I guess I didn't make it clear, when I said a writer who starts a trend is rarely (if ever) overtaken by those seeking to exploit that trend. By trend, I didn't mean a particular subject matter, such as wizards or vampires. I meant a fad for subject matter that is treated in a similar way to the trend-starter's work. Obviously wizards were written about before Rowling wrote her story. Vampires were written about before Meyer wrote hers. But suddenly, after these two, it seems like EVERYBODY wanted to write about boy wizards and teenaged high-school vampires. We have lots of people on this forum who seem to be attracted to these kinds of stories and want to write their own version. They're not attracted to the kinds of horrific vampires created by older writers such as Anne Rice and those before her. Instead, they want teenaged vampires that are hotter than ordinary boys and girls, but whom ordinary boys and girls can interact with and not suffer any real harm. And suddenly everybody puts a young apprentice wizard into their story somewhere. That's what I meant by 'trend.' I meant 'fad.' Nothing wrong with this, but I very much doubt that writers who follow the fad will surpass the original in terms of sales. In fact, by the time they get going and become really good writers, the fad will have moved on to something else. That's why I said it's probably best to write something original that you would love to read yourself, and forget about following trends if you want to be successful. Pick any subject matter you like, but be original with it. Be the next trend setter, not a clone of the last one.
