From Jennifer Weiner, author of (among other things), In Her Shoes, a great bit of advice for writers:
So now you’re in your twenties. You’ve got your liberal arts degree. You’ve got a job that’s put you smack in the center of the wild, bustling world. You’re writing – of course you’re writing – because a writer writes. And perhaps you’ve started to think that it’s time to attempt a novel. Perhaps you’re looking around with awed and slightly covetous eyes at the stacks of books about Young Women with Romantic Woes and Weight Problems. Or the neighboring piles of accounts of Young Men with Family Tragedies. Or how Harlequin has launched a line of Sassy Single Girl in the City books. There’s a market for this stuff, you think, and you set down at night and try. Don’t do it.
Tell the story that’s been growing in your heart, the characters you can’t keep out of your head, the tale that speaks to you, that pops into your head during your daily commute, that wakes you up in the morning. Don’t write something just because you think it will sell, or fit into the pigeonhole du jour. Tell the story you want to tell, and worry about how to sell it later (more advice on that to come). And also….