the werewolves have it . . .

August 30, 2008 at 8:28 pm · Filed under Publishing and tagged: rejection letters, sub-genres, werewolf books

Yesterday I got a form rejection letter from an agent I queried about my latest book (commercial women’s fiction). She enclosed my snail-mailed query with her rejection, which listed a host of reasons for passing on any work they receive using bulleted points, such as “we don’t handle that genre,” “your manuscript needs polishing,” etc.

Regarding my particular query, she had circled the bullet explaining that she was overstocked with fiction manuscripts and memoirs and that the market for these books is hard to crack, for agents, too.

Actually, the form was not at all personal but helpful. I’m glad she enclosed it. Any feedback is better than no feedback. (Of course, had she told me my manuscript needs polishing when I only submitted a query letter, I might still be scratching my head.)

So if chick lit, hen lit, bling lit, and glitz lit aren’t selling, what is? Some agents I queried told me that suspense/thrillers/romantic suspense are selling and that I should write one of those. And we know Americans are buying–$30 billion in book sales in 2007. And even though sales are off that mark in 2008, that’s still a hefty chunk of pocket change. So what is everyone buying? Lots of text books, trade paperbacks, and audio books. And guess what else?

Surprisingly while perusing the deals via the Publishers Marketplace website, I learned that werewolf stories are selling. A casual site search revealed that at least nine werewolf novels were sold (some in very good deals, according to self-reported data) in the last twelve months.

one of many fashionable werewolf books

Not too shabby.

Apparently, some genres and sub-genres of fiction are selling. If you’ve got a werewolf or vampire manuscript sitting on a shelf, dust it off, polish it up, and send it off while werewolf novels are in vogue.

Just why readers across the globe have a lycanthropic appetite for werewolf stories would make an interesting post, too, but definitely one outside my purview.

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