Steampunk

Steampunk is very hot right now, and agents are seeing a lot of it subbed to them. I am one of at least 3 new YA Steampunk authors who have a release in the next twelve months. The thing is, by the time you finish writing the book, who knows where the trend might be. Though, if it makes you feel better, I have a friend who's been editing her YA Steampunk with her agent for months, they still haven't gone on submission, and clearly her agent thinks there's still plenty of time to still sell it.

So basically it boils down to the same thing, write what you want to write. Don't chase trends, because you can't predict where things will go.

Don't chase trends, because you can't predict where things will go.

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This.

Suzanne Collins didn't sit down and say "I'm writing YA dystopia to start a trend!"

She had an idea, developed it, and wrote it. The fact that it became wildly successful years later and started a trend was complete accident.

So basically, don't worry about trends, just worry about making your story the best it can possibly be.

They say dystopia is on its way out and steampunk is getting hotter.
But I'm not an insider, it's just what I heard. I do see more steampunk than usual among the new releases.

I think the main problem with chasing trends is that what you see in the deals (not even mentioning the book stores) is a little behind what's being bought right now. As for releases, the current hot sellers were bought at least 6 months ago, most likely 1-2 years ago, and were written and subbed at least a few months before that.

I wonder how some people manage to guess the trends so finely: like, Toothpaste says "agents are seeing a lot of it [steampunk] subbed to them"--how did those authors know it was the right moment to write a steampunk YA novel? It can't be a mere coincidence, can it, that the mss flocked to agents now, not in 2009, not in 2013?

For me it was just sheer coincidence. I had written an adult Steampunk book back in 2008, and hadn't written the genre for several years. Then I came up with what I thought was a cool idea and I thought, "You know, I should revisit Steampunk again, this would work perfectly with my idea." And it went from there.

I don't know how the general zeitgeist works. It's a mysterious thing. I do know that I sold my book in 2010, and Steampunk was definitely out there but not nearly as popular as it became in 2011. I think the reason you see agents getting a lot of Steampunk now is that it, for whatever reason, has become popular in the general culture (and why it has, well there's a lot of speculation around that . . . but no definite answers). People are thinking, "Hey that's a cool idea" and going with it. It doesn't mean they are necessarily jumping on trends (though I am sure some are), but rather that they hadn't thought of Steampunk before and they find they rather like it.

It's rather fun.

It's coincidence for me, too. I started writing something last April Fool's Day when we were Steampunk'd here, and the characters wouldn't leave me alone until I finished their story. I've gone through a round of edits with my agent, and am waiting to see what she thinks of them, so not yet on submission. However, I've seen several mentions of Steampunk as something being actively sought.

While I do agree, of course, that it's impossible to try and *plan* on catching trends, I understand the OP's hesitation at launching into a huge project if the market has already fizzled.

We can't pretend that editors and agents don't get tired of seeing certain stories. I have a friend who started a gorgeous dystopian novel years ago, long before the dystopian boom. She's trying to get an agent now, and nearly every one has praised her writing, but declined because the market is too saturated. Given stories like that, it does make me bristle a little when people proclaim that you should ignore trends. (Not suggesting anyone in this thread has specifically said that, but lots of writers do.)

We do need to be aware of trends. It's part of the business. BUT, of course, we shouldn't base every choice on trying to catch them, since they do shift and fizzle in a way no one can predict.

Now, as for steampunk, I agree with others that it's far from saturated. Right now . . .

You make an excellent point Renee. That does happen. But the thing is, how do you know when the market will get saturated? How do you know that even if it is, yours wouldn't be that book that would reinvigorate the genre? And just because it might become harder to sell such a work, it doesn't = impossible. There might be paranormal romance fatigue out there, but it's still being bought and sold.

For me personally it takes a lot of time to come up with that next idea I am willing to devote months to to write. It's not the same with everyone to be sure, and if you are the kind of author who has tons of ideas, then maybe paying attention to trends does make a bit of sense. But for me, and authors like me, we just have to write what we want to write. We don't always have the luxury of choice.

And in the end, because you can't really predict anything in this biz, I think it's okay that that's the case .

Toothpaste said:

I don't know how the general zeitgeist works. It's a mysterious thing. I do know that I sold my book in 2010, and Steampunk was definitely out there but not nearly as popular as it became in 2011. I think the reason you see agents getting a lot of Steampunk now is that it, for whatever reason, has become popular in the general culture (and why it has, well there's a lot of speculation around that . . . but no definite answers). People are thinking, "Hey that's a cool idea" and going with it. It doesn't mean they are necessarily jumping on trends (though I am sure some are), but rather that they hadn't thought of Steampunk before and they find they rather like it.

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That sounds pretty logical, like an ideavirus. xd I actually had a bit of that with my old half-written dystopia. I ran out of steam and then I heard the market was completely saturated, so everything added up and sort of fizzled out. Then I heard about YA Sci-Fi and thought, wow, I haven't read any YA Sci-Fi books before [it was some time ago]. It sparked an idea for a huge revision, I changed the setting, the time period, and it is now a sort of a Sci-Fi thriller. And it's a better story that way. Even though I had to cut out a lot, it's almost like writing a totally new book, but I like it more now.

Cyia said:

It's coincidence for me, too. I started writing something last April Fool's Day when we were Steampunk'd here, and the characters wouldn't leave me alone until I finished their story. I've gone through a round of edits with my agent, and am waiting to see what she thinks of them, so not yet on submission. However, I've seen several mentions of Steampunk as something being actively sought.

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I even remember an old thread where you said it, too--I think it was a few months ago. About steampunk. And maybe gaslamp fantasy, or "softer science" steampunk will also rise, since after Cassandra Clare's series there seems to be more new releases, whereas before there was Incarceron and... I don't remember anything else, though there had to be.

Renee Collins said:

While I do agree, of course, that it's impossible to try and *plan* on catching trends, I understand the OP's hesitation at launching into a huge project if the market has already fizzled.

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It seems a just-shrivelled market is the worst situation for a sale. A market that's not too popular might flare up (like, well, steampunk), a steady market might have a lot of authors but it can also afford a bit of a risk related to the new ones, but a market that has already passed its peak and done so a short time ago isn't likely to rise up again soon.

Toothpaste said:

For me personally it takes a lot of time to come up with that next idea I am willing to devote months to to write.

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*bangs head against wall*
I have ideas. Tons of ideas. Right now I have plans for about three different YA urban fantasy series, one ghost/paranormal series, four stand alone suspense/contemporaries, a fantasy series, a Sci-Fi series... but I'll need to live forever to write them, because it takes me a long time to get from start to finish. If I were able to go from idea to submission in, say, 2 or 3 months, I'd totally do trend hopping.

My agent and I are planning on going on submission with my sorta-steampunk novel pretty soon. It was definitely hot when I was querying it, I had over a 50% positive response rate. Agents were very interested, and my agent has a pretty decent sized list of editors she thinks it's a good fit for.

That said, we're calling mine steampunk, but it doesn't fit the category exactly. It's more science fiction that happens to take place in the Victorian/Edwardian era, less alt-universe/steam power/other notable steampunk elements. It's also not something I wrote to trend. I started writing it over two years ago and it's just the way the story worked out.

I think it's smart to keep up on the trends, but I also think that all editors really want is good books. If they like it and they think readers will like it, they'll buy it.

maybegenius said:

That said, we're calling mine steampunk, but it doesn't fit the category exactly. It's more science fiction that happens to take place in the Victorian/Edwardian era, less alt-universe/steam power/other notable steampunk elements. It's also not something I wrote to trend. I started writing it over two years ago and it's just the way the story worked out.

I think it's smart to keep up on the trends, but I also think that all editors really want is good books. If they like it and they think readers will like it, they'll buy it.

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Good luck.
And yes, the genre thing. I saw a list of MG-YA steampunk recs some time ago, and the way MG seemed to be more "classic steampunk" than YA was pretty curious. For example, Cl0ckwork Ang$l (YA) is closer to Victorian Gothic fantasy, just like Mag1c Under Gla$$. Whereas MG--Lev1athan, A1rborn--featured more typical steampunk, fascinated with technology and adventure. The subgenre of Sailpunk is almost exclusively MG.

My main concern with straight steampunk is that steam has been around for a LONG time and it's never really Caught Fire. People are interested in it and there's a huge following on the internet and crafty people love it, but the biggest steampunk hits in the last year or so have been, IMO, things like the Ritchie Sherlock Holmes movies where it's only a part of what's going on.

I love steampunk and I think it's great. But I have for years and years and it's never quite exploded. Even though I want it to. I reeeeally want it to. It just... hasn't.

Then again, people have been writing about vampires and werewolves for decades and we all know what happened there... And dystopian? Old news, but Collins brought it home. Steam might never happen, or maybe it's just waiting for the right thing.

I just sort of worry that the longer all these half-steam things crop up, people might get tired of it before it's even become "a thing" in its own right.

I think hard SF/Fantasy in general tends to be niche. The big SF/Fantasy successes usually have cross-over appeal: HARRY POTTER, TWILIGHT, HUNGER GAMES etc. There is a grounding in the real world, or at least the familiar.

My point? This is why something like SHERLOCK is so popular, it's not STEAMPUNK OMG !!!! It's a story that has Steampunk elements.

Now this doesn't mean that hard SF Steampunk can't also be popular, witness LEVIATHAN by Westerfeld. But I think in general it's going to be a tough sell to sell something that is Hard SF/Fantasy.

Also. I know what you mean. People have been joking about how Steampunk is always the "next big thing" but it never happens. However, I really think we're getting there. Heck Justin Bieber did a Steampunk music video, there was a Steampunk THREE MUSKETEERS, during Halloween this year there were pre-made Steampunk costumes, even one of the major department stores in NYC (can't remember which - but it was one like Barney's) had a Steampunk Christmas window display.

More and more when I tell people that my book is Steampunk Charlie's Angels without the Charlie, people actually know what Steampunk is. I used to have to 100% of the time define it, and lately it's more like 50/50.

So these are just casual observations, but I do think Steampunk might very well be in the position to finally be a trend .


ETA: It was Macy's. Check it out! http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/macys-3d-and-steampunk-inspired-holiday-windows

Indeed.

If it happens there will be pros and cons, like with most things. And in your particular case if it trends too soon you run the risk of dealing with the over saturation thing that started this thread.

I was simply responding to the argument that Steampunk has supposedly been the next big thing for a while, and the implication by jmlee that therefore there's no guarantee that it will be this time.

And it might still not happen. Who knows. But I have never seen Steampunk so visible before ever.

In regards to the dangers of steampunk becoming the next oversaturated trend, its how you differentiate your steampunk from all the others that really makes the difference as well. What's unique about it. I'm seeing all these steampunk queries on forums and blog contests lately, and the problem isn't that they're steampunk, its that from their queries at least, they all feel the same. It's all London and mechanical war machines and airships....and THAT'S the problem, the sameness of so many submissions, when there's so much more that could be done with steampunk than just airships and war machines.

And that goes for all oversaturated trends, really. I have a couple friends who sold dystopians recently, long after the majority of agents and editors were all saying they were burned out on dystopians. But they approached familiar subject matter from a radically new angle and that's what makes all the difference. Dystopian fiction has always been around and it always will be around. An agent's not going to turn away the next 1984 because it's dystopian - but its the sameness of so many dystopian submissions that lead to burnout, not the genre itself. When every dystopian book they see has the population decimated by a mysterious virus, when every post-apocalyptic book is about zombies, when every sci-fi book is about genetically engineered superteens, that's the problem with trends. Writers latching on to specific elements and repeating them ad nauseam.....but really all that means is an opportunity to make your 'trend' book stand out all the more by highlighting different elements than the norm.

KalenO said:

In regards to the dangers of steampunk becoming the next oversaturated trend, its how you differentiate your steampunk from all the others that really makes the difference as well. What's unique about it. I'm seeing all these steampunk queries on forums and blog contests lately, and the problem isn't that they're steampunk, its that from their queries at least, they all feel the same. It's all London and mechanical war machines and airships....and THAT'S the problem, the sameness of so many submissions, when there's so much more that could be done with steampunk than just airships and war machines.

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That's my general thought on it too. You get room to be generic when you're one of few querying an unusual sub-genre, because the genre choice makes it stand out. You don't get any room for generic if you're querying a trend, because you won't stand out among the dozens of others.

But for someone with an angle, the trend is likely to get a good advance and have a decent chance of selling to readers. So if you have that unique edge, go for it.

Polenth said:

That's my general thought on it too. You get room to be generic when you're one of few querying an unusual sub-genre, because the genre choice makes it stand out. You don't get any room for generic if you're querying a trend, because you won't stand out among the dozens of others.

But for someone with an angle, the trend is likely to get a good advance and have a decent chance of selling to readers. So if you have that unique edge, go for it.

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Word to you both.

Personally, I could consider both of the projects that my agent is currently working on partially steampunk, but, you know, with "a twist." And it would be really easy to make either of them more or less steampunk depending on what an editor wants to see, if that were a concern.

I didn't find much of a difference when I was querying agents, though, when I used the steampunk buzzword. People were more interested in the main category (western or fantasy-meta, respectively) and the steam part was more of a garnish than the main course.

Maybe we can all approach it from every angle and there will be a delicious center of it all when we're done...

Windcutter said:

Good luck.
And yes, the genre thing. I saw a list of MG-YA steampunk recs some time ago, and the way MG seemed to be more "classic steampunk" than YA was pretty curious. For example, Cl0ckwork Ang$l (YA) is closer to Victorian Gothic fantasy, just like Mag1c Under Gla$$. Whereas MG--Lev1athan, A1rborn--featured more typical steampunk, fascinated with technology and adventure. The subgenre of Sailpunk is almost exclusively MG.

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Thank you!

When I was querying, I got one very interesting comment back from an agent that really stuck with me. She said she thought my MS had appeal because it combined the adventure feel of MG with the more mature tone and elements of YA. I thought that was a really interesting and cool comment and it made me think a lot about how I'd made things play out -- I *had* intended to have a more adventure-y feel to it because those are the types of books I like, and I also intended to have the more mature themes because I like those, too. So I unintentionally stumbled on a combo that worked. Food for thought.

I agree with Toothpaste in that I think a lot of the standouts are blends of "reality" and speculative rather than a hard turn into a specific genre. Even so, we're seeing more and more variety and readers are finding there's something for everyone. I think it's a really cool time to be a YA writer.

We didn't call Masque steampunk during the submission process at all, and it wasn't part of the pitch. (Masque was subbed in an odd way, in that it was mentioned in an agency newsletter and then editors requested it) Sometimes, when people ask about the book it's how I tell them it's post-apocalyptic AND historical. (steampunk elements are not a big part of the story).

I do see the term steampunk used pretty liberally in official descriptions/marketing stuff, so it must be a draw for some demographics.

I'm a write what you love person, but I do understand that investing lots of time into something and then being told that it's dead in the water because of what it is genre-wise would be frustrating. But you have to take the risk, and or be prepared to call it something else (speculative history).

Just thinking out loud . . . or writing out loud . . . or thinking out write . . . or . . .

It's interesting to me that people have been mentioning the supposed narrow scope in queries for Steampunk, focusing on war and airships etc. It reminded me of a bookstore manager friend of mine who said she was so tired of Steampunk as travelog. And I guess it interests me because I never even thought of going there myself, and I wonder why not?

I like others in this thread use Steampunk as a flavouring not the main part of the meal, and I used to worry that maybe my book wasn't really Steampunk. But then I realised that my story simply would not work if it was a straight up historical novel (my superheros couldn't be superheros as they are without the made up technology). I really wonder what people who are really deep into hard Steampunk are going to make of my book, now that I think about it . . .

It will be interesting.

Anyway, yeah, just some thoughts. Not really a point . . .

It kinda seems to me that stressing the war machines and such might be the only way people found for showing that they have a steampunk novel there. I mean, take some of the existing YA books that get called steampunk here and there, like The Iron Thorn or Clockwork Angel, you could write queries/marketing texts for them without really mentioning the steampunk thing. But if it's hot, then it's useful to showcase it.

Toothpaste said:

I like others in this thread use Steampunk as a flavouring not the main part of the meal, and I used to worry that maybe my book wasn't really Steampunk. But then I realised that my story simply would not work if it was a straight up historical novel (my superheros couldn't be superheros as they are without the made up technology). I really wonder what people who are really deep into hard Steampunk are going to make of my book, now that I think about it . . .

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People who read a lot of steampunk are used to a wide range of approaches to the genre.

I get the impression a lot of the generic queries come from people who don't read much steampunk, so they don't realise what they've written is very generic. Or sometimes, they seem to expect the airships and clockwork to carry the story, rather than having a plot. The frilly bits are all very well, but there has to be a story there too.

yes, steampunk is seilling now. will it still be selling the same in three years? who knows.

yes, we should be aware of trends, but don't let them dictate what you write, after all, a good book will always sell, and a really good book could be the one that kicks off a whole new trend.