First, congratulations to everyone who has good news! That's awesome, let's keep the circle going!
Sparverius - AAAAHHHH that's a really good sign. I hope this leads to good news very very soon!
Atlantic - congrats re: coagent interest! That's a big step, and I hope it works out!
As far as the literary/genre comparisons go, I think there are a lot of the same frustrating elements when trying to break into anything. Everyone wants something different, but no, not that different because then it won't fit with the other stuff we already have. And of course, romance is the highest-selling genre by far, yet every few weeks there's some kind of thinkpiece out there that says "romance is garbage, lol bodice rippers amirite?" So much fun!
Things are good here. I have a couple chapters in the new WIP started, but I'm expecting edits soon so I'm putting it aside for now. I was asked for my input on cover art, and I have a call this week with my editor (!! still not used to saying that) re: cover art concept and revisions. So everything seems to be moving along at a decent pace, especially for publishing, and I'm feeling pretty good. I'm sure the anxiety will kick in soon enough, but for now I'm enjoying the ride as best I can.
Congrats on the progress!
As for the romance, a lot of that "this is garbage" mentality comes from within the industry itself, which is kind of odd since there are so many women.
My personal solution would be to stop publishing romance that is legitimately crap because I think it just makes the whole genre look bad. Raise the bar, so to speak and the attitudes might change. There is very well written work in all genres but everything seems to be judged by the lowest common denominator, especially in genre fiction for whatever reason.
Part of it is also sexism. Anything women like is stupid. Society hates women who cater to women, not men, this is not really news.
A lot of mystery/thriller is just as terrible but that's for men to use as their fantasy vehicle so it's somehow seen as more acceptable.
Awesome news, Atlantic!!
And some great progress, Jeneral!
I'm late and catching up on the literary/SFF/genre discussion—really interesting.
To chime in here, the main issue with writing literary fiction as a 20 something bi-racial girl is that nobody takes me seriously.
All of this "we want diversity" is largely virtue signaling (as much as I hate that term).
Diversity sells better in circles that are more open to it. Sadly that is not literary fiction, with a handful of exceptions--and most of those exceptions are male. PACHINKO was a big win for "the cause" if you will and the doors are starting to open. It's already much different from when I set out on this journey 2 years ago. Working in publishing has lent me some credibility I didn't have as a random 21 year old brown girl.
I've got an uphill climb but it could be worse. I have the "pedigree" that snobby editors eat for breakfast.
The biggest issue is that most "big name" literary fiction agents could acquire one book every two years and be happy. They're VERY picky because as someone already pointed out, it is more about cultural cache/awards than pure sales.
Smaller market...pickier agents and editors. But every genre has it's unique challenges and as Jeneral said, there is a lot of crossover.
