I would like to collect your thoughts on the following premise before I invest too much time into it.
One of my current WIPs is about the consequences of a wealthy family in Victorian England losing their fortune. I'm currently writing about the eldest brother in the family, and I want to write a series that would include a novel about the youngest brother, but I fear that his story might be totally unmarketable. When he is introduced as a background character in book one, he is an alcoholic, and also uses gambling and sex as a crutch to escape his problems.
I've seen lots of historical romances where the hero is searching for redemption after a troubled past or is a total rake, but these are usually stories where the hero has already more or less renounced his past ways by the time the book starts or is "cured by the love of a good woman" the instant he meets the heroine. We usually don't see philandering or substance abuse past the prologue.
In my outline, the hero and heroine--a maidservant--have an ongoing sexual relationship at the opening of the novel (she is convinced he loves her and will marry her one day, Cinderella-style, he is just doing whatever comes easily to him), but by chapter two or three she realizes that he's been stringing her along and confronts him, and is fired when their indiscretion becomes known. They meet again shortly after when he has basically hit rock bottom and is completely destitute, and she reluctantly helps him find a place to stay and sober up because she still has feelings for him, although she makes it clear that their romantic relationship is over. Her story arc is about becoming less naive and learning not to let men take advantage of her, his is about gaining self-awareness and struggling to change his life. Once he gets cleaned up he realizes that he didn't know what a good thing he had, but they have to overcome the total loss of trust caused by his past behaviour.
Is this something that you think readers would have any interest in? Could you stick with characters that are pretty hopeless in the first couple chapters to see where it's going, or would you just throw the book at the wall in frustration as soon as you saw that the hero was a dog and the heroine didn't realize it?
One of my current WIPs is about the consequences of a wealthy family in Victorian England losing their fortune. I'm currently writing about the eldest brother in the family, and I want to write a series that would include a novel about the youngest brother, but I fear that his story might be totally unmarketable. When he is introduced as a background character in book one, he is an alcoholic, and also uses gambling and sex as a crutch to escape his problems.
I've seen lots of historical romances where the hero is searching for redemption after a troubled past or is a total rake, but these are usually stories where the hero has already more or less renounced his past ways by the time the book starts or is "cured by the love of a good woman" the instant he meets the heroine. We usually don't see philandering or substance abuse past the prologue.
In my outline, the hero and heroine--a maidservant--have an ongoing sexual relationship at the opening of the novel (she is convinced he loves her and will marry her one day, Cinderella-style, he is just doing whatever comes easily to him), but by chapter two or three she realizes that he's been stringing her along and confronts him, and is fired when their indiscretion becomes known. They meet again shortly after when he has basically hit rock bottom and is completely destitute, and she reluctantly helps him find a place to stay and sober up because she still has feelings for him, although she makes it clear that their romantic relationship is over. Her story arc is about becoming less naive and learning not to let men take advantage of her, his is about gaining self-awareness and struggling to change his life. Once he gets cleaned up he realizes that he didn't know what a good thing he had, but they have to overcome the total loss of trust caused by his past behaviour.
Is this something that you think readers would have any interest in? Could you stick with characters that are pretty hopeless in the first couple chapters to see where it's going, or would you just throw the book at the wall in frustration as soon as you saw that the hero was a dog and the heroine didn't realize it?
