Writing something more marketable?

[catherinewinters]

I'm currently querying agents with my first novel, a science fiction heist meets queer retelling of Beauty and the Beast, where “Beauty” is the non-binary alien narrator, and “Beast” is a terrifying monster—or from her perspective, an ordinary human.

You might guess that this is perhaps not the most heavily read genre! Still, a small publisher's asked for the full manuscript after seeing chapters, and I'm confident there's a market out there. (After all, Murderbot, This Is How You Lose the Time War, and Someone You Can Build a Nest In have all done quite well.)

While it works as a standalone, I have two sequels half written, ready to be finished should they or another publisher be interested in a series. I had switched back to the project I was originally working on, an unrelated murder mystery a la Death on the Nile set in a post-post apocalyptic civilization with Regency-esque archaeologists digging up 21st Century ruins. Yup, another mouthful!

So now I'm wondering about something easier for an agent to say yes to. I have an outline and half a first installment of a third project close to my heart, a YA fantasy trilogy about magic-using pickpockets, which I think has a lot of potential. (And hey, the description is only 7 words!)

I'm going to continue querying my sci-fi novel, but is it worth branching out instead of focusing on something that might be harder for an agent to pitch a publisher? And does that sort of move ever work, grabbing the attention of a publisher with something more commercial to start?

 

[lizmonster]

My opinion: unless you’re writing very fast, writing to market is a fool’s errand. By the time you notice a trend as a reader, that trend is likely already saturated on the back end. It’s not always true, but it’s usually true.

If you’re looking at more general market trends, though - fantasy has about 3X the market of SF, or it did when I checked a few years back. With the success of romantasy, I’m guessing fantasy has become even more dominant. SF (outside of self publishing, which tends to favor SFR) is very nearly a niche genre at this point.

I’m big on writing what speaks to you, but IME fantasy is going to give you a bigger market to aim at.

 

[buz]

While it works as a standalone, I have two sequels half written, ready to be finished should they or another publisher be interested in a series. I had switched back to the project I was originally working on, an unrelated murder mystery a la Death on the Nile set in a post-post apocalyptic civilization with Regency-esque archaeologists digging up 21st Century ruins. Yup, another mouthful!

So now I'm wondering about something easier for an agent to say yes to.

I did stop reading about here, partially because I am the last person on the planet to know or advise anything about marketability or commercial appeal, but mainly I wanted to say f*** other people saying yes just give me that book?

Is it weird? Tell me it's weird. I mean if there's also like two ladies in tweed spanking each other with rubber snakes I will buy the book twice so that you are paid double but like I'm just throwing stuff out there you totally don't have to do that haha

...Ahem. I...okay. I got excited. This isn't helpful to you. I really want to tell you to write the books you want to write. But this is maybe unhelpful; it sounds like you do actually want to write a variety of books and want to figure out what to focus on? In which case my best advice is to...not...listen to any advice I might desperately try to squeeze out here, so...I shall stop myself before I begin.

This is merely, I think, a support post of support. (Please write stuff you want to write )

 

[catherinewinters]

The snakes are not made of rubber.

But thank you for the encouraging words!

 

[Chris P]

I wonder if you can split the difference? Keep in mind I utterly FAIL in all caps with understanding why something works and why something doesn't, but it seems to me the "what the book is about" portion matters much less than "how the book is written." I recall reading Richard Adams saying to his agent or publisher "I've just written a book about a rabbit with ESP. I've lost my mind and my career is finished!" or something like that. The book was Watership Down, which is a modern classic, clairvoyant drama-king battle bunnies aside. The subject matter was of course unusual, but it was written in a very accessible way that didn't challenge market conventions. Now if he'd written in in an avante-garde style or structure like Infinite Jest or Finnegan's Wake, his career might have indeed been finished.

 

[Woollybear]

I'm currently querying agents with my first novel, a science fiction heist meets queer retelling of Beauty and the Beast, where “Beauty” is the non-binary alien narrator, and “Beast” is a terrifying monster—or from her perspective, an ordinary human.

You might guess that this is perhaps not the most heavily read genre! Still, a small publisher's asked for the full manuscript after seeing chapters, and I'm confident there's a market out there. (After all, Murderbot, This Is How You Lose the Time War, and Someone You Can Build a Nest In have all done quite well.)

While it works as a standalone, I have two sequels half written, ready to be finished should they or another publisher be interested in a series. I had switched back to the project I was originally working on, an unrelated murder mystery a la Death on the Nile set in a post-post apocalyptic civilization with Regency-esque archaeologists digging up 21st Century ruins. Yup, another mouthful!

So now I'm wondering about something easier for an agent to say yes to. I have an outline and half a first installment of a third project close to my heart, a YA fantasy trilogy about magic-using pickpockets, which I think has a lot of potential. (And hey, the description is only 7 words!)

I'm going to continue querying my sci-fi novel, but is it worth branching out instead of focusing on something that might be harder for an agent to pitch a publisher? And does that sort of move ever work, grabbing the attention of a publisher with something more commercial to start?

What's the downside to branching out? In an ideal world, if we each had a dozen different kinds of manuscripts finished and polished and tucked away, we could pitch to market by pitching the one of the dozen that agents want 'now.' If tastes change in a week, we pitch one of the others.

If the goal is to meet agents where they are at, instead of convincing them to meet us where we are, then branching out seems a straightforward solution.

On the other hand. Writing is hard and work and hard work, so usually my go-to answer is to write the thing you enjoy writing. That doesn't help with the agent part, though. So if the question is how can you best spend your time, it depends how much you want an agent, vs how much you need to enjoy the process of writing.

 

[catherinewinters]

I wonder if you can split the difference? Keep in mind I utterly FAIL in all caps with understanding why something works and why something doesn't, but it seems to me the "what the book is about" portion matters much less than "how the book is written." I recall reading Richard Adams saying to his agent or publisher "I've just written a book about a rabbit with ESP. I've lost my mind and my career is finished!" or something like that. The book was Watership Down, which is a modern classic, clairvoyant drama-king battle bunnies aside. The subject matter was of course unusual, but it was written in a very accessible way that didn't challenge market conventions. Now if he'd written in in an avante-garde style or structure like Infinite Jest or Finnegan's Wake, his career might have indeed been finished.

Hey, that's a very good point! Watership Down had to have been a tough sell, even WITH an existing relationship with an agent and/or publisher.

I come from a instructional/technical writing background, not literary, so I think I write fairly accessible prose. I'm not too concerned about that part. I think it's more that I'm overthinking whether I'm getting rejections based on the fact that people just get rejections, agents not feeling it, agents not feeling like they're the right person to rep LGBTQ fiction, or agents thinking it'd be a difficult book to sell a publisher. (Still, that small press I mentioned apparently really liked the chapters I sent.)

 

[catherinewinters]

My opinion: unless you’re writing very fast, writing to market is a fool’s errand. By the time you notice a trend as a reader, that trend is likely already saturated on the back end. It’s not always true, but it’s usually true.

If you’re looking at more general market trends, though - fantasy has about 3X the market of SF, or it did when I checked a few years back. With the success of romantasy, I’m guessing fantasy has become even more dominant. SF (outside of self publishing, which tends to favor SFR) is very nearly a niche genre at this point.

I’m big on writing what speaks to you, but IME fantasy is going to give you a bigger market to aim at.

I presume I'd be targeting different agents and publishers, not just readers, and I like the premise of this YA project. It's more whether or not success in one genre is in any way transferable. I'm thinking...maybe?

 

[Brigid Barry]

My two cents, take from it what you will and leave the rest.

Fantasy is pretty saturated. Agents get hundreds of fantasy queries a day. Probably partly because it's a big genre with lots of different subgenres, but also it's fun to write. I am *guessing* that most of the fantasy stuff getting requests is romantasy because that's hot stuff right now because it's a new niche.

Agents in general are requesting less (also I think there may be fewer agents in general) and a small press will be more willing to take a chance than an agent. In my career I have gotten way, way more interest from small presses over several projects and I have gotten one full request from one agent one time.

As Liz said, writing to market won't help you because what's publishing today was probably born two or three years ago. Market trends change as niches are filled and others open.

Write something you love. If you don't get any traction with it, wrote something else. Eventually you'll have something that gets to the right person at the right time and the planets are aligned properly and the offer fairy is in a good mood.

 

[lizmonster]

I presume I'd be targeting different agents and publishers, not just readers, and I like the premise of this YA project. It's more whether or not success in one genre is in any way transferable. I'm thinking...maybe?

YA does well, although these days tends toward romance (most categories and genres do). But it's a nice big market to aim at. Although as Brigid points out, because it's big right now, a lot of writers are aiming there. You'll need a sharp book, and a huge dose of right place/right time.

The Watership Down anecdote is both relevant and not. Out-of-the-box premises can succeed, of course. But it's worth noting Watership Down was also (IMO, at least ) a beautifully written, immediately involving novel. Even so, you're right: Adams was pretty lucky to get it picked up - and it is luck, in most cases. Trade publishing is about 98% luck. (I'd say self-pub is 95% luck, 3% the genre you choose, and 2% making good marketing choices.)

As for transferring genres? It's probably too cynical of me to say it's too early to be worrying about that level of success. I will relate an anecdote told to me by my first agent: a huge fantasy author (can't remember which one, and it feels rude to guess), who had a long-running series, wrote a stand-alone. The publisher paid him seven figures for it. It tanked, because his fans wanted his series. (I also wonder about Scott Westerfeld, who wrote a lovely adult SF duology that was done dirty by his publisher; he's back in YA, IIRC, and maybe that's because he loves it, but his adult work was wildly entertaining.)

TL;DR: Success in one part of publishing guarantees you absolutely nothing should you move to another. It is an extraordinarily fickle business, and the bottom line trumps all.

 

[Introversion]

(I also wonder about Scott Westerfeld, who wrote a lovely adult SF duology that was done dirty by his publisher

It’s a measure of how much I like a book when I seek out hardcover copies after reading a paperback or e-book. Westerfeld’s Succession duology was one such. Loved it.