Future for Historicals

Continue to query agents and small independents. Never give up.

I second donroc. What's your historic period - any tidbits of info about your book you can pass on?

Also, have you found the Share Your Work forums (considerably up the page). There's a specific forum for historicals and a lot of interesting posts (plus challenges going on right now). If you haven't, check it out - and welcome to AW. Puma

I think you should continue to query (but honestly, at this point, I'd wait until mid-January until the agents are back from hols and have cleared their post-holiday mess away a bit).

There will always be room for historical fiction. You may not sell a novel right away, but it is never too soon to begin working with an agent.

A bad economy combined with the fact that people are reading less, and bookreading competes with a host of other entertainment options, publishing is suffering. Borders is going under, imprints are disappearing, editors are losing their jobs, and agents are competing for fewer spots on lists.

Although I think the recent downturn maybe makes it harder to sell a book, publishers still need to produce a product - and agents need books to sell to editors, and the world keeps spinning round and round.

As far as historicals go, my editor recently bought a book set in ancient Rome. My agent recently sold a Western trilogy, and this week she negotiated a deal for me with Berkley for another two-book contract, a pair of sequels for THE TORY WIDOW (my most recent which will be published in April of 2009) which is a series on the American Revolution.

Historicals are selling. Agents are looking, and editors are buying, and so you should be querying - and querying widely.

Don't give up. Agents are looking for something they can sell - who knows what the economy will be like when you finish making the revisions the agents wants? Spiff up your query and go for it!

funidream said:

A bad economy combined with the fact that people are reading less, and bookreading competes with a host of other entertainment options, publishing is suffering. Borders is going under, imprints are disappearing, editors are losing their jobs, and agents are competing for fewer spots on lists.

Although I think the recent downturn maybe makes it harder to sell a book, publishers still need to produce a product - and agents need books to sell to editors, and the world keeps spinning round and round.

Click to expand...

I heard from a bestselling author, who researched this very question, that the reports of readerships dropping and publishing suffering is a load of crap. He was saying the during every election year (and month) sales drop, but they pick up for Christmas. And, since it costs less for a novel than say dinner and a movie, in a depression, writers profit. This year, while on tour, he and Brandon Sanderson doubled their sales and signings. They will maybe sell less in airports or truckstops, but that it related to traveling not sales as a whole. Furthermore, Barnes and Noble and Borders aren't really going under, they're consolidating and downsizing staff. But, if they do fall a few notches, it's because the internet sales from Amazon and other resources are eating into the in-store sales. Anyone who'd like to see the article, I have it in pieces, request it, and I'll pm the parts to you.

Basically, it says, genre fiction never faces a recession.

During the Great Depression in the 1930's, wasn't there an increase in popularity of historical adventure and/or romance on the big screen? At least that's the impression I have. People appreciate an occasional good escape even more in hard times. It was the same for books..."Gone With the Wind", etc. Maybe an increase in readers' interest in historicals could offset the publishers' downturns?

I work part-time at a chain bookstore in a rural area where there's never been a huge base of readers, but there's always been some faithful customers. We used to sell only new books, then a few years ago the big corporate office started experimenting with selling a few used books. Now used books are a big part of the store. Since we have inexpensive used books along with new ones, there are as many customers as before now, if not more. People like to trade in their old books and get store credit to buy new books. I myself like having used books at the store, because I think it brings in people who weren't into buying books before, and they get hooked and start looking for new books coming out by their favorite authors. A new book usually costs less than dinner and a movie, like Inarticulate Babbler says. So I think even with all these used books and markdowns, people will still be wanting to read good historicals if they are good enough.