Fiction designed to reach a broad audience through compelling plots, accessible prose, and strong narrative hooks.
Commercial fiction prioritizes storytelling that grabs readers and keeps them turning pages. It's built on clear narrative stakes, satisfying arcs, and prose that stays out of its own way. This isn't a dig at quality; some of the most technically accomplished novels on shelves are commercial fiction. The category just signals that entertainment and accessibility come first.
Most published fiction is commercial fiction, and understanding what makes it work is essential whether you're writing it or not. Commercial fiction teaches you how to create stakes, build tension, and deliver payoffs. Even literary writers benefit from studying its pacing instincts.
Short chapters, constant cliffhangers, and a puzzle-box structure that made it nearly impossible to put down, whatever critics thought of the prose.
First-person present tense creating immediacy, with life-or-death stakes that define commercial fiction's appeal.
Blends a murder mystery with a coming-of-age story, proving commercial fiction can carry lyrical prose when the plot stays strong.
Commercial fiction demands craft. A compelling plot requires careful structure, well-timed reveals, and characters readers care about.
Plot-driven doesn't mean character-shallow. The best commercial fiction gives readers protagonists they'd follow anywhere.
Even commercial fiction needs breathing room. Constant action exhausts readers. Vary your pacing to make the high points hit harder.
Write the first page of a story with one goal: make it impossible to stop reading. Use a ticking clock, an unanswered question, or immediate danger. Then read it to someone and watch their face when you stop. If they ask 'what happens next,' you nailed it.