On the Writing Teen Novels blog, author Beth Revis (“Across the Universe”) confessed that she analyzed the market and then sat down to write a book that would definitely get published:
“…I was clever. Too clever.
That was the book I wrote with the intent of doing everything right–and the result was that I did it all wrong. That book had no soul…And it was rejected soundly. So I sat down and decided to write something else. Something different. I didn’t care AT ALL about whether it was right or wrong. I only wanted to write the thing that I cared about writing.
…That was the book that sold.”
She also revealed she wrote ten novels before the one that started her career and became a New York Times best-seller.
Here's the moral of the story:
"If I can only say one thing to you, it’s this: make mistakes. Do the things you fear. Don’t try to be like everyone else. Care more about the story than the market. Okay, that’s a lot of things. But it all comes down to this: be true to yourself."
(for friendly guidance in writing your own book, get "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)