The Girl's Guide to Writing and Publishing

The Girl’s Guide to Writing and Publishing

In the Jul/Aug issue of Print magazine, Jami Attenberg criticizes chick-lit authors for not thinking outside of the box. Each book fits into a neat formula of a girl meeting two guys, one right and one wrong, and goes to her gay male friend for advice. Eventually her actions lead her to the right guy and the novel ends.
After Candace Bushnell released Sex and the City, and Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary, the chick-lit market skyrocketed. However, Attenberg says that while the market has skyrocketed, the chick-lit image has stayed the same. “The publishing industry loves to put its products into neat marketing boxes. Maybe over the next decade, chick-lit authors will learn how to punch their way out”. Attenberg has created a chart that links the similarities between around 30 books.
I think this article brings about an important question. How much do you listen, as the designer, to the creativity of a design and how much to what sells in the current market? Where do business and art meet?