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I've just recieved my 21st rejection letter for The Shaman's Curse. I'll be revising the query letter, synopsis, and trying to polish the ms up even more and then I'll start sending it out again. I believe in this story. And its sequels.
Of course, right now is a tough time to try to sell a novel. Okay. But I can't do anything about that. All I can do is keep trying. I am not going to give up on this one.
However, it does make me start wondering about marketability in general.
The Shaman's Curse is sort of general fantasy. It doesn't fit into any of the niches that have developed in the genre. And it's 113,000 words.
From what I've read on agents' blogs, it seems that it might be easier to sell something a bit shorter. It also seems that many agents look for those subdivisions of the genre.
This makes me think that maybe my last WIP, working title Blood Will Tell, actually has a better chance once I do the revisions and polish it up. It's shorter--probably around 85,000 words when the revisions are done. And it's an urban fantasy with a fairly heavy overlay of paranormal romance.
Does anybody have some insight into what's actually selling these days?
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I know from reading several agents blogs that "high fantasy" isn't selling well although I am not entirely sure what high fantasy is. I think urban fantasy is more popular and even better if you go paranormal romance (romance is the top selling genre). But I don't think you should give up on Shaman's Curse (from what I hear 21 rejections is nothing, and remember you only need one yes).
This is advice I read from one of the agent blogs I stalk (Jessica at Bookends LLC). She says to query the book until you have a new book ready to query, then query the new book. She also suggests not writing sequels until you publish the first book in the series.
I think it is good advice. I suggest keep sending out queries for Shaman's curse and keep working on the Blood Will Tell.
[This message has been edited by MAP (edited October 06, 2009).]
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I do reader habit surveys at libraries and book stores, and online. I was in the library today and surveyed what's deepest on the wait lists. Picked up a copy of Peter Mathiessen's 2008 author revised and abridged edition of Shadow Country, which was originally titled "The Watson Trilogy" at a door-stop brick of 1500 pages, almost halved to 900 pages for the newest version.
Stephanie Meyer's 2005 Twilight has seventeen paper copies circulating in the regional system. The wait list is a minimum eleven deep for each copy. The tourist resort area bookstores carry it and have it prominently displayed. It's # 556 overall bestseller at Amazon, # 2 in teen horror books, # 7 in teen social issues fiction, # 22 in teen romance.
Here's a link to Amazon's science fiction and fantasy bestseller list, updated hourly.
Audrey Niffenegger's 2004 The Time Traveller's Wife is # 8 in science fiction and fantasy at Amazon at the time I checked. It's second deep on the wait list at the regional library hereabouts.
For up to the moment on what's selling new, I check publisher Web sites for their new releases, agent Web sites for their client's new releases, midlists, and backlists. Author Web sites for their new releases. The fall bookselling season just opened, generally, however, publishers' catalogs for the retail and wholesale bookseller trade come out in the spring. Manuscripts that are entering the pipeline now can expect an average two-year lag time before release.
quote:She says to query the book until you have a new book ready to query, then query the new book.
I think it is good advice. I suggest keep sending out queries for Shaman's curse and keep working on the Blood Will Tell.
Thanks. That's more or less what I plan to do, once I revise the query and synopsis again.
Blood Will Tell is currently resting before I go back to make the revisions. Even then, I won't completely abandon The Shaman's Curse.
quote:She also suggests not writing sequels until you publish the first book in the series.
From a marketability standpoint, I think this is good advice. However, I do think that I learned a lot during my struggles with the first sequel. And that I'm still learning from it, in the revisions that I'm contemplating for it. The second was a lot harder to write than the first. That, and sometimes a story just insists that I write it, right now.
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From my recent marketplace research, I'm sensing a titilating dirty little publishing secret, not overtly hidden, just not openly talked about, maybe in furtive whispers around the water cooler, in passing as snickering commentary.
Many publishing market trackers unequivocably point to romance as the number one fiction category seller, as much as half the titles in the past few decades. There haven't been any noteworthy high public exposure titles since the scandalous '60s breakout novel Valley of the Dolls (1966) by Jacqueline Susann. I haven't found much guidance in sorting out the romance field, so the titles I read tend to just be me keeping an eye on what's on the racks. Ho-hum formulaic, predictable, digressive, derivative, recycled themes and storylines. Yawn. No big deal.
But I've been hearing an inaudible buzz, so low key that I don't know if it's there at all or just the sound of blood flowing around my brain. There's something going on in unheralded, unadvertised, unpromoted, unpublicized romance circles. From author, to agent, to publisher, to reader, they're just not talking loud enough about their stables of reliably performing romance novels and novelists.
I found a name for the genre, out-of-category romance, but as a category it sweeps across the conventional named genres. I've found out the names of some of the authors, some hints on what the stories are about, what makes them so entertaining and appealing to their audiences. Scandalous secrets on the brink of revelation, brazen but otherwise everyday female leads of a variety of stock female characters transformed into larger than life ideals; lovable, rugged, sensitive, and fallible stock male characters also transformed in vivid ways, on stage sex scenes that are about the dramatic dynamics of relationships not about the sex, adult themes, language, and situations depicting adults with troubled lives, in short, R rated material.
The fruits of the Forbidden Fruit tree. Paradox upon paradox. Their marketplace successes rely largely on whispered parol promotion. They don't top bestseller lists, yet are steady bread-and-butter career-making staples for publishers, agents, and authors. Part of the appeal is that they're the kind of stories that no one wants anyone else to know they read. Huh, the very core of story's appeal: personal, private, individual, intimate, secret reading experiences, experiences enhanced by a desire to keep that reading selection personal, private, individual, intimate, a secret thrill. Go figure. Shh, don't tell anyone. And Providence forbid that literature actually siphons away television viewership, especially daytime soap operas.
[This message has been edited by extrinsic (edited October 06, 2009).]
quote:I found a name for the genre, out-of-category romance, but as a category it sweeps across the conventional named genres. I've found out the names of some of the authors, some hints on what the stories are about, what makes them so entertaining and appealing to their audiences. Scandalous secrets on the brink of revelation, brazen but otherwise everyday female leads of a variety of stock female characters transformed into larger than life ideals; lovable, rugged, sensitive, and fallible stock male characters also transformed in vivid ways, on stage sex scenes that are about the dramatic dynamics of relationships not about the sex, adult themes, language, and situations depicting adults with troubled lives, in short, R rated material.
Well, I don't know if my story is all that. In fact, I'm sure it's not. But it's interesting to note.
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