Authors often don’t spend much time watching TV. We rather be creating a story than watching one. However, keeping up with what’s popular can help you know which viewers might also enjoy your story. That, in turn, may help you find places to promote your work. Not all avid TV watchers are readers, but a certain percentage will be. The idea is to find people who like the sort of characters and stories you’re producing.

Writing a spin-off of a popular TV show is risky for any number of reasons. On the other hand, copycats often do well, if they’re quality work. If they’re not, you’ll probably be labeled unoriginal or worse.

I recently was told about a TV show on NetFlix which turned out to be uncomfortably similar to my WIP. I’m still trying to figure out what to do about that. It would be very easy to accuse me of copying elements of the show when those parts in my book were actually written before I even discovered the show!

Hopefully, fans of the show would enjoy my story. On the other hand, if they thought I did it as a spin-off, I could look bad. In this case, I don’t think I’ll market directly to viewers of that show.

What do you think?