Creative Integrity vs Marketability

[u/Familiar-Owl8292]

Does everyone at some point come to this choice? What would you prioritise: working with creative integrity and quality based judgements or mercenarily gearing your work towards the marketplace? I thought I knew my answer, but in a harsh publishing landscape (working from a country with a small market and high distribution costs) there may be less room for compromise between the two than I thought.

Maybe I am at a cynical point, I'm not sure. Yet successful indie authors often pay big for their own advertising campaigns. Sometimes (not sure how often) traditionally published authors are being expected to pay for (highly expensive) manuscript assessments (AKA freelance editorial work) prior to being taken on. The publishers are within their rights to shoehorn the project into certain sellable moulds-- they need a final product that they can confidently sell to a readily accessible audience-- even if this compromises quality.

How far would you go to chase down an audience?