Faulkner thought that Hemingway was so popular (compared to him, at the time they were both alive) because Hemingway set the bar so low for his own work. Faulkner’s favorite of his own writing was where he aimed the highest, no matter how far he fell short. He called them his most splendid failures.
Your competition aims for mass appeal and gets it. But you should aim for a more discerning audience, and must intend to, because you want to write for a smarter, more selective audience. Let your competing writers get away with more because his audience has a pallet only for what is commonly provided. Soar above what is common.
And it is moments like this where literary trivia can be useful, even buoyant, that make my day worthwhile.
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