It’s public knowledge that selling books is a business. Go figure, right? Selling anything is a business. I give you product, you give me money or another equivilent item in return…business transaction!

But that’s not quite what has my brain today. It’s close. But I’m not focused on the business side of writing. I’m focused more on where the balance is between commercialism and art.

In other words, how much of your story is for you, and how much is because you want it to sell?

I’ve worked in technology for many years. Enough that it shows my age. I’ve been part of good software development, bad software development, and floundering based on decision by committee. Believe it or not, software development is so very much like being creative with the hopes of making a sale (or, if you prefer, commercial art).

It all starts at the same place. Someone has an idea:
“I think it would be awesome if there were a video game for my phone where you could put square shaped blocks in a slingshot and fling them at action figures who would fight back with giant lightening balls.”

Awesome. Fantastic. This is where things start to vary by situation.

If the person with the idea doesn’t have the skills to make it happen, they tell everyone who they can think of who does, and hope someone else can work with them. Story ends there. Kind of a boring story, really. Sorry about that.

If the person with the idea also has the skills to make it happen, they will either:

• Start writing the application and fill in the blanks as they go, or
• Start writing down exactly how they want the application to work, outlining each individual step, possible scenarios, issues, etc, and then develop from there.

Once this is done, there are another couple of options:

• Release it to the world
• Ask a couple of friends to try it, make changes based on their suggestions, and release it to the world
• Ask other programmers to look at it, both the final product and the program itself, make changes based on their suggestions, and release it to the world
• Look around for a reputable distributor who has experience testing and marketing, and agree to let them have a portion of the profits in exchange for their expertise helping you refine the game.

One of these things is not like the others. Releasing it to the world without showing it to anyone else first is fantastic. Right? It means you get artistic freedom. Your game is yours and yours alone. You wrote it for you. It does what you want it to do. It works on your computer/phone/tablet. And it’s the best thing ever made in the history of the world.

So why aren’t people buying it?

Does it matter? You wrote it for you, right? This isn’t about them, it’s about artistic integrity.

On the other hand, if you go with either of the other three options, you’re dealing with feedback. You’re asking one or more other people their opinions. Fantastic, right? Once you implement all their suggestions, you’ll have the most marketable game ever. Everyone will want to buy it. You’ll make millions.

Except, Person A wants you to change the squares to marshmellows, Person B thinks cannons are better than slingshots and Person C is anti-technology and thinks it would be better as a board game. With flowers. And rainbows. Don’t forget, Person D hates it. Completely. But they hate everything, including the cash gift you gave them for Christmas because that’s what they asked for. They were upset it was in large bills.

And none of that quite fits with your original artistic vision.

Suddenly you have to balance it all. Some of it is easy. Person D won’t be happy no matter what. Their words hurt the most. So it’s tempting to listen to them and let them crush your spirit. Don’t. Cross their opinion off your list. You can wallow in it, you can let it nag you for a day or two. But then walk away.

Person C isn’t your target market. Yeah, a board game sounds fantastic. But it’s not what you’re creating. It’s temping to listen to them because it’s such a great idea. Why didn’t you think of that? But you didn’t. Your idea is a video game. Cross their opinon off your list. Keep it in the back of your mind if you’d like. Maybe next time you can create a board game. But remember, that’s not your goal here.

Person A & B, they’re a little tougher. They don’t think the entire story needs to be changed, just little tweaks. This is where you have to do that tough thing any developer artist deals with. Trust your instinct. Will marshmellows really make the game better, or was your gamer hungry? Do you need cannons, or is your tester just more interested in violent games?

You can’t discount them just because their opinion doesn’t quite fit with the original idea, but you can’t use their input just because they gave it to you.

I’m all for flipping a coin. Or taking a vote. And then realizing the results are exactly the opposite of what I want and going in the other direction after all. How do you decide whether to side with your art or with marketability?