It’s hard to be value neutral about popularity, but I think it’s important for anyone with a product to sell to be able to set aside ego and look honestly at our markets.

Sure, we can (and do) rail against the injustice that [insert name of best selling writer here] is hugely popular, and we’re not.  It’s fun to pick apart the syntax and grammar in the latest blockbuster.

However. 

Once we’re done drawing mustaches and devil horns on the back cover photos of the top ten on NYT best seller list, it’s time to get back to work and look seriously at our own product and our own market.  Because if Steven King, John Grisham, and Dan Brown were all eaten by rabid weasels tomorrow, it wouldn’t really have any effect on my sales. (Oh, but imagine the YouTube videos…)

Taste is an intensely personal thing.  In…