Today on Twitter, several writers and I have been debating the topic of what will and won't sell in today's marketplace. Since I've been querying Wicked Illusions over the past seven months, five agents have requested the full manuscript, and two requested a partial-- which both turned into full requests. All of these requests (except for one particularly mean rejection and one agent yet to respond) have ended in a "nice" rejection:
"Your writing is beautiful and the story is great, but I don't think there's room for it in today's overcrowded market."
"Your prose is fantastic! I loved the main character, but unfortunately, I don't think the story is a topic I can sell."
"I really enjoyed this manuscript, but I'm going to have to pass." <---- This agent didn't even give me a reason why she was "passing," but I assume if she was being honest and "enjoyed" it, then she didn't think she could sell it to a publishing house.
I COMPLETELY understand that an agent's job is not just to praise your work and hope it sells. They are kind of like literary lawyers. They negotiate a deal for something YOU did-- if you don't get paid, they don't get paid. It's all a business transaction.
I also know that when choosing an agent, you need to find someone that IS in love with your work and is confident that he or she can sell it and make all your dreams come true. (They're also like fairy godmothers.) So it's kind of like choosing a spouse. You have to find someone that will love you and the twisted inner workings of your brain forever, no matter what the market is doing at the moment. He or she needs to be so confident in your abilities that no matter the trends, they can guide you and help you and sell ALL of your books. All this is fine and dandy and is something every writer hopes to find (though some agent/author relationships end in "divorce" just like marriages).
But the problem is, what if BEFORE you find your agent-soulmate you keep writing in the "I can't sell this" genres? We already know that books about vampires, werewolves, and dystopian societies are dead, but today, I was surprised to find that books involving ghosts and dead people is the new no-no. I can't think of very many ghost YA novels that are published, so this must be the next "new trend" that's pending for future release.
On twitter, I asked if anyone had any idea as to what there IS room for in the YA market, and the answers were:
- Sci-Fi
- Contemporary
- Anything Funny
- Thrillers
Now, my WIP is Sci-Fi, so WOO HOO!!! I'm in the "in crowd"! BUT it will probably be five to six months before I'm ready to send out queries for it, and I'm terrified that by the time I send it to agents, Sci-Fi will be the next YA no-no.
I know you can't chain yourself to trends and that you need to write what you love, but how will I ever get an agent if he or she sees the topic and immediately deletes my query because the marketplace is already full of this sort of thing?
I know what y'all are going to say: "Don't worry, if the writing is good, there's an agent out there somewhere that will love your work and pick it up."
And maybe that's true. But it sure is an aggravating process to get to that point. I guess that's why artists are temperamental, huh? *shakes fists*
Hi there! Saw a RT for your blog and really enjoyed this post. It's so hard to "just write" when the trends seems to be lurking at your back. Best of luck!
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely a hard to concentrate on writing when your afraid that you'll waste an entire year's (or more!) worth of work on something will never sell just because someone beat you to it.
DeleteGlad you stopped by the blog, and thank you!
*you're. Blogger should really let me edit my own comment. LOL
DeleteThe opposite can be true as well. You write something that publishers swear up and down they want, and yet you hear back that they're just not sure how to market it, since it's so unlike other things they publish. Which is pretty much where I'm at right now and it sucks too, lol.
ReplyDeleteI think the bottom line is just to write stories you care about, because odds are, someone else will too. And if the market is "saturated" just work on the next thing you feel passionately about and put the old book in the drawer. The market will swing back around, and by that time you'll have an agent with the new book.
very true, Laura! As long as you write something you love, one day there WILL be a market for it again. And then you have a novel already written for that particular trend. Wouldn't it just be easier if there were no "trends", though? *dreams* LOL
DeleteHi Stefanie - I also caught your blog post via twitter. Love the subject of the post. I keep an eagle eye on query related topics such as #10Queriesin10Tweets and #AskAgent because I want to know what's in the *now*. Like you I'm in the process of completing my work and getting it ready for query but I worry what will happen when I reach that point and all the agents that I plan to query don't feel that the market is ready for my high fantasy novel.
ReplyDeleteAnother issue is that I rarely see high fantasy spoken about in YA tweets by agents or writers. It's like it doesn't exist anymore. Everything is contemporary or urban. And perhaps that's because most of the literature released currently is in that market. It's quite confusing to navigate.
But it has led me to be quite picky when searching for potential agents - aside from my other qualifications I look for someone's submission requirements seem to lean towards accepting high fantasy or all sub-genres of YA.
A good majority of the agents I've queried have accepted all sub-genre's of YA. But I've found that ones that did request my manuscript specifically stated that they like YA fantasy. Even though I haven't gotten an agent for my completed manuscript, I've learned SO MUCH from the querying process. (This was the first manuscript I ever queried). I know which agents I like, which ones are nice, which ones always give a "yes" or "no" rather than a non-answer, which ones represent authors I admire, etc. So for my next project, I know exactly who to go to. I'm hoping that it will be a little less stress-inducing than it was the first time. *fingers crossed*
DeleteThanks for stopping by my blog, and GOOD LUCK to you in your querying adventures!
algardis - check out Hannah Bowman. She's looking for high fantasy: http://michelle-krys.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/yamg-agent-series-hannah-bowman-of-liza.html
DeleteStephanie, my first book was a YA guardian angel thing. Yeah, I know :D I ignored everything and wrote something strange that I still don't quite know how to categorize now for the second book.
And bingo, I suddenly had an agent.
Maybe it will sell, and maybe it won't. Maybe if it sells, the publishing house will want my sci-fi WiP as the second book. Or maybe they'll want the contemporary boy POV romance, or maybe the next weird idea that I have. Maybe they hate them all and I have to come up with something else.
I guess we all have to have something else to offer no matter where we are in this process. It's such a positive sign that you're getting requests. You're doing much better than my first ms ever did!
Four things get you published: talent, craft,timing, and a little luck. The only pieces of that you truly have control over are the talent and craft.I think you can't bow to trends one way or the other because they change too quickly. Write the story you're passionate about...keeping in mind whether or not it's been done a lot before you came along--and whether or not your take will be fresh enough to warrant committing yourself to drafting, but not obsessing over it. Stephen King once said that if he'd submitted Carrie six months before or after when he actually did, it would've probably gotten rejected. It wasn't soley his talent or his ability to predict the market that got him published, it was a combination of things. This is scary, this is out of our control, but it is what it is. Write the best story you can. Because publishing one book won't mean you now have an eye for what sells or an in no matter what. You're only as good as your last book and it's sales. Concentrate on the writing and leave the rest or it'll make you crazy:) Can you tell I"m worrying over this stuff too? *grins*
ReplyDeleteYes, it's tough out there. All you can do is write what you love - make the trend rather than following it!
ReplyDeleteHi, I found you through Twitter. I like your posts. I'm just starting out, and love reading about people's experiences with publishing. I think you bring up a good point, you can't write to the trend, especially if you are following the traditional path--what with the time lag involved.
ReplyDeleteSounds like what you are doing is working. I'll be following. Good luck!