![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
I could really use an agent right now
mood: 
okay
okayI don't know what book to write next. T tells me to "write what you think will sell". The problem with that advice is I don't know what will sell. I love all my projects. If I didn't, I'd never be able to finish them, not even if I was guaranteed a spot on the NYTimes List. I can't write to the market. I can only look at my ideas and guess which one might be my break-in novel. (Break-IN, not break-out. Rachelle Gardner has a great post here on this.)
Even though there are no guarantees in publishing, an agent at least has a better idea, an inside view, of what is selling and what editors are looking for. It would be nice to have someone to discuss my ideas with so they can say, "Hey, I know of an editor who likes BLANK. Project Awesome would fit that. Work on it." But I don't have an agent, so I'm left bouncing between projects, asking myself:
"Should I rewrite my ya sci-fi? I think it has great commercial potential, but it already had a round in NY."
"Should I finish SoT? I love its characters and it's already at 45k. But will anyone else love it?"
"What about the SB novel? It's new and shiny and I'll be able to incooperate the emotional turmoil of a historical romance into a sf-romance. But will that even work?"
I could pull my hair out over this. I guess I'll just have to make a decision and stick with it.
Do you guys have any advice? How do you decide what project to work on next?
*** Yes, there are other ways to get published, but they're not easy.
A few months ago you asked me to not let you write something you didn't think had market potential (this was when you were feeling doubts about your current project)
I really like your voice for a YA market, but I know you like to write adult themes.
I worry about you writing sci-fi because your technical details and descriptions are not as strong as your personalities and conversations.
But I love epic books (fantasy and scifi) and I know you dont write that. I want my scifi to be detailed and technical and believable.
I just want you to know what you are going to write before you are 20K words into it! :-)
Love you!
And my sci-fi *is* all about the personalities and dialogue. If I was attempting hard SF, *then* I'd have major issues.
Maybe I should call what I write space fantasy instead of sci-fi.
Problem is I'll be sad if I don't get to finish my ya trilogy or my vampire series, but if I can't sell the first books, there's no reason to write the second, third, etc.
"You should write whatever you WANT to write. Write the book you love most - the one that is really speaking to you. When you're 'pre-published' you can whatever you want!! Try not to think tooooo much about what will sell the best, and write the book you are most excited by."
This really hit home, you know? I was toying with a MG novel for girls ... but I knew at the back of my mind that I would not pull it off, not yet. I'm too into my YA at the moment and of course revising Djinn, which is MG for boys.
So, my advice is:
Make a list of your stories you currently have on hand.
Then, cross off the one you are the least excited about.
Forget about it for a bit. Look at the others you have on hand. How many is that? Four or five? Which two are you truly excited about?
Allocate a number or heads/tals - roll dice, flip a coin and see what happens. How do you feel about the one that's "won"?
It sounds a bit mercenary doing it like this, but this is a clever way to work through your honest feelings about your writings.
Also: can I say that I much prefer the idea of space fantasy? Speaking of which, have you read Wrapt in Crystal by Sharon Shinn? To me that is exactly what space fantasy is.
Thanks Liz!
The one I end up writing will be the one I'd most like to read when it's done :)
That said, I've learned a few things:
Don't write sequels to books I've already written, instead keep trying to sell the original and write a different project.
If you have a choice between a project that seems wildly out there and one that seems closer to what NYC wants, go with the one that seems close.
And, the fact that I love writing something tends to trump even those. Because I have no control over publishing so why waste my time writing something I don't like on the hope that it will sell?
Might as well satisfy myself first and if I'm not doing that, what's the point of writing at all?
Dunno if that helps. Those rules might be specific to me. :)
And I think my other three ideas (all sf-rom) will have the same appeal in NYC. So I'm going to go with SoT. I'll stick with it this time. No more second guessing! :-)
Thanks for the advice.
That's how I figured out my next novel. I was at a loss because I'd been working in two worlds quite a bit for quite a few years and now that i have the first two MS's done in both those worlds felt it was time to branch out. Kind of scary actually.
I'd say do what feels best to you, because really, that's going to be your best work. I've read before that you have to write for yourself first.
Good luck.
Cross your fingers for me!
You can do it!!! *fingers crossed*
There's a market, go for it!
:-)
(BTW, steadily working through F. About halfway there now. I hope to have it done by the middle of next week at the latest)
Good luck!
BTW, have you finished SKOFT? Can I read?
(Anonymous)
How are you? Are you working on a new project?
(Edited to fix typo. Sorry. Really Tired. Ugh.)
Edited at 2009-11-26 03:30 am (UTC)