How many of us do actual market research before starting our novels? What I mean by this is does anyone come up with an outline of a novel and then go to the local book shop or library to see if the proposed novel will be in with chance against what is already there?
Interesting question. I've heard this given as what us new writers should do - research a market before we start to see if there's any interest in what we're intending to write.
That's all very well, but it seems to me to promote writing as a commercial exercise rather than as something we really want to do for itself.
I suppose it makes sense if your ambition is to be published, and maybe it's not really meant to appear as 'write something to suit a market, rather than what you want to write about.' But it does, and I wouldn't really want to write that way. On the other hand, I already know there's a market for the historical period I write, because I read it!
Slight rephrase of question: does anyone think it's worth doing the above?