That plan you had? The one where you become a midlist author, quit your day job, and somehow scrape by? It won’t work. Everybody has that plan.
Careers are only made at the edges. If you’re the most skilled, most interesting, most dedicated, most charismatic, most prolific, most empathic; if you stand for something, only then will people notice.
No one Googles “Who’s the most average writer of generic science-fiction.”
The only readers you can get, are on the lookout for something new, something original, fresh, and exciting. They are the early adopters. Everybody else has a core of their favorite authors already, or actively dislikes anything new.
You’re wasting your time trying to please the average crowd. They won’t even notice you’re there.
The only plan that works is the one that says, “I choose to stand for something. It might not work, but I’m willing to put in the work to see what happens.”
