Musings to myself
Nov. 20th, 2016 11:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rainwatersparkI forgot whether I've been posting updates here about my quest to publish Project E or not (forgive me, autistic burnout causing severe executive functioning issues means my memory has been horrible), so I decided to do a sum up/musing on future plans.
Of the agents I queried, I received 4 flat rejections (no requests for fulls/partials) and am still technically waiting to hear back from 2 others, one from an agency with a "no reply means no" policy and one whose timeframe is up to 8 weeks to hear back from a query.
I'm kind of cynical at this point, so I'm basically assuming those last two have rejected/will reject me, too.
My family encourages me to query more agents, but here's the thing—there aren't that many agents, relatively speaking, who say they're open to/looking for LGBTQ content, and even fewer who represent sci-fi and adult/not YA. Of the small list I managed to pull together that fit all 3 criteria I needed, the agents I queried, based on what they *said* they were looking for, seemed like the best fit for Project E—and so far almost all of them have turned me down outright. I've tried searching, but I'm not sure how to find any other listing(s) of agents who say they'd represent LGBTQ content (FYI, I used AgentQuery and Manuscriptwishlist.com and even tried a general Google search).
Call me cowardly, but I'm just not confident enough to submit Project E to agents who represent general sci-fi.
Here's the thing: Project E sits at a crossroads between (queer) romance and sci-fi. It's not genre romance. It's got a (light) sci-fi action/mystery plot...and yet a large part of the book revolves around the interpersonal dynamic between the two main characters, which itself is driven by romance/the ghost of romance/possible romance. It's impossible for me to classify it as "more" sci-fi or "more" romance; it's a 50/50 mix. And that's why I'm just too unsure to query agents who represent general sci-fi.
(I don't know, is it that "sci-fi romance" as a genre is not what anyone is looking for? Riptide Publishing, one of the biggest LGBTQ-focused smaller publishers, considers queer sci-fi romance to be a risk, and if they consider sci-fi romance to be a risk...)
So, at this point, my only option is to submit to Dreamspinner Press (given that Project E goes over Riptide's 80k word limit and, as I said, they consider sci-fi romance to be "risky" anyways). So it was a great idea to spend my day today reading about some of DSP's controversies (/sarcasm)—namely, at least one author whose book series sold a lot for DSP got screwed over somehow, and there was a plagiarism accusation. But most worryingly to me is that I've read threads/posts in which people have complained about the poor quality of DSP books over time, which have led them to not buy DSP books anymore...which isn't a good sign for an author trying to start their career with DSP.
(Although personally I haven't seen this "really poor editing" from DSP books that people have complained of. Sure, there are some books that just aren't written well, but that'll happen with any publisher that isn't tiny; the Big 5 publish poorly-written books, too.)
And yet, DSP is still one of the biggest (if not the biggest) publishers for M/M romance, so it's still my best shot at getting Project E into print, given that Riptide isn't an option for me (and I can't do my own self-promotion for self-publishing).
So...yeah. Those are my (tired, slightly demoralized) thoughts. I love Project E with all my heart, and I say that as someone who is an extremely critical reviewer of books, so in my heart of hearts, I honestly believe Project E is good enough, writing-wise, to be traditionally published if the subject matter wasn't any kind of barrier. But, when faced with rejections, what can you do.
Of the agents I queried, I received 4 flat rejections (no requests for fulls/partials) and am still technically waiting to hear back from 2 others, one from an agency with a "no reply means no" policy and one whose timeframe is up to 8 weeks to hear back from a query.
I'm kind of cynical at this point, so I'm basically assuming those last two have rejected/will reject me, too.
My family encourages me to query more agents, but here's the thing—there aren't that many agents, relatively speaking, who say they're open to/looking for LGBTQ content, and even fewer who represent sci-fi and adult/not YA. Of the small list I managed to pull together that fit all 3 criteria I needed, the agents I queried, based on what they *said* they were looking for, seemed like the best fit for Project E—and so far almost all of them have turned me down outright. I've tried searching, but I'm not sure how to find any other listing(s) of agents who say they'd represent LGBTQ content (FYI, I used AgentQuery and Manuscriptwishlist.com and even tried a general Google search).
Call me cowardly, but I'm just not confident enough to submit Project E to agents who represent general sci-fi.
Here's the thing: Project E sits at a crossroads between (queer) romance and sci-fi. It's not genre romance. It's got a (light) sci-fi action/mystery plot...and yet a large part of the book revolves around the interpersonal dynamic between the two main characters, which itself is driven by romance/the ghost of romance/possible romance. It's impossible for me to classify it as "more" sci-fi or "more" romance; it's a 50/50 mix. And that's why I'm just too unsure to query agents who represent general sci-fi.
(I don't know, is it that "sci-fi romance" as a genre is not what anyone is looking for? Riptide Publishing, one of the biggest LGBTQ-focused smaller publishers, considers queer sci-fi romance to be a risk, and if they consider sci-fi romance to be a risk...)
So, at this point, my only option is to submit to Dreamspinner Press (given that Project E goes over Riptide's 80k word limit and, as I said, they consider sci-fi romance to be "risky" anyways). So it was a great idea to spend my day today reading about some of DSP's controversies (/sarcasm)—namely, at least one author whose book series sold a lot for DSP got screwed over somehow, and there was a plagiarism accusation. But most worryingly to me is that I've read threads/posts in which people have complained about the poor quality of DSP books over time, which have led them to not buy DSP books anymore...which isn't a good sign for an author trying to start their career with DSP.
(Although personally I haven't seen this "really poor editing" from DSP books that people have complained of. Sure, there are some books that just aren't written well, but that'll happen with any publisher that isn't tiny; the Big 5 publish poorly-written books, too.)
And yet, DSP is still one of the biggest (if not the biggest) publishers for M/M romance, so it's still my best shot at getting Project E into print, given that Riptide isn't an option for me (and I can't do my own self-promotion for self-publishing).
So...yeah. Those are my (tired, slightly demoralized) thoughts. I love Project E with all my heart, and I say that as someone who is an extremely critical reviewer of books, so in my heart of hearts, I honestly believe Project E is good enough, writing-wise, to be traditionally published if the subject matter wasn't any kind of barrier. But, when faced with rejections, what can you do.
