Market research and trends for Deserts
Market research and trends for Deserts
Every healthy business needs a way to produce new offers, a way to grow an audience, and a way to bring in sales. Here’s what might work best regarding production for those identifying as a Desert.
Have you taken the Author Ecosystem quiz? Find out your archetype here:
https://authorecosystem.com
Every healthy business needs a way to produce new offers, a way to grow an audience, and a way to bring in sales. Here’s what might work best regarding production for those identifying as a Desert.
MARKET RESEARCH AND TRENDS
Deserts are masterful at market research and trends, and often come up with the right answer when looking at the data. They are able to study the market and find pockets of underserved markets, but more importantly, they are nimble and can pivot to that underserved market quickly.
This type also has a strong sense of what readers want. They are able to pick it out quickly and easily, usually by studying the story beats of what is already selling. The best Deserts are not only looking at their genre, but also at adjacent genres and the larger storefront.
Deserts tend to compartmentalize stories. They are able to break down tropes and scene imagery to find clear patterns. And then, they are able to put those pieces back together again to deliver what readers want from that genre or niche.
While Deserts can sometimes create new categories of sub-genre or sub-niche, they more often see a trend—and act on it—before most of the rest of the community catches on. In this way, they are early adopters.
CREATING CONTENT AND PRODUCTS
Deserts may love writing their stories, but they are also able to disconnect and put on their business hat while writing those stories.
This type tends to create products that are right in the middle of the market. If witches are more popular than angels, then the main character is a witch. If a male captain is more popular than a female captain, then the character is male. In doing this, they create stories that hit the market or trend dead on.
Healthy Deserts know that their books have some level of shelf life. Markets expand and contract, and Deserts are fantastic at hitting the market as it's expanding. But they always know that the contraction is coming as the market gets flooded with competition and as their particular story becomes a commodity. Those who have mastered the game are able to incorporate enough evergreen trends to keep their back catalog fruitful, and are also able to pivot quickly when they see the market contracting.
Deserts thrive when they build a catalog that has a unique branding aspect, but that can also keep pace with trends. There may be some tradeoff as a result, but the most successful Deserts know how to hit each trope while also elevating it.
PACING AND SCHEDULING PRODUCTION
Deserts tend to write and release quickly–usually every few months. This allows them to stay both fluid and flush with resources. Hungry readers demand their stories now—and Deserts are usually the one type that is willing and able to deliver.
Although this type might write a lot, they are usually writing to buy themselves time and money. Sometimes they are writing just so they can otherwise live their life and not be bothered. Other times they are writing X so they can free up time to write Y—with Y being the thing they really love but they know they can't make enough money on to satisfy their goals. Deserts are also strong at writing to pursue a greater ambition. Maybe their dream is movies or television, for example, and they know that a certain path will get them there.
At the end of the day, Deserts see publishing as a business first, then a creative endeavor. This approach can be baffling for other types who struggle to disconnect from their creative side in order to make smarter and more strategic business decisions. But Deserts are attracted to this business for many reasons: freedom, flexibility, and potential earnings. The creative outlet is only valuable when it is also profitable.
How does that feel to you? Does it feel right?