Audience?

My husband would be an interesting character study. He tries to be supportive of the idea of writing for a living, but he does not understand how you may need uninterrupted time and solitude.

In my shareholders' meeting on Wednesday night, he agreed to ground rules, claiming to understand how serious I was about this, but I should have known. He does not take or support my current job of teaching high school English. He says things like "She doesn't have a real job," or "She works practically half-days." He does not realize all the hours I spend grading papers, planning lessons, making copies at copy machine.

Today as I am trying to type this simply posting, he is chatting away in one ear. At the beginning of the conversation, I didn't mind because he brought up a question I had been mulling over for months - "who is your audience?"

I have no idea. I know that some authors stick in one genre their whole life, others branch out in the same markets, and still others branch out in to several genres in different markets. I find it fascinating. One blogger advised in his post, "write what you read." Well, I am sure you can see from my Shelfari book case at the bottom of the blog, I read pretty much anything that I can get my hands on, and I am trying to branch out even more.

Another blogger suggested, "write to the audience you have the most contact with." I think that is pretty sound advice. I would be writing for my students, but as far as book ideas or even short story ideas, I don't have any.

My husband's advice, "Write for Oprah." I shot back a sarcastic "funny." I thought about writing for my child, but maybe that would narrow my market too much.

And can a writer be successful in several different genres? Or should they work on perfecting one before moving on to the next one? (I believe an editor suggested that in his blog.)

Difficult questions that must be answered soon.