Originally published at LonPrater.com. You can comment here or there.

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Joseph Paul Haines states his case, and I tend to agree with him, particularly when it comes to being a creative businessperson or hobbyist.  Should you consider ways to make your product more appealing to the masses?  Sure, consider away, and to the extent that it does not diminish your unique end product, knock yourself out.  But do not be a slave to the market’s current fetish.  Especially not under the mistaken idea that “once I’ve made my fortune writing stuff I don’t care much for, THEN I’ll have time and traction to write the weird little stories that only I could write.”   You’d darn well better care about the stuff you’re writing now–it’ll show if you don’t.

One point I think could have been elaborated on more in JP’s post was that there really is room for both in a career (or business or hobby).   But finding your niche should come first.  Build that audience.  Do one thing and do it really well. Later, if you are of a mind to, use the leverage created by your successful niche to branch out into other areas THAT MAKE SENSE and are consistent with what your niche expects.   Don’t make the mistake of assuming that just because you do one thing well, you can do anything else just as well and under the same business shingle.  Get a pen name (open or secret), but make sure that your brand actually stands for something.  (Remember HQ and how at the very end you could hardly tell if you were in a home improvement retailer,  a pet supplies store or a bulk discounter?)

But if you’re a creative person, I’m inclined to think you should be very careful about when in your career you  explore wildly different arenas under the same brand.  The decision to diversify should never be based solely on whether or not it will make you money.  There’s gotta be some other drive there, and I would think that established niches need some measure of protection from the new and experimental ones.  Don’t whore your brand name out.   If John Scalzi suddenly decided to start selling hand-knitted kitty booties instead of science fiction–well, maybe with his savvy and audience he could pull it off.  But it would be the exception to the rule that it is usually a  smarter idea to broaden your existing niche or create independent spin-offs than it is to just go adding in *random stuff you also sell* willy-nilly.

And there is another time that diversifying may be the best course as a creative businessperson.  When you are just starting out and can’t actually be called a creative businessperson yet because you your product base hasn’t really been defined or built a customer base yet.  Absolutely, consider yourself a creative businessperson (and for FSM’s sake, behave like a professional!) while you are still in the very earliest stages.  But at this point, I’d argue, what you’re doing isn’t so much diversifying your portfolio as DISCOVERING your niche. Experiment, find what works, try to understand why it works.  See where your bliss is taking you and how many folks want to come along for the ride. Then make damn sure you give them the ride of their lives–every single time.

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