Give The People What They Want?

I draw today's title from an old axiom of publishing, as I am presently contemplating the wisdom in it. It hasn't escaped me that the nature of what I write does not exactly feed into popular interests even within people very much like myself. I haven't done anything deliberately except to write consistently and to write about things that interest me. Should I be taking the sort of work I've turned out so far and shaping it so radically that it has no more than the essence remaining? I don't ask that with the intention that it sound like a ridiculous question. I just don't really know.

It occurred to me that it might be a little dense in terms of the language I employ. It's all too obvious to me that in writing and in conversation I deploy a number of words that leave the reader and listener either confused or suspecting that I'm making them up. Of course, they're not made up, and neither is my whole manner of speaking some pose to appear more intelligent than I am. Some time ago, I came upon websites that scan a text and grade it in terms of reading difficulty. They consistently rank my work as befitting the middle school student. As I understand it, that puts me a little bit ahead of newspapers and the like as far as that goes. I'm not terribly interested in any effort to make it any easier than that, but wouldn't know how anyway.

The tone of the pieces I write could bear some change. I tend to write while at home and in solitude, and that's when I'm at my most sober-minded and subtle. My gregarious, out-of-the-house side may well be my more appealing side, and thus more marketable. I don't tend to take marketing into account in the formulation of posts (trusting that if one does what they love, the rest will follow), but do make some minimal effort to be likeable. Those who know me will undoubtedly be quick to agree that any such conscious effort on my part is quite minimal. That aside, leaning towards a more popular and equally natural side of my personality could pay off.

What say you, readers? Ought I to change my ways for a broader appeal? This is not a vote or referendum of any kind, and nothing necessarily hinges on the expression of your opinions, but who knows? An emphatic enough declaration on the matter could very well reach me, compelling me to dumb it down and funny it up. I have never claimed to be impervious to compromises of principles, so speak now, or speak later- whichever. I don't stand on ceremony here.