Blogger: Michelle Ule
Location: Late night, romantic, safe, Santa Rosa, Calif.
I’ve just finished a stint during which I read several queries in succession. It can be grueling work, having to page through so many hopeful letters introducing tales writers pray we’ll love. Some of the stories were utterly charming, others remarkably grim. Probably a quarter of them were fantasy stories and half of those were tales about vampires. Reading queries always leaves me wondering about the American psyche—could these topics possibly be what most people are interested in?
For example, do people still want to read Mafia stories? One of my relatives was the police chief of Palermo, Sicily, but I can’t think of any Mafia story I’d want to hear. The Godfather books and movies pretty much exhausted that topic for me.
I thought the pirate concept was starting to wane now that we’re a couple of years out from Pirates of the Caribbean, but I guess Johnny Depp lovers never tire of a swashbuckling concept.
While the Brazilian foreign exchange student living in our home loves the Twilight series and has watched the movie “probably at least 40 times” in her words, how many vampire stories do we need? (Okay, I know, the bookstores are crawling with them; I guess the living dead are a growth industry.)
Just because I’m not a fan of the genre, however, doesn’t mean I can’t recognize good writing. We’ve looked at manuscripts whose storylines are of little interest to us because the writing is strong or compelling. It all goes back to the writing, but it starts with the story and, also, the author’s renown.
So, would we want to see a proposal about a Mafioso pirate who wakes up one night in Lancaster, Penn., to discover himself a vampire?
Do you have to ask?
I think once people find a book they like, they want more like that. So they read all the Twilight books, but also go looking for other vampire stories. At the same time, the craze does wane, and next year there’ll be a new fad. Aren’t agents and publishers looking for writers who can start the new fad?
Bonnie, I’m not sure writers “start” a fad; I think certain writers stumble onto the culture’s zeitgeist and find a way to talk about it–whether that be in fiction or nonfiction–that connects with a large segment of the population. Would that writers, agents, and publishers were able to predict with any level of accuracy what will be the next big trend. But publishing is an educated guess about what readers want. Ultimately, readers determine the fad, not publishers, writers, or agents.
Only if he was played by Johnny Depp! 😉
Maybe it’s because I have a teenage daughter who is in loooooooooove with the whole vampire idea that I am so not in looooooove with it. However, if it sells then I guess that is the ultimate goal. Maybe somebody should write a vampire series about menopausal grandmothers, or vampires who are struggling with raising a family. Ok – those were my idea – nobody steal those ! 🙂
Wow, Gina. How ’bout menopausal vampirettes?!
ha ha You know, Gina, Sharon Hinck sold a fantasy with a mommy doing the traveling to another world instead of the usual kids or men. I don’t see why a menopausal vampire wouldn’t work.
There’s always that flicker of temptation to gravitate toward writing what’s new and hot for the moment. Because it seems like it might generate some interest. But it’s good to hear that ultimately it comes down to writing. Yes, it helps to have a topic that’s unique and shies from being cliche but writing good, solid prose that draws people in despite the familiarity of the storyline, will almost always appeal to readers.
Hi Nicole, I have a novel for Johnny Depp! The Chaplin at the novitiate in “The Reluctant Novice”. Just the ticket!
Zombies rule!
http://a-slapintheface.blogspot.com/
I wrote a blog post about my kooky idea. 🙂
Y’all crack me up!
I kind of agree that the paranormal thing is getting insane, especially in young adult–have you checked out the YA bookshelves lately? It seems like at least half of the material involves vampires or werewolves or something! But it is widely read… since I’m not big on writing that kind of story, it’s good for me that the agents are getting tired of them, I guess! Always nice to hear that good writing is key.
Michelle et al, read a bold blog called *Why I Think Vampires Suck* by Dr. Teri McCarthy.
http://terimccarthyblahblahblog.com/vampires-suck/
More than 300 people responded to that blog, so she wrote a follow-up:
http://terimccarthyblahblahblog.com/bringing-thought-captivity/