Originality vs Genre Expectations

Those of you in the writing and publishing community might have heard the phrase “Writing to Market.”  If you’re heard the phrase, you’re probably having one or two reactions:  Either you think it’s super smart or you think it’s selling out.  Most of the time, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of nuance to the argument.  

If you haven’t heard of “writing to market”, you may still have a strong reaction, because it sounds a lot like selling out.  It sounds a lot like being unoriginal, like follow...