alg | (no subject)

Lots of good stuff there. For slash, indeed, you might send the writers to Samhain, who apparently are specifically looking for such stories. And they take odd lengths--novellas in specific. A friend who has marketed three such novellas with them really likes the treatment there.

You have an amazing gift for cutting through the bullshit. I love your posts. You do a service.

You both gave excellent advice, and a much-appreciated insight into the publishing business. Thanks!

Am working on writing the best damned book I can.

I was one of the people in the panel ("how much sex can you put in it?", heh) at

con_txt and I did later think of another question... I have a book that's SF/F but the main plot is a gay romance, and the action plot is really secondary; is that worth trying to sell as SF/F? What I got out of the panel was "sell that book to Ellora's Cave or Loose Id, and write another one that's not a romance". But I was curious to ask, do successful authors ever dig up old books, edit them, and publish them once they're successful enough to get away with bending genres?

Hee, I remember you! ("As much as you want!")

do successful authors ever dig up old books, edit them, and publish them once they're successful enough to get away with bending genres?

Yes. The example that pops into my head is Susan Kearney's book The Challenge--it was the first book she wrote, and something like her 20th to get published.

You don't have to sell the book of your heart to an e-press. Try submitting it. You might get lucky--you never ever ever know.

That's really all you can do! Good luck!

Thanks!

Oh, wonderful, thanks for telling me about Samhain--I'll be sure to check into them.

Hehe, I sneak all that unhappy romance and gay sex stuff into a big fat historical novel. Maybe I can hide in well enough in the really intricate plot, amazing setting and engaging characters for the publisher to realise it's there only after I the contract is signed. *grin*

FWIW, I've read online conversations where Ellora's Cave authors have said they do very well with the royalties from those e-books.

/looks at shiny, shiny statements about how genres are defined and that mysteries are "limited"--and quietly turns away.

:-)

Feel free to post more about genre if you want to! Nothing is really as black and white as I'm implying, but it makes the point.

I think you raised a lot of great points. Thank you :)

I sneak all that unhappy romance and gay sex stuff into a big fat historical novel.

And those tend to do pretty darn well, actually! So sneak away!

Thanks! I'm glad it was interesting. :)

Heh, well, I have to finish it first, and then I'd have to find someone to submit it to who solicits werecat porn... Plus it's very tempting that one of my friends copy-edits for Loose Id and has already pimped it to her editor, so I know they want it if no one else does.

And I didn't say at first 'cos I'm lame like that, but it was a great panel, informational and a really nice, friendly atmosphere -- we knew you were pros, but you weren't at all unapproachable, and even when they asked the same questions, you answered it fully each time. I for one really appreciated you guys taking the time out to talk to us, even if I did have to miss my Snape panel for it ;)

Awww, you skipped the Snape panel for us? I am totally flattered!! Thank you!

I just wanted to say, so OT'ly that I love your icon. (Would it be okay if I stole the idea?)

You know, I don't really get why people aren't uplifted about that advice. To me that says, if you know your genre well enough to push its boundaries from the inside, and you do it well, you can do pretty much anything you want. And that's awesome to hear. I think.

But then I'm in a really optimistic mood right now. ;)

Hah. Well, you're right! I think mostly people get annoyed at the idea that it's work. The implication is that editors should approach the writers and beg for the privilege of publishing their masterful works of fiction. And that's just not how it works. (Except for with, like,

katallison, who I would happily beg.)

Have I mentioned lately that you rock? Even outside the GLBTQ question, once again you've made some excellent points most cogently. Huzzah, I say.

THANK YOU for pointing out that publishing is a business. I have said that and said that to people until I am fucking blue in the face, and no one wants to listen. All they want to do is blame publishers for not publishing their work because they are homophobic; and I am tired of explaining, "most publishers shy away from publishing queer work because they think they'll lose money. CONVINCE them it won't, and they will publish it."

Well, and 99% of everything sucks--even GLBTQ books.

Yay, thank you! *rocks harder*

Discussions about genre definitions can be a vortex of suckage, and I think the actual topic of this thread is too interesting to tempt the Fates of Endless Digression.

Thanks, though. Great post, as always.

On boundary pushing: I thought Anne Rice (love her or hate her) also did some incredible things in that arena. If I ever meet her, I'll thank her. Without her, without Hamilton, a lot of people wouldn't have made it into print. It's very interesting to me how you can follow a chain of interesting writers into a whole new subgenre.

"And most people just don't do that. A lot of people don't want the genre conventions changed, because they like reading books that are comfortable."

Hehe. Just the other day I was talking to somebody about the female detective formula. People expect certain things from a female detective novel. You can break down book from Stephanie Plum to Anita Blake and you will find the same basic things: female heroine must be funny, there must be a love triangle, the bad guys must be primarily male, etc...