How much is too much? Help again please...

So in the novel I am writing I have a couple different themes, with one main storyline, and one subplot, which I would love to turn into a sequel, but that's for another time.

Do editors/publishers frown upon say a vampire
(good no he won't be cursed with a soul), a one-hundred year old curse, a haunted castle; all tied into a love story, a forbidden love to be exact? Now with the vamp, there will be clues as to what he is, but I want to leave the readers guessing until the very end. (No he is not my POV character) However that way, when they find out he is a vamp, everything will be neatly tied together. Oh and the forbidden love has nothing to do with the Vamp, I swear this is not a Buffy/Angel story. :rollin
What do you think? Is it too much?

Thanks in advance,
Diana

Just write your story. If you think your story is good and rich and entertaining, just write it.

Just write your story. If you think your story is good and rich and entertaining, just write it.

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Thanks, I personally think it's a great story. Several thousand words to go.... Thanks again.

One of the nice things about writing novels as opposed to writing short stories and articles is that editors are looking for something new and refreshing that will grab the public, whereas magazine editors are looking for something that will fit within the framework of the publisher's desires, the advertisers goals, and the target audience's tastes. (Not an easy task, that.)

People speak as though there is a consensus among editors, and they tend to when it comes to such things as grammar, punctuation, taboo subjects, the handling of certain subjects; but they do not when it comes to story.

And remember: The first novel you write does not have to be the first novel you sell. It never hurts to have an spare novel sitting on the back shelf to fulfill a unexpected deadline or commitment.

I agree that with all those things it can still be a great story. But keep in mind that vampires are very unpopular at the moment. i.e. if you google 'submission guidelines' and 'vampire' you will say how many explicitly do not want vampiure stories. But then there are places that still love them, espcially if it is a romantic story.

I read in an article that argued for well written characters over plot that 400 or 500 vampire stories had been submitted one year, ten had been published: only one had won favor and gone into reprint: Salem's Lot.

Surely King's handling of rich and varied characters is what made the difference.

If I thought I had a great story I would not let fashion deter me.

On the other hand it never hurts to have a publishable quality story waiting in the wings for that unexpected deadline or commitment. The first novel or two you write are seldom the first one's you sell.