Do controversial themes and subjects make publishing a novel more difficult?

Pretty much if it is for shock value, he will not take it on. I'm sure the next "A Time To Kill" or "To Kill a Mockingbird" would be welcomed.

Hmmmm... my story/novel isn't intended to be a shock value thing.

The controversial part (which in my mind isn't really controversial, but more closed-mindedness on the part of some people) is the homosexuality and bisexuality of the characters (humans, half-demons, and full demons) in the story. It's also a rather dark, intense story, I might add. Although I know there are PLENTY of books with gay, bi, lesbian, and trans characters, there's still some conservative Christians who try to get books banned for their gay or bisexual characters. It would be kind of boring if all characters in literature were all straight, wouldn't it?

I think mine might be more difficult to sell to some certain publishers, but I've seen other books with similar theme and tone to mine that have been published before with major publishers.

This is why, once I've finished the book, I'll need an agent who knows which imprints are more likely to publish books of its nature.

I wouldn't jump to any conclusions about the entire publishing industry based on one agent's taste. There are plenty of recent books that deal with rape, serials killers, violence, Sept. 11, and plots to destroy America. Heck, Philip Roth's second-most-recent book is called "The Plot Against America."

Jackie

Is this just one agent? Is this just one person prefering not to deal with work that goes against his own beliefs?

I ran into an agent once who suggested the same thing to me. 'I won't even look at a story with child abuse in it'. (This wasn't in regards to my work...we were just having a conversation.) She named 4 or 5 themes that she just wouldn't tolerate. I argued that she could be passing up the next big novel. She said she didn't care...she had the right to choose not to represent authors with these themes. In the end, she's absolutely right. I ended up applauding her for her choices. I said, "I would not have thought agents had moral standards!" She laughed. The point is, if I am even trying to make one, agents have to be looked at individually. What one agent does does not represent all agents. Some may just want to take on a great book...some may want to stay away from certain themes for personal or moral reasons. It's their perogative.

More importantly...the writing has to be good. If you find an agent whose only priority is to sell great writing, the theme will be secondary.

Agents have to love the work they represent -- enough to champion a book, try to sell it, read it over and over again, invest a lot of time and energy -- so doesn't it make sense that they'd refuse themes that don't appeal to them or turn them right off?

It's all relative. I'm sure this agent would be fine with a book that had Updike's name on it. I have to think it can only help if agents state ahead of time what they don't want from new or 'unproven' writers. I would love it if, when I am ready to seek an agent, I had a bit of information on what they want and dont want. Saves on postage if nothing else.

There's quite a few publishers who will take on stories with gay characters. Lots of mainstream stories have some characters who are gay. That doesn't sound all that controversial these days, although you might not have a good chance at getting it placed with Zondervan.

Themes to sell vary with the agent. One's poison is another's sale.

Ditto for publishers. I know of one editor who threw a book across the room and stated something about committing bodily harm on the writer, then the same book sold to another house a week later. (But it did badly.)

9/11 is a theme that I won't touch as a writer, and I rather think there are publishing houses that aren't ready for it.

I phoned my editor that day to see if she was all right. She wasn't. The towers were visible from her window and half her co-workers were in her office watching and crying.

I phoned my agent--who'd been in a panic trying to locate her missing husband and child. They turned up, thankfully, but that day left serious scars on everyone. Some months later I went to a signing for one of my fav writers. NYC is HIS town, and he refused to talk about 9/11. The look on his face--no way was anyone going to ignore him on that.

No thanks, I'm sticking to escapist fiction submissions.

The big selling books during the London Blitz were Agatha Christie mysteries. They helped people spending the night in a tube station to forget the bombs falling above and who would be dead by morning. Can't blame 'em for that.

Gay themes? Hey, go for it. I've a number of gay characters in my stuff. Didn't plan it that way, they just turned up in my head and got woven into the plot. Straight, gay, demon or Martian, a good character is a good character is a good character.

MadScientistMatt said:

There's quite a few publishers who will take on stories with gay characters. Lots of mainstream stories have some characters who are gay. That doesn't sound all that controversial these days, although you might not have a good chance at getting it placed with Zondervan.

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MSM, I wasn't going to respond to this thread until I read your comment. My situation is rather odd. In my Jan Phillips series, Jan is gay and he's also a practicing Catholic. The controversy here lies in getting a gay readership to read about a character who clearly loves his faith (not to be confused with the churchmen). Believe me it ain't easy. Agents and publishers with an eye to profits know well that most (stress most) gay fiction is devoid of references to faith (of any stripe).
This is, I believe, a reaction to how religions generally (stress generally) treat the GLBT community. My novels are not an attempt to turn that around, merely acknowledge gay characters need not be recovering Christians or Muslims, etc to be believable.
Saying that, selling a character who's Catholic underpinning is basic to who he is, and how he deals with his world is no easy thing.
Oh, before I shoot myself in the foot here I should say that these stories are not preachy in any way, however, the reader has no doubt where Jan is coming from.

One more thing, I don't want to start another thread here on churches versus gays. That's been done to death and I suspect it will get another round of discussion soon. But I for one would like a break.

...does such subject matter make the novel more difficult to publish?

What makes it difficult is that everyone and his dog, it seemed, was writing a 9/11 story. Usually badly.

No book is perfect for every agent; no book is perfect for every publisher. (Harlequin just isn't going to publish a Mickey Spillane novel, no matter how well it might sell.) This reflects the fact that no book is perfect for every reader.

I'd think that publishers/agents would want controversial books to publish. It makes money. I mean look at the Da Vinci Code and all those goons who wanted it banned.

The publisher I'm with is a devout Christian, but I didn't realise this until I'd submitted my whole MS. I was sure she'd object to a couple of scenes, especially where one character poses as a prostitute and has sex for money. The publisher made quite a few suggestions regarding scenes she thought could be improved, but didn't mention the prostitute one at all, which really surprised me. The scene wasn't gratuitous, and I did show how it affected the character involved, so perhaps that's why she didn't object?

I think you can include most anything in your writing, and get it published, as long as it's handled well.

That's only one agent. Agents are like publishers in a sense that they only like to represent things they enjoy/love/can do a good job marketing. Every agent has his or her own preferences. If I were an agent, I probably wouldn't want to represent a novel about 9/11 or something overtly religious. It doesn't mean those books won't sell; it simply means the writer should look for a good match with an agent who loves that stuff, and the agent would pair the ms. with a publisher who publishes that stuff.

If it's a good story and well written, someone, eventually, will probably be willing to champion it, but you just have to hang in there and persevere until you find that special agent or editor.

Controversial subjects are not impossible to sell, but as you've already seen, certainly VERY VERY difficult. However, what is considered controversial is a constant flux and has much to do with the political climate of the times. Thirty or forty years ago, a novel about a gay relationship would have been controversial. Today, it would be considered far more controversial to have a main character who is openly homophobic
than a novel about two likeable characters of the same sex who love each other (although such a novel would probably still be controversial in the Bible belt, but these are the same people protesting Brokeback Mountain and The Da Vinci Code).

As for stories about September 11, terrorrism, and so forth, I can speak from some experience as a reader for a major literary magazine and the horrors of the slush pile. It is not so much that agents and editors are totally opposed to those themes, but the simple fact that in the past few years there has been an absolute deluge of such stories, and unfortunately, 99% of those are dreck or worse. Agents and editors will say they don't want stories on these themes because they wish to discourage wading through tons of mediocre dreck about Middle Eastern terrorists and the Good American Hero who saves the day. I would be willing to bet there isn't an agent worth his/her gold anywhere out there who wouldn't love to see a brilliant story about the events of 9/11, but it would have to be a diamond bright enough to blind and completely unlike anything on the subject they've seen before, and most agents are smart enough to know the odds of such aren't very likely

I wouldn't go so far as to say most agents and editors are only looking for positive, feel-good, non-controversial subject matter, but the bottom line is, where there is controversy there is always risk. And where there is risk there is a potential for backlash and loss of profit, and the reality is that the dollar IS the bottom line. But don't give up if you believe in your story.
You might have to fight a little harder for it, but if you have the faith, it's worth it.

Although my main character (male) is bisexual, and hooks up with a gay man, I don't think it should be classified as gay fiction. It's a dark fantasy/horror story about demons and the humans in their lives, and what happens between a lustful demon father and his half-demon son (main character). The gay and bisexual relationships among several of the characters are just secondary to the main storyline.

James D. Macdonald said:

Harlequin just isn't going to publish a Mickey Spillane novel, no matter how well it might sell.

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I would like to bear your children.

That or send you the cleaning bill for my soda spritzed keyboard.

Either one works for me.

I was actually under the impression that books sell better with controversial themes. A lot of the biggest books (money-wise and prize-wise) in the past 10-20 years have had rape, incest, satanism and whatnot.

Good writing helps tho...

There will always be people who don't want to read the sort of thing you write, and some of them will work in publishing. It only matters if no one wants to read your book.

themes

Alan Yee said:

It would be kind of boring if all characters in literature were all straight, wouldn't it?

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Depends on who is doing the reading. Doesn't bore me at all. I'd say 99.9% of all the books I've read had only straight characters, or those portrayed as straight. I've never read a story with a gay protagonist, and doubt seriously I ever will. At most a gay character will be a very small bit player in a few of the books I read, and probably won't be onstage for more than a page.

We each tend to read what we like, what we most relate to in our personal life. I have zero interest in reading about gay characters, bi characters, or lesbian characters, and haven't found the lack of them in the vast majority of books I read to be boring in the least. I prefer it. I sure won't read any book that has even semi-semi-graphic sex scenes with gay characters.

I also don't like to read books that are pro-racism in any way, and I avoid books like "Fight Club."

Many agents and editors avoid some themes because of personal taste, but most avoid a given theme because they've seen how the reading public reacts to such themes. Both matter, but the latter matters to everyone in publishing. How the public as a whole receives a particular theme means everything.

And sometimes it's because a theme has been overdone. A few years back, child abuse was done to death, most of it was not well-received by the reading public, and now it's very tough to even get child abuse themes read. I have a short story that's been rejected at least a dozen times, and in every case but one the editor said he or she simply could not buy the story because of the child abuse theme. Readers would not like it. Well, readers not liking it is always the best reason to reject something.

Theme

zeprosnepsid said:

I was actually under the impression that books sell better with controversial themes. A lot of the biggest books (money-wise and prize-wise) in the past 10-20 years have had rape, incest, satanism and whatnot.

Good writing helps tho...

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Depends on the theme, and on how the theme is presented. It often isn't the theme that stops a book from getting the attention of an agent or editor, but how the theme is presented, and what the book has to say about the theme.

Jamesaritchie said:

Depends on the theme, and on how the theme is presented. It often isn't the theme that stops a book from getting the attention of an agent or editor, but how the theme is presented, and what the book has to say about the theme.

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It seems you've gotten in this funny habit of elaborating on my brevity =)

brevity

zeprosnepsid said:

It seems you've gotten in this funny habit of elaborating on my brevity =)

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In other words, I'm long-winded. Guilty as charged.