. A world where his pain has meaning, his powers have a name, and love is the thread connecting lifetimes. There’s a reason he keeps finding, and losing, the same girl, life after life.

As Indigo uncovers the truth about who he is and what he’s capable of, he’s faced with a choice: surrender to the life written for him, or fight to rewrite it.

Set in the 1990s across the beaches of Sydney and the deserts of Arizona, DESCENDED is the spellbinding first book in a sweeping four-part saga about soul-deep love, found family, and the timeless struggle to change a destiny written in the stars.

If you love wounded heroes, immortal love, 90s nostalgia, and stories that echo across lifetimes, start reading this completed series today.

BUY HERE

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