And it IS a happy Monday for me because THE ETIQUETTE OF LOVE is uploaded onto Amazon and I am starting on my next book!
I am also taking a bit of time to do some crafting and play with my beads. My current mania is for beaded pens, keychains, etc. These are small projects that I can do when I need a break from thinking. Usually, when I bead, I tackle something using size 11/0 beads that takes weeks to finish. If you are wondering what an 11/0 bead is, it means (or so people say) that there are roughly 11 per inch when you line them up. So they are small.
Lately when I need some veg-time I’ve been re-watching Battlestar Galactica, the 2004 version. I didn’t watch it when it came out and so I missed the craze, but I streamed it about 5 years ago and loved it. Until the end…
Sheesh. What an awful ending. I won’t spoiler it here, don’t worry. Anyhow, I keep thinking about how the ending could be made NOT to suck. And then it occurred to me there is probably a lot of BSG fan fiction. Now, fan fic is something that is very new to me. I never even heard of it until a few years ago. As a “creator” I find it kind of worrisome to see people riffing off somebody else’s literary/comic/dramatic creations. But it also seems pretty harmless as long as people can’t steal a living author’s characters and then make money from them. Although that certainly goes on enough with public domain characters and works. (Like P&P for instance).
But I will leave that moral morass for another day…
Anyhow, I looked up BSG fan fiction. I didn’t find anything especially interesting, but if anyone has some suggestions about some they might have read, I’d be interested in giving it a look.
On another writerish topic…
Recently I’ve received a couple of emails from readers expressing their concerns for the future of historical romance given a few posts on social media they have read about publishers not buying historical romance books.
Here is the short answer: Don’t. Worry. Historical romance is not even close to being dead.
Below is a much more wordy answer:
Historical romance is alive and flourishing (as I hope I prove with each book). There is only ONE reason a publisher won’t publish another book by an author (or pick up an option), and that is (come on, I know you can guess) lack of profit.
Just so it won’t look like I’m taking potshots at anyone, I’ll use my own career as an example.
I’ve had 2 traditional publishers.
One of them, I will call then Publisher 1, owns the rights to my historical mystery series. They only published 2 books and declined to publish a 3rd book in the series. Why? I can tell you personally that the books didn’t make any money, lol. Oh, they earned out their advances, but that isn’t enough for a publisher.
I think those two books are some of my best, so the fact that the publisher doesn’t want any more of them isn’t a reflection on the book or the quality of writing, it’s about all kinds of other factors–market demand, for example. In the case of my mystery series, it just didn’t fit the trend, which was (and probably still is) for cozy historicals rather than gritty, noir stories.
Now, the matter of book options can work in both directions, meaning an author does not always want to take the deal they are offered.
My other publisher, we’ll call them Publisher 2, made me an offer for another 3 of my books. I didn’t think the offer was sufficient and politely declined it, so that was the end of that.
I am assuming they did not accept my counter because they didn’t think the books were worth more than what they’d offered. Publishing is a business, after all, and even though I have a burning desire to see my books validated by a publishing contract, I would be foolish to just accept whatever I am offered. Especially with the option of self-publishing on the table.
So, historical romance as a genre is NOT dying and there are plenty of indy authors who would take exception to such a claim. I am one of them.
I think what we are seeing right now is just part of the cycle. The success of the Bridgerton books opened up some opportunities for a lot of HR authors. It also made a lot of people who write contemporary jump into the historical romance market. There was a boom for a few years and now it is settling down again.
We are currently seeing the same thing happen with romantasy, which is bonkers hot right now. A lot of romantasy authors will get a break, but only those who end up meeting their publisher’s expectations will get their options picked up.
The publishing business is rife with rejection, that’s for sure.
I started my publishing career with a traditional publisher and I will always be grateful to them. But I have to admit I really enjoy controlling all the aspects of a book myself.
Speaking of books…it is time for me to get to work!
I will leave you with this picture of one of my rescue hens, Roony (there are lots of hens needing rescuing! Please don’t support chick mills). She molted all the way naked and when her feathers grew back she had white eyebrows!!
