Some advice please...

[GeneDoucette]

Hi all. I've been sitting on a novel that spent two years getting shopped to major publishers before my agent ran out of ideas RE: where to send it. I got a lot of very generous (and hopefully genuine) compliments in a collection of rejection letters that I'm now burning to keep warm at night and essentially the same comment: "we like it, we don't know how to sell it". The fatal flaw, apparently, is that it's too contemporary fantasy for sci fi, and too sci fi for contemporary fantasy, which I guess is that happens when you have characters generally considered magical in a universe where there is no magic.

I feel strongly enough about the potential of this project to have already written the first draft of the next novel in what I'd expect to be a three book series, but publishing the first book-- it's called IMMORTAL-- would be a good start. So my question for the collective godheads of the room: where do you think I should go with it next? Mid-market/small-market publishers, clearly, but who? Can anyone recommend a particular publisher? Any contacts I can tap? I know I'm new to the board, but my name should be familiar to at least a few of you... Feel free to contact me privately if you prefer, by email or I'm on Facebook. Or here.

Gene Doucette

[jdparadise]

Perhaps (and I haven't read this, of course) the problem could be addressed by avoiding the idea of "genre" altogether and subbing it to publishers of folks like Margaret Atwood, Ray Bradbury, Stephen King, etc...

[James D. Macdonald]

Don't write the next book of the series.

Write a stand-alone. Sell it. Get a fan-base going.

Your first book sounds like an ideal second book.

[Clair Dickson]

I should think your agent might know a few mid or small press publishers, too. Unless your agent just gave up.

My bias-- I see nothing wrong with a good, solid mid or small press. Sometimes they're willing to take a chance that a big publisher won't take. It doesn't necessarily mean you won't get out there. And it could mean building a fan base.

And start the next book. It might be even better than the one you've written.

I thought Urban Fantasy was supposed to be a decent selling genre? But it's not my genre, so my info could be as bad as something found lurking in the back of the fridge.

[GeneDoucette]

Yeah, I'd say the agent just gave up, although the truth is more complicated. He switched to another agency...

I'm ready to go small or mid market. What I'm wondering is what publishers are out there that meet this criteria.

[JamieFord]

I'm with J-Mac. Write another book. If you've got an agent, you're knocking on the door to publishing success. But sometimes the time just isn't right for said book. Rather than finding an out-of-the-way publisher that will pay you very little and not promote you, put this book on the back burner and bring it out later.

You get one chance to be a debut novelist, make the most of it.

(For what it's worth, I shelved my first novel. It feels like a step back, but it's not because your next book will be better. My next book sold at auction to a major house and I've never looked back. Gotta be able to kill the ones you love, sometimes).

[dwellerofthedeep]

I think I might have a similar sort of book to yours and am having difficulty getting an agent so I might have to write a new book too. Sorry, I don't have any advice but it sounds like your close.

[Karen Duvall]

It's tough to say without know what your story is about. If it was romance, you'd probably have no problem finding it a home. But a hybrid without a romance plot to drive it is a hard sell.

The only mid-size press that comes to mind that doesn't require the work be agented is Juno Books. But the main character has to be female. Night Shade Books is a mid-size MMP publisher that publishes your kind of book, but they only look at agented work.

Good luck! :welcome:

[Nateskate]

First, if you had an agent do all that work, your novel is worth something, so don't give up on it.

Second, take Jim's advice to heart. Since you have the skills to get and motivate an agent, you have the skills to succeed. But since your novel was rejected- unless the presentation was the problem- do something both skillful and highly predictable for your next project.

I got caught in this kind of loop because I tried marketing a difficult to sell book. (2 novels). Now those two books will be the prequels to the series the publisher wants.

In working on the story I listened to all the advice about the "hook", pacing, action...etc. The story was written, but I tore it apart and reworked it considering those successful strategies.

It sounds like you have what it takes to make it work out. Keep us informed.

Nate

[dempsey]

Write a stand-alone.

And start the next book.

Write another book.

[work on] your next project

Yep.

Maybe the market just isn't right for your work at this moment. Maybe it never will be. But although you're interested in selling books, the first half of the business is to write them.

So just write the next thing :) Write something new. You'll keep yourself distracted and be all the better a writer for it.

[GeneDoucette]

Good advice all. Maybe I should add one more detail: I did shelve it and I did write the next book. At around the same time I sent it to the aforementioned agent-who-changed-companies-and-stopped-representing-me (I found out he wasn't going to take it after he'd switched) I had some personal tragedy to deal with, and by the time I got back into the swing of things it was as a screenwriter, which is what I've been doing for the past 18 months or so, with some moderate success. So NOW what I actually have is three novels (the first one was shelved to write the second one and its sequel, and then they were shelves to write the third one), a screenplay based on the first novel, a pending screenplay based on the third novel-- which has never been shopped-- and a potential cult trilogy in the form of the second novel and its sequel and whatever theoretical third book might come later.

So here is what I really really need: an agent who will take on someone with a very good screenplay based on a decent book that was shopped some time ago without success, another book that was shopped recently without success, a third book that has never been shopped anywhere with a pending screenplay based on it, plus another screenplay unrelated to any of the above and two more as-yet-incomplete screenplays.

But the truth is, after it took me forever to find my first and second agents, I didn't have the energy then or necessarily the patience now, so my solution has been: find a publisher for at least the middle book, and work on getting the screenplays out there in the meantime.

I just described eight years of my work. How incredibly depressing.

[JeanneTGC]

Gene, it's not depressing. You have OUTPUT and product to sell. Creation takes time. Some have worked that long with nothing to show for it. So, chin up.

Go to AgentQuery: http://agentquery.com/default.aspx

Search out agents who take screenplays, fantasy, etc., whatever your genres are or could be. Query judiciously. Keep on writing -- 3 products to sell is great, but more is better -- you never know what's going to hook the agent who's going to sell you to the right publisher or studio.

Is finding an agent hard? Yes. But if you've already achieved representation twice, you've clearly got something agent's want and respond to. Don't give up.