So I have a little bone to pick both from a reader and an author’s viewpoint. Here’s the scenario. A few years back I picked up my first medieval romance. We’re talking Anglo/Saxon conflict–a premise I love and would love to experiment with as a writer. I read it and was immediately addicted.
I’d found my favorite genre to read, and oddly it wasn’t what I wrote. Suddenly I’m only reading historicals, especially from that time period. I’m buying up everything I can. Then one day I can’t find anymore, I notice they’re not publishing as much. And the same thing with time travels, my other guilty pleasure. One day they were everywhere, the next I had to dig through the shelves at Half Priced books to find anything with the subject. They’d become the redheaded paperback.
It’s similar as a writer. I’m writing my book–the book of my heart, mind you–and the genre it would fit in has been banished to the planet Yesterday’s Trends. Well, for the time being. People tell you to write the book of your heart and it will sell.
Okay… are we sure about that? When I have a friend saying, “Oh, my own agent won’t even look at any of my contemporary work right now.” It kind, of makes me want to print my manuscript and use it to start a bonfire. A bonfire which I’ll roast marshmallows on while I plot my futuristic, erotic, giraffe shapeshifter.
Yes, it’s the way of the industry and I need to get used to it. Yes, trends loop around and my medievals and time travels will come back. (But I think with a more erotic edge nowadays.) So maybe this post is just me whining. Maybe I should just write the book of my heart, then put it aside and write something that will sell tomorrow. So when my editor/agent says ‘What else do you got’ a few years down the road, I’m ready.
What are your thoughts on this? On having absolutely control of the market you write and read for?
February 13th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
This is something that has been on my mind as well. My sci-fi/fantasy isn’t exactly the pinnacle of the market right now but it’s a beautiful story that needed to be told. Plus it’s also my first book and I highly doubt that I got everything right. LOL Since sci-fi isn’t a big seller right now, I’m wondering if I should hang onto the book and try to sell it later when sci-fi is a bit more popular or if I should try to ship it around now. I just don’t know. Shelli, maybe we should just go for it and see what happens?
February 13th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
Actually, Aura, I hear sci fi is on the rise! So you could be doing great!! And yes, let’s go for it
Plus, I’m writing a kinky sci fi right now. Hee hee.
February 13th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
Just because it’s the book of your heart, doesn’t mean it’s marketable. Yes books like that can sell, but it’s got to have a market or be a breakout book I think.
I’m not sure that makes sense. Take TCRA for example since you read the old opening and the new one. I know deep in my gut that the story I’m going to write now is much more marketable–but that makes it no less a book that’s important to me. Even if my agent hates it and it doesn’t get picked up by NY, I still know I’m writing a better book. In part because that first book went through so many edits and so many crit partners who didn’t have my best interest at heart.
February 13th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
That’s such a good point. “Just because it’s the book of your heart, doesn’t mean it’s marketable.”
I think nowadays you really do have to think marketability when you write a book.
February 13th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
And writing a marketable book doesn’t have to mean writing a book you don’t like or that your heart isnt’ into!
February 13th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
“futuristic, erotic, giraffe shapeshifter”
Oh. My. Holy. Jesus. Please don’t ask me to critique that one for you, hon.
February 13th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
Shelli, I think scifi is on the rise and historical really seems to be making a comeback too! I have heard recently that Romantic suspense is a hard sell right now, which is a problem for me. But I can write para or scifi or even historical as it turns out.
Write what you love is a fine approach if you aren’t interested in making a living. If you are, I think you have to be aware of the market and you have to be adaptable.
February 13th, 2007 at 8:44 pm
Crystal: Fine. You don’t want to read my giraffe shape shifter, than whatever, I’ll do what I want. LOL.
Lori: You’ve got great points too. I’d love to try my hand at a time travel or historical again. I’m attempting the sci fi now.
February 13th, 2007 at 10:44 pm
Book trends come and go just like clothes. Someone, somewhere WILL write the break-out novel and it’ll get snatched up by a NY house and the trend will start all over again. So, even it it doesn’t sell this year, or the next, sooner or later - it will!
February 14th, 2007 at 3:23 am
I have to agree with the write the story of your heart school. Mostly because I’m big on being true to who you really are. That work will not only be a better story but you’ll feel a hell of a lot more satisfied with every success it gains.
And exceptional writing is always in style. You just have to find that person who believes in you.
One more thing for the record, I’m a huge time travel fiend. LOVE THEM.
February 14th, 2007 at 3:55 am
Trends come and go but if you’re not writing what you want to write, it’s going to show in your writing. I don’t care what a good writer you are. If you’re writing something jsut to chase a trend (and incidentally, with the exception of e-publishing, it’s virtually impossible to chase trends, because by the time you write the story, shop it to agents, then your agent shops it to publishers, you sell, and then it comes out 18 months or more after that, so likely the trend is long gone by then anyway) then it’s likely that you don’t have the right passion for the subject. You could be a brilliant writer, but it will still be flat.
You may manage to sell a book or two to publishers during the “hot phase” but it’s unlikely you’ll sell another, especially once readers and critics get ahold of it.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. (And many well-known authors, agents, and publishers will tell you the same thing.)
LOL at the erotic shapeshifter giraffe!
And I don’t know why, but I can’t stand medievals. To each her own.
February 14th, 2007 at 5:24 am
Lyric: That’s true. One person changes the market. I could be that person! I could be the funny HOT sex girl. LOL.
Samantha: Yes… times travels are great. I think it’s because I secretly wish I could be whisked back in time. Before Bush. LMAO.
Amanda: I have to remember that part “it’s virtually impossible to chase trends”.
How funny, I’ve gone back and forth on this issue in just the comments section. But I’m finishing the single title I started out with and will shop it to agents. Fingers crossed.
February 14th, 2007 at 6:52 am
OMG! How did you know what my current wip is about a shapeshifting giraffe?
February 14th, 2007 at 7:08 am
Because I invaded your personal space and sucked the info from your brain. I know things Emma. I know…
February 14th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
I just had this conversation (jokingly) with the Engineer. And I think you’re right, Shelli. Yes, we need to keep an eye on the market, even when we have a story that begs to be written that doesn’t fit. Write it, love it, and hold it until the trends swing back around, then write something that might better suit what people want now.
Some people call that selling out. I call it eating.
February 16th, 2007 at 4:25 am
hrm. I write fantasy. It’s what I do best. I said last week I’m branching out…I have a futuristic fantasy that will land on my editor’s desk this week, and the second of my series in a week or two after that.
I plan to branch out into other genres, but that mysticism will always be evident.
The moral? I won’t write a book I don’t love. Whether it takes me into other genres or not is up to what stories come to mind.
Will I look at the market and say “omg! I have to write a scifi NOW”…um. No
But if I have a scifi idea I’ve wanted to try…I might choose then to do it. Subtle difference maybe. I dunno