Too Many Books Adhering to Murder Formula

I was walking through my local Books-a-Million the other day, wondering how all of these successful general-fiction writers come up with successful story plot lines. I entered one of the aisles, looked around to make sure that there wasn't anyone I might accidentally bump into or trip over (many B-a-M customers like to sit on the floor), and closed my eyes. And then reached over to my right and pulled out the first book I touched. It was about a serial killer. Placing it back on the shelf, I then walked down a couple of steps and repeated myself. So did the book I picked: another serial killer story.

I stopped the experiment and began to examine book after book. No, I wasn't in the mystery section, but most of the books had as their premise a murderer on the loose. And then it hit me: books are marketed nowadays according to formulae similar to how popular music is marketed and played on broadcast radio. And instead of the diversity of stories that should be available, we end up getting a relatively sparse number of very successful authors churning out minor variations of their own (and each other's) works, much like the annoying homogeneity of crap being passed as music on broadcast radio. Yuck...

So I wonder how many aspiring writers have eschewed the overworked serial murderer story line and tried writing material of a more offbeat nature, resulting in their stories either never being published or suffering poor promotion leading to their lack of exposure in major book outlets.

Maybe I should write a parody of these tedious and ultimately boring serial killer books, but try to sell it as a serious work and see what happens. A kind of literary Spinal Tap, if you will...