I read the “Soapbox” editorial on the last page of the Publishers Weekly (PW) July 30th issue, and though I felt for Linda Konner, it vindicated what I’ve found out myself over the years about the publishing business. Linda states that the publishing industry is not about creating trends, it’s about following them. She talks of her own misadventures in publishing a relationship book that everyone excitedly told her she and her non-married mate, Peter, should write and publish--but no one takes her up on it once she and Peter do it! The publishing world finds it a hard sell. Not sure what to do with it. It’s not HOT. No one wants to read about love without marriage. Linda states that even today, women still want to get married and live with husbands.
Several years ago I found out similar with my work. Editors and agents all said they were looking for edgy and unique voices, just like in Linda and Pete’s case, but they all seem to turn down my work--and not for bad writing (believe, they’ll tell you this, and I have been told that in the early days; but even beyond that I’ve also found books will be published even if the writing is not great, so there’s still hope for me and my whimpering kind!), but because it’s too different. They don’t know where to put it (even though I suggest supernatural, horror, or metaphysical genres, depending upon what it is I’ve written). I have been told my writing is good (see second previous parenthetical). My most recent work, a supernatural mass murder mystery set in small town south Florida, was recently rejected by an editor at William Morrow. She said my writing was very good and that she loved my “...intense atmospheric qualities; they pulled me right in,” but she was bothered by the historical element I wove into the story and the deaths of so many elderly people. She just wasn’t sure my historical element and so many elderly deaths had mass market appeal. Because of this she hadn’t fallen in love with the premise enough and passed. Okay, perhaps it was just “taste issues,” I can go with that, but there’s still the part where she wasn’t SURE about mass market appeal. WAS. NOT. SURE. If the writing was as good as she says...and we all know it’s all about MARKETING...
While I respect her opinion, and metaphysical issues notwithstanding (I just might not be ready for one reason or another, I don’t believe in myself enough, or it might do more harm than good...), it’s stuff like this that is bothersome. I routinely hear all the talk of the publishing industry looking for new, fresh, edgy. Well, this manuscript is all of the above. It’s quite edgy and dark (yet redeeming), I haven’t seen any works based upon, or handled as I do in my premise (except for maybe one below I have yet to check out; keep reading). And it’s fresh in both senses of the word, if you’ll pardon my manuscript’s occasional wickedness. But I hear this a lot and not only with me but with other writers: though the publishing world talks the talk, they do NOT walk the walk. They want something new and edgy ONLY IF IT’S BEEN DONE BEFORE AND HAS A PROVEN TRACK RECORD.
Think vampire novels.
Good frigging LORD, would someone just PLEASE whack a stake into that genre, and MOVE ON?
Stories like mine that deal with reincarnational issues, show a little depth and require some participative reader thought just aren’t good enough for worldwide reading public. You know the one...the one that doesn’t like to be told what to read, what to do...prefer to make up their own minds...are fiercely independent souls...like to see some depth to life and world peace?
So now I read that M.J. Rose, erotic thriller writer, has out her newest, titled, The Reincarnationist (it was even given a starred [unique effort] review in the July 9 issue of PW). Okay, Publishing World, there’s one in the exact same vein as mine (as discovered from the review)...now go ahead and give me a try, dang it!
If you would kindly venture to the link below, to my website’s Recent News webpage, and scroll down to Novel Updates, you’ll see reader quotes I’ve garnered from some of those very same “mass appeal” elements just talked about. People in related media and fields to which I can easily PLATFORM, market, and sell. Heck, I even already have an adapted screenplay.
Sigh.
Or it could all just be a ordinary case of sour grapes.
