I pose this question because this is an answer
I received from an editor at a big name publishing house.
My NaNo book is very close to being finished.
It is a fantasy novel. It will have witches, which makes it fall under the
"paranormal" sub-genre of fantasy.
That is a bad thing.
Apparently, the market is super saturated with
paranormal right now and publishers are eagerly escaping the flood zone in
their kayaks and high-powered boats. They're yelling at everyone to get out as
fast as they can. The editors and publishers are hightailing it to higher
ground as the huge paranormal wave crashes down around the readers, sweeping everyone and everything away in its path.
Do I really want to enter a market that is
drowning the masses in its wake?
I hesitantly respond, "Um, yes? I don't
know. Maybe?"
Will my book survive under the huge, pressing
wave? Will it rise to the surface and breathe in healthy air that will give it
energy and life? Or will it plummet to the bottom of the ocean, crushed by the
pressing weight of the other paranormal books above it? Maybe it will be washed
onto the shore, forgotten and left to die while the others get saved by
altruistic passersby.
I really don’t
know.
I can’t
predict the future. I can’t ride the tailcoats of trends.
I don’t
know how I should proceed when I get turned away before I even reach the locked
gate.
Well,
maybe I do.
I have to
go with my gut. My gut may be wrong but there is also a possibility that it may
be right. If I don’t follow what I think is the right course of action, I may
regret it and then I would always have that constant itch at the back corner of
my brain, “What if… .”
It’s
better to have an “Oh, well. That didn’t work,” over a “What if I only tried it
that way?”
I have my
answer. I know exactly what I’m going to do.
Now, it’s
your turn to tackle this question: What would you do?
Until next
time ~
