What Makes You a Desert?
The basics of the Desert archetype.
Have you taken the Author Ecosystem quiz? Find out your archetype here:
https://authorecosystem.com
The Basics of the Desert Archetype
Most important resource: adaptability and optimization
Superpowers: ability to spot trends before others, ease at producing books that readers are excited about, ability to make business decisions within writing the book
Examples of Deserts: Dan Brown, William Shakespeare, EL James, Suzanne Collins, Michael Anderle
Deserts are pliable creators who excel at writing to market and identifying hot trends that audiences want to read at any given moment. They can make unemotional business decisions and “ride a trend” by delivering on the hot tropes in the market before it vanishes. If you’ve ever met somebody who seemed to always hit the right trends at the right time, they are probably a Desert.
Because Deserts are good at riding trends, they need to have a few different skill sets, including strong research skills, the ability to produce quickly, and a willingness to detach—both to double down on what’s working well and to cut activity on anything that’s not working. Deserts tend to put all their sustenance in one cactus and build a highly profitable pathway for readers to sales.
Deserts tend to do great, for instance, in KU, because their superpower is being able to find what huge groups of people are searching for at any given time and deliver something those readers want while their frenetic energy is at its highest peak. This brings more money in the short-term, though it can put their business at risk if any aspect of their system—audience, money, or market forces—dries up. Many Deserts balance this risk by having multiple pen names or by maintaining a freelance career on the side that they can always fall back on in tough times.
Successful Deserts thrive on writing to market and rapid-releasing books, but this doesn’t work for any other ecosystem. A Desert’s ability to detach from the material and write fast to trend without the need to infuse themselves into the text allows them to work faster with less mental drain than other ecosystems.
We estimate that a significant percentage of struggling KU authors are other ecosystems trying unsuccessfully to be Deserts. Unfortunately, since they either incorrectly judge upcoming trends, can’t write fast enough to capitalize on trends without burning out, or infuse too much of themselves into their books to capitalize on trends, it does not work for them.
This is not helped by the fact that in order to be at the forefront of emerging niches it behooves Deserts to play their cards close to the vest and observe much more than they speak.
Healthy Deserts maintain a camel hump (or several) where they can store away their “riches in the niches” to sustain them between oases where water is plentiful. They watch the warning signs that the market is changing and they pivot when necessary—to another genre, to another source of readers, or to another platform.
Unhealthy Deserts stray too far from a water source and end up thirsty when one or several of their money makers dries up. Additionally, they have a habit of “planting” a book and running away before that series can take root. Even though succulents can survive on very little maintenance, they do need to be watered well until they take root, while unhealthy Deserts are always on to the next trend.
Does this sound like you?