You can pitch it to the publisher but I suspect they'll reject it.
Based on what you've said I wouldn't call it a romance.
JMO.
Based on what you've said I wouldn't call it a romance.
JMO.
Confused About What can Count as "Romance"
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No, not a romance. The emotionally satisfying means they are happy together and optimistic means the reader can imagine the relationship continuing on past the end of the book.
There is room in the market for a book with your ending, but it's not in genre romance.
There is room in the market for a book with your ending, but it's not in genre romance.
Exactly. There's a certain historical series I enjoy very much. The books are keepers. Then I saw the author had written another romance in this series, set perhaps seventy or eighty years later, so I read that.
It turned me off completely.
Oh, the author hadn't lost any of her talent at creating characters and evoking setting. But every few pages, I was reminded that the characters I'd loved so much in the historical series were dead. I kept being jerked out of the current story by this. I think there was even a point where the modern characters visited a historical character's grave, and I. didn't. want. that.
I have enough death in reality. I also have enough death in other genres.
So when I read the end of a satisfying romance, I want a happily-ever-after. I want to imagine the couple living together through an eternal summer, and the more I like them, the more I want this. If an author makes me love the hero and heroine of a romance, I never want to imagine them dying. If I actually have to read this, I'm not going to enjoy it.
That said, I've read one historical romance where the hero dies at the end but they're reincarnated in different bodies and meet up again in the epilogue (where they take one look and fall in love without knowing anything about each other). That's Bertrice Small's A Moment in Time. But there, I couldn't stand either of them so I didn't care if they died. Plus, Small is established in the genre. I wouldn't recommend a newer author write such an ending and call the book a romance.
I don't feel this way about love stories or tragedies. My favorite novel ever is Gone with the Wind, so I'm fine with unhappy endings there. But I have different expectations when it comes to romance.
I can handle rejection. I just don't want to ruin my career by doing it. I have to pitch something to them. I don't know what else to do. It takes me years to write a book. I won't have anything other than this for a long time.
and I doubt I'll ever write much else with that HEA ending because I hate them for the most part. Ahh publishing dreams down the toilet, lol. This has all been such a depressing realization for me.
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You guys don't think this will effect my current publishing gig, do you?
I guess that's what's scaring me the most. I have to pitch in march and my first book won't be published until the fall. I am afraid not having a second romance book is going to anger them and make them think I won't be worth working with. This is my first time being published at all, and I don't have an agent to help guide me. I don't know what's expected with stuff like this.
I guess that's what's scaring me the most. I have to pitch in march and my first book won't be published until the fall. I am afraid not having a second romance book is going to anger them and make them think I won't be worth working with.
This is my first time being published at all, and I don't have an agent to help guide me. I don't know what's expected with stuff like this.Why don't you start searching for an agent? Query with your newest manuscript, but also mention that you have a contract for the other one. A good agent can find you a different publisher if your current one doesn't like the new story.
Oh I plan on it as soon as I'm done. This is my NanoWriMo story so I'm still working on it. I wrote part of it and some notes last year, and I got it back out to work on for Nano. I'm about 60K in right now.
I guess I probably won't be able to publish this one with the same company, then.
Will I look like an idiot if I pitch it to them anyway? It's all I've got for now.
You will never look like an idiot.
Pitching a book that doesn't fit their publishing profile doesn't make you an idiot.
(You might have an option clause in your contract. Check.)
Publishers like a writer who produces quickly, but they are unlikely to turn you down just because you don't have a second book in the chute. More important, from their point of view, is how well Book One sold.
You'll probably get one of three responses from Swoon on your second book:
-- "We love it. Here's the contract."
-- "We don't like this one, but we like your writing. Bring us your next book."
-- "Change the ending and bring the manuscript back."
None of those responses is Bad. All of those are Good.
You're at the beginning of a long writing career. You'll get turned down. You'll get enthusiastically accepted. It's all part of the job.
http://www.absolutewrite.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/
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Does an option clause require that you pitch something legally? I thought that it did, but I'm so clueless about all of this. I'm reading about option clauses now.
I'm not allowed to talk about my contract, but just for a hypothetical, what happens if there is an option clause but you don't have anything to pitch?
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I am unwilling to change the ending. I'm sure I'll change a lot as I continue to write the book, but I've thought long and hard about it for a while now, and the ending is something I can't budge on. The entire message of the book (and completion of the main subplot) will be meaningless and impossible if the character doesn't die. It really is crucial.
Not to mention that a HEA for someone with an aggressive deadly disease is pretty unlikely.
Not to mention that a HEA for someone with an aggressive deadly disease is pretty unlikely.
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Exactly. And if Swoon declines the pitch or you don't want to make the changes they request, you're free to shop the MS somewhere else--now with the advantage that you already have a book under contract.
Really, it sounds like it has the potential to be a very compelling story, so don't give up on it.
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Good point. I wonder if this is a reason why prequels sometimes fall flat too. If you already know what happened to this character, since he/she was part of the history of the world you've read about in an "earlier" book that took place in a later era in that world, then you won't invest as much emotionally.
Being that Ghost has a similar theme and story line, and is listed as one of the most romantic stories, I'd say yes.
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Ghost the movie? Movie genres are not the same as book genres, and a romantic story isn't the same as the romance genre.
Ghost has a similar sort of message as my book, for sure. But yes, book genres are different, hence my confusion.
But yes, book genres are different, hence my confusion.
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There seems to be a bit of a disconnect between something that's 'romantic' and something that qualifies as A Romance Novel. All Romances are romantic, but not everything romantic is A Romance.
(That being said, Ghost makes me cry every time. But it's definitely romantic, not A Romance.)
((And now the word 'romance' doesn't look right at all.))
(That being said, Ghost makes me cry every time. But it's definitely romantic, not A Romance.)
((And now the word 'romance' doesn't look right at all.))
If you have signed a contract that doesn't allow you to talk about your contract, you need an agent or contracts lawyer before you sign the next one.
Remember IANAL. But speaking generally, an options clause requires that you offer the publisher first crack at your next manuscript, said manuscript being of a defined and limited type. (My option clause, for instance, is for the next [defined wordcount range] Historical Romance.)
If you have 'nothing to pitch', you obviously have nothing to offer your publisher next spring. But the options clause doesn't go away. It's still lurking in the shadows ten years from now when you do have something to sell.
What the options clause needs for fulfillment depends on what is written in the contract and how the publisher interprets it. The best way to find out whether they want to see a pitch, an outline, a synopsis, a proposal, or an entire manuscript to fulfill this contract obligation is to ask them. Get the answer in writing.
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Hey everyone. Haven't heard back from the publisher yet because of the holiday. But I have another scenario involving a threesome:
I have another story that starts with a happy three-way relationship. Within the first chapter, one of the three is brutally murdered. Throughout the book, the other two have trouble carrying on without him, but they end up strong and together despite this tragedy.
Could THIS be a romance? The character that dies is not a main character but the other two are.
I have another story that starts with a happy three-way relationship. Within the first chapter, one of the three is brutally murdered. Throughout the book, the other two have trouble carrying on without him, but they end up strong and together despite this tragedy.
Could THIS be a romance? The character that dies is not a main character but the other two are.
Romance means one thing when it's inside a publisher that primarily releases category romance, and quite another when it's outside such publishers. The ending of your story sounds almost exactly like the ending of Steven Spielberg's Always, with Richard Dreyfuss, Holly Hunter, Brad Johnson, and John Goodman.
The ending was bittersweet for Dreyfuss' character, but certainly happily every after for the two characters portrayed by Holly Hunter and rad Johnson. It was billed as a "romantic Drama", and simply as a "Moving Romance".
Category romance is one thing, but outside of category, a romance can be many things, and "happily ever after" does not mean someone can't die, it just means two characters have to end up together, and look forward to living happily ever after.
If you've never watched Always, you might give it a shot.
The ending was bittersweet for Dreyfuss' character, but certainly happily every after for the two characters portrayed by Holly Hunter and rad Johnson. It was billed as a "romantic Drama", and simply as a "Moving Romance".
Category romance is one thing, but outside of category, a romance can be many things, and "happily ever after" does not mean someone can't die, it just means two characters have to end up together, and look forward to living happily ever after.
If you've never watched Always, you might give it a shot.
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