To have a market or not to have a market

I think that a market and audience really shouldn't matter a whole lot until you're actually trying to sell.

And honestly, the lines are unbelievably blurry. I used to work in a bookstore and the whole labeling of age groups, genre, whatever - it doesn't matter. Commercial vs. literary? There are commercially successful titles across the board, so I don't think it matters much what it is you write, or what you want to call it. Genre or age group don't seem to relate to sales in the end.

Of course, labeling does matter - for obvious reasons; people want to know what they're getting into - but while you're writing it, not so much. Write it first, label it later.

While I, personally, may write things generally appropriate for the young adult market, they would probably fly in the adult market as well. (Dunno though, since I'm unpublished, haha.) Good to keep options open.

There's a huge difference between teen and adult books generally - but I think when you start getting into genres like fantasy, sci-fi, paranormal, things like that, the lines get really blurry. It seems that issues dealt with in those genres are quite universal, while more general fiction deals with issues specific to age. That's IMO.

My audience is quite a bit more limited than most. I don't see many teens or children reading the novel I'm working on. And I don't see anyone that likes linear storylines with bad guys and good guys reading it either. Nor do I see math teachers, firefighters, secretaries, homeless people, train drivers, brewers, blacksmiths, navy personnel, postal workers, accountants, fast food workers, politicians, fishwives, farmers or anyone along those lines reading it. My point is that I don't see a lot of people being in my target audience, but I'm going to write it anyway. Do you know why? Because it's something I would like to read. And maybe philosophy students, acting students and theologians would enjoy it more than most (or at least I hope they would), but who's to say that a teenage girl with an Amazon account and a thing for unorthodox fiction won't enjoy it too?

Don't write for an audience. The audience will come to you, wherever your work ends up. Whether it's in the literary section, the sci-fi section, the chick-lit section or the discount book bin, your work will speak to whoever is supposed to listen.

...or something like that.

Sorry in advance for getting off-topic.

Icarus, I must say that your reference to Bob Dylan seems a bit... obscure. Sure, it's a good example for some things, even if I can't think of them at the moment, but I don't see it's relevance to style. And since you were saying "what's literary style", maybe I can clear that up for you.

Literary style is a style that imitates the classic authors: Rudyard Kipling, Shakespeare, Robert Louis Stevenson, and so on. It's not necessarily any more literary than other works, but merely follows the examples of the literary masters.

Commercial style is not any less literary than literary style, it's just what will sell well. The Harry Potter books are an example of a commercial style series: It sells very well. Similar to commercial style, pop style is a style that is very popular at the time. The downside to that is that by the time you write a pop style book, it may be unpopular already.

But just because a book is commercial or literary or pop does not mean that it doesn't have elements of the other styles in it as well. The definitions aren't concrete and are prone to changing. So no work isn't literary; it may just have another defining aspect that "literary" doesn't cover.

Everything has a niche. Some are bigger than others, and some are much more widely appealing than others. If you are considering writing as a career, you do need to consider the target audience. It becomes a business, and you need to make sure there is a market for it.

I write for me. If anyone else likes it thats just icing on the cake.