This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Caroline Hogg has worked in publishing for almost ten years. She is Senior Commissioning Editor for Commercial Women's Fiction at Pan Macmillan.
This week a Novelicious reader asked:
I was advised last year by an agent that they (agents) are finding it very difficult to get publishers to take a look at any commercial women's fiction/chicklit with a supernatural theme, however well written – would you agree?
The following banner is an affiliate one. That means Writing Tips Oasis receive a small % of the sale if you purchase The Novel Factory, but at no extra cost to you:
A supernatural theme may well make an editor on a mainstream commercial women’s fiction list a little wary, as it would be a risk whether or not the retailers would be able to get onboard and give plenty of support for the book. There’s a certain amount of risk with any book, but outside of mainstream genres it’s even riskier. Without that retailer support, you won’t be able to build the author’s career and sell lots of books. Sometimes, despite having lots of personal passion for a book, as an editor you have to balance up the practicalities of how you’ll get it to the market and through the tills. You have to be confident of your chances in order to take that author on and be responsible for their writing career.
If the supernatural theme is something you love to read and write yourself, look at the imprints that publish books like this. These imprints will have experience in this area and know what’s working and what’s a harder sell. In short, they’d be the best home for your book. Then have a look at the agents thanked in the acknowledgements of the books you’ve enjoyed. These might be the agents to approach with your work, as they’ve clearly worked within the genre before. If you have a passion for something, keep going. Trying to write within a genre just because you think it’s selling well, or more easily, will not make for the best book you could write.