Wherein Diana Pretends to be Employed by TKA

Anyone who knows me at all has perhaps gandered that I have this tendency to be a bit of a Hermione-esque insufferable know it all. In school, I was the one doing that “ooh ooh, call on me!” thing in class, with my hand in the air.

My lovely agent has opened her blog for questions, which she does from time to time, and whenever she does, my little keyboarding fingers start getting itchy. I wanna participate in the worst way. But, uh, I can’t really perform a coup at her blog, so what we’re going to do is sit here and quietly debate the question and answer session ourselves. Shhh…. don’t tell. (Elaine, I’m warning you…)

So I’m going to pontificate my answers, which should not be in any way construed as an endorsement by Deidre or TKA or indeed, any industry official capable of repping or buying a manuscript. Just like everything else on my blog, it’s me, all me, all the time. I may accidentally come up with the same answer as Deidre, because we agree on a few things– mainly that I’m this brilliant young writer and she’s this hotshot agent and together we make beautiful industry music– and we may vehemently disagree on others. And maybe the good readers of Diana’s Diversions will also disagree. Should be fun, huh?

Okay, let’s go. (The questions are all from her comments section.)

With paranormal romance and fantasy/romance crossovers selling so well, do you think we’ll see a rise in fantasy romance? (Romances set in a fantasy setting, not crossovers, which are usually 50/50 plot/romance.) While the fantasy and fantasy/romance crossover market seems to be open to them (Tor Paranormals and LUNA), I’m not aware of any traditional romance publishers that will take them.

See, and I’m seeing a ton of these kind of books. The whole “urban fantasy” thing is huge now and there are a lot of fantasy markets that are publishing stories with strong romances in them. I think what might be going on here is that the publishers listed have dedicated lines for these fantasy-cum-romance stories (like LUNA) but many other publishers just roll thos stories into their established fantasy or just plain old commercial fiction lines. Bantam Spectra, for example, who does Kelley Armstrong. And there are definitely romantic fantasies that are published by traditional romance lines. I would say that PC Cast’s books for Berkley, and Robin D. Owen’s books are like that as well. And what about the series like Liz Maverick and Co.’s Crimson City for Dorchester? I think people are willing to open their boundaries a lot these days, in terms of fantasy and otherworldly stuff, even if it means bending the rules about what “romance” really is. Even if you look at Deidre Knight’s books, which have their romance stories but also this huge alien war going on and a plotline hat spans several books, but is coming out of NAL’s romance line. I know a lot of people who are selling things these days that are not by any means what you would call traditional.

So I think if you have an agent, and she sees that your book could go in a romance direction or in a fantasy direction (and now I’m going to cite the approach used by someone like Miriam Kriss in selling Rachel Vincent) then they’ll send it out both ways and see who it is that makes the best offer.

Do you see the YA market becoming more open to slightly older heroines, in the 18-19 year old range, as opposed to the more traditional 15-16 year olds? Or do books with that age heroine tend to get bumped up to the adult side of things? (Just in case it makes difference, the book is a dark, slightly edgy, urban fantasy.)

Judging from my own experience, it really does depend on the content of the book, however, I see a ton of 18 year olds in YA. To name a few: Serena Robar’s debut has a senior, and in the next one, she’s in college. Similarly, we’ve got Sticky Fingers, byy Nikki Burnham, Newly Wed (another Simon Pulse release) as well as Plan B, by Jenny O’Connell. The Traveling Pants series also spans that gap. I think that now is a time where there is a lot of leeway between adult and children’s reading lists. You see a lot of adults reading YA, whereas you used to just see kids “reading up.” But, as before (and also, I can speak from experience on this) what you do is you write the book, and then, if you agent thinks it has potentail in both places, he or she can shop it to both and see what happens. I think there’s a great market for what is described either way, and I think, if you do have something that can be cross marketed, then the publisher is going to try it. I see teen books being heavily cross marketed to adults (Twilight is an example, as well as Bad Kitty and, before the scandal, Opal Mehta) as well as adult books that would be teen freindly being marketed to teens as well (Shanna Swendson’s Enchanted Inc. books). My book is being cross marketed to teens and adults. So being between, whether you go child or adult *officially*, is proabbaly a fine place to be right now.

(Update: Make sure you read Marley Gibson’s comments about this, below, Gibson is another TKA client who just sold a four book YA deal to Penguin Puffin starring college girls.)

There seems to be plenty of outlets for romances about 100,000 words, but is there much of a print market for romances under 90,000 words?

90k is about right. I heard a publisher (I think it was Pocket) say at a conference that they didn’t want anything OVER 90k, so you sound like you’re in good shape. If it’s much lower, like below 75k, the you’re looking at category length, and below 60k, novellas.

Deidre, have you heard that editors are looking for “chick lit suspense”? I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around that one and can see it has lots of possibilites.

The great thing about chick lit suspense, especially in this dwindling chick lit market, is that you can cross market it to mystery readers, and your AGENT can cross market it to mystery publishers. Check out the releases from Berkley’s Prime Crime line. There’s a lot of chick litty stuff going on there. I think there’s still potential in that market.

(Are we sensing a theme here? Cross genre/marketing seems to be the name of the game these days!)

I have a few questions revolving around a single element: contemporary romance; I hope you’ll treat them as one. First of all, does contemporary romance (such as in your guidelines) encompass the category romances such as Harlequin Superromance, Blaze and the like? And with all the attention on paranormals and the like, what’s the value in the contemporary market? I know that Dorchester Publishing is running a contest that includes contemporaries, but is that market still strong?

There are TKA clients who write category romances. Just check the client list. I don’t know, however, if they are looking to consider unpublished clients with only category romances. We’ll have to wait for the verdict from DK on that one. I think the straight contemporary single title category is really tight right now. I have a few friends working in it and I think that if you don’t have an established name from category, or are offering something with a really strong hook, and it’s not super erotic (which is selling amazingly well right now), then it’s tight. And I think Dorchester picks a new topic for their contest every year, so I wouldn’t use that as a yardstick for trends.

When it comes to style, how is a memoir different from a novel? I’ve decided to take a book I am working on and change it from memoir to fiction and am wondering if there is anything I need to do besides the obvious changing of names and identifying characteristics. My plan is to leave the story as is, true, but give certain people reasonable deniability by going fiction. Are there other conventions to the memoir genre of which I need to be aware?

I’m just going to paraphrase Mark Twain here: the difference between fiction and non-fiction is that fiction has got to be believable. The things that you oculd get away with in your memoir — characters not having arcs, plot threads being dropped, etc. — are not things that are acceptable in fiction. Yes, things in real life don’t have neat endings. Stories do, though. Remember James Frey? He tried to make his book a novel. No one wanted anything to do with it. People judge fiction much more harshly because they know the writer can change it, make it better, if he or she wants. Memoirs you’re supposedly stuck with what actually happened. I don’t think it’s a one-to-one ratio, but it depends on the story.

Tonight, for instance, a friend told me this story that even as she was telling it, I thought, if I put this in a book, no one will believe me. There is a part in Secret Society Girl that really happened that my eidtor wanted me to take out because she thought it was ridiculous. See? Fiction has to be believable.

What do you see as the future for Mom Lit? Is it the next big thing since Chick Lit, since many of us who’ve loved Chick Lit all these years are now moms?

I have a friend who is trying to shop an amazing mom lit and isn’t having any luck. But I also see stuff coming out in that arena — however, it tends to be high concept, cross genre stuff, like Confessions of a Supermom and Carpe Demon. I’m interested to see what others have to say about this trend (?) though.

My question: do you think the present boom in YA will follow the same “boom/bust/what next?” sales pattern as chick lit?

Man, I hope not! I think that the important thing to remember here is that though the romance/chick lit community may have just jumped on the YA bandwagon, there’s a lot outside that market that has existed and will exist long after people have hopped on the next trend. YA is hugely strong right now. A lot of people think it’s because the popularity of Harry Potter has gotten kids reading. Woo hoo, I say! Like the boom of chick lit, there are right now a lot of lines being opened specifically targetting the young adult female reader, to capitalize on the success of Meg Cabot and certain recent Alloy properties. But there are also a TON of publishers that have been devoted to YA for ages, and I think they aren’t going anywhere, trend or not. I think that the best of those books and writers and lines will survive. I think that some of them will not. I think some of the writers who are writing YA right now aren’t really interested in YA, they are interested in shortcuts. I think they’ll be gone. But I think that YA is not some new genre that’s just been discovered. It’s a booming market right now, but it’s been a steady market for years.

(Next are a lot of very agency-specific questions. I’m not going to deal with those. Just industry questions here.)

What sorts of YA novels do you see as “hot” right now? I’ve been hearing conflicting things.

I was at a conference in February, and the industry folks there said that paranormal was hot, and edgy was hot. They weren’t looking for sweet stories in YA (try the tween market).

What might this pitch gain me vs. a mail query? If so, what is the best way to pitch without trying to tell the whole plot and sound like an idiot? Just strike up a conversation about the genre or market?

Personally? I don’t know if I put much value in a face-to-face pitch over a finely-crafted query letter. Either one is just a means to an end — get your book in front of them. It’s the book that makes the difference. If you’re meeting for a pitch, that’s great, though! As for what to say in the pitch, just start from the premise. Premise and character. Look at book flap copy and back cover copy. Try to make it a dialgoue if at all possible.

My question is in regards to contemporary romantic suspense. Crime dramas seem to be all the rage on TV these days – CSI, Law & Order, etc. Several of my author friends who have recently sold in RS are selling “cop” books – either crime scene investigations or books that center around cops, serial killers, etc. My question then is whether or not there’s a market for non-cop RS…books about everyday people who find themselves in suspenseful situations. Authors like Roxanne St. Claire and Nora Roberts can get away with these type of stories, but they’re well-established authors. What about newbies trying to break into RS?

I have no answer for this. I just wanted to point out that this questioner has my honey Rocki lumped into the same category as Queen Nora. Woo hoo, Rock! Check it, babe! But I don’t know that much about RS. Allison? Alison? Julie? Rocki? (Or we could all wait to hear what TKA has to say.)

I’m also curious as to Deidre’s take on “romantic adventure.”

(Update: Read Roxanne St. Claire’s comments about this below. Roxanne, of course, is an expert in both types of romantic suspense, having written “women getting caught up in extraordinary circumstances” RS in books like Tropical Getaway as well as professional/cop style RS in her new Bullet Catchers series.)

I’m trying to interest agents in a genre that doesn’t really exist: what I call “chicklit memoir”. Should I just “fictionalize” it and call it just plain old chicklit?

Well, memoir, like most non-fiction, needs an intense platform, and chick lit is not doing well right now, so I think my instinctive answer, without knowing anything about the project, and with no desire to offend anyone involved, would probably be c) None of the Above. I know that sounds harsh, but this is a difficult business. I sympathize, because I myself have some truly rocking travel tales, but I keep them on my blog, or bore people with them once I’ve had a few martinis. I know it’s not a book. I suppose you could try caling it a novel (keeping in mind the advice for memoir-to-novel, above) and give that a whirl, but if nothing happens, put it under the bed and write something totally new. the other thing to keep in mind is that most agents want to launch career writers in fiction, not people with one book. People who write memoirs don’t usually write many books (most not more than one). So before you fictionalize your memoir, make sure you want to be a novelist and write other stuff after you’re done with that.

Okay, I think I’m caught up. Phew, I feel better.

So, what do you all think? Agree or disagree?