Being taken seriously

sarbonn · Nov 28, 2008

I write a lot of humor. It's always been a signature part of much of my writing, because even when I've written quite serious humor, like my first novel, pieces of my humor keep seeping through. I realized a long time ago that humor would always be a part of my writing. And I've been fine with that.

Well, five years ago I actually started writing my first humorous novel, and I completed it last year. Now, the problem I'm running into is that whenever I try to send it out or get an agent to represent me, I'm not taken seriously because the novel was humor. I know this sounds strange, but it's almost like there's this belief that the book is unimportant, is trite, is not to be taken as serious as other books because it's main storytelling element is humor. Meanwhile, the book itself involves some pretty hefty subjects and deals with higher level issues but uses humor as a mechanism to explore such issues. Yet, I keep getting the cast off because of the genre rather than the novel.

Even when I've lodged this complaint, I get responses from people that are almost identical. "Well, the novel must not really be all that serious then." This comes with no reading of the novel whatsoever, but an immediate assumption, which has been the problem from the get-go.

Any thoughts on this for those of you who enjoy writing humor? Is this an impossible to break into genre unless you happen to already be a well known comic in some other area of entertainment?

humorman · Nov 28, 2008

I would not say impossible but very difficult to say the least.

My first published work was a book of humor columns, just a collection that I threw together....All went well but then I have had a hard time bringing my mainstream work to the table because I am viewed as a humorist first and novelist second.

Dave Barry probably saw the same issues with his works. He is known far and wide for his humor but has written some novels as well. It may be difficult to find an agent to take you as a serious author if you have shown such strength in the humor area.

I have been told that selling humor is very difficult without a famous name...But how does one get a famous name? Barry, Bombeck and Grizzard all wrote newspaper columns first and then published books.

The other side of the coin is that people consider novels that are funny to be "light" reading. Janet Evanovich is considered in this way by many people. Her books are not deep thought provoking titles nor should they be. But one should realize that humor can come from many forms in novels. I read a lot of Dean Koontz, whose novels are very intelligent in their style. I consider myself well read but I still have to grab an old dictionary once in a while to look up words that he uses. However, he still finds it possible to add in several humor elements into his works, though they are overly serious in nature.

Best thing to do is just keep at it me thinks. There is a publisher and agent out there that will respect your work based on the quality of the work and not what you have done in the past.

sarbonn · Nov 28, 2008

I guess you can't really get a better person to respond to that question than someone with the name of Humorman.

Thank you for your response. I'll keep plodding through, but it does get frustrating at times. I used to write a newspaper column a few years back, that was mostly humor, politics and political humor. Even then, it was difficult to get people to take me seriously, even though I eventually became the opinion editor for the newspaper. Even then, people thought I was really only contributing humor, not understanding that satire is not always JUST humor.

snook · Nov 29, 2008

Go with your strength. I'd much rather read humor pieces than anything else.

WerenCole · Nov 29, 2008

I would refine the pitch. I am not sure how much humor is involved but you might want to get them reading on a hook that does not say "this is my humor novel." Think about The Confederancy of Dunces for instance. It is a humorous novel but also serious and dramatic.

Does that help?

WildBill · Nov 30, 2008

WerenCole said:
I would refine the pitch. I am not sure how much humor is involved but you might want to get them reading on a hook that does not say "this is my humor novel." Think about The Confederancy of Dunces for instance. It is a humorous novel but also serious and dramatic.

Does that help?

I'd be wary of taking the route that John Kennedy Toole did. Don't get so upset at rejection that you kill yourself and your mom has to get the thing published.

Theognome

Unique · Dec 10, 2008

Why, whatever for?

WerenCole said:
I would refine the pitch.

Lewis Grizzard and dear Erma still haven't found their replacements.
Perhaps it's you.

Being taken seriously

sarbonn

humorman

sarbonn

snook

WerenCole

Funny what? Do I amuse you?

WildBill

Unique

Agent of Doom