Where did that decade go?

[julesjones]

This weekend marks ten years since I was bitten by the writing bug. I went to a science fiction con, and saw my first fanfiction zines, ones for a political sf show from the BBC. Something clicked, and not long after that, I started writing my own fanfic stories. And submitting them to zines with editors who edited. The first story I ever wrote was submitted to someone who tore it apart, showed me why it didn't work -- and how to fix it. I learnt a lot from that, however painful it might have been at the time, and when I started writing original fiction three years later it showed. I sold the second original story I wrote, to the second editor I submitted it to. For forty two pounds, a number which amused me and will amuse a lot of other science fiction fans.

Ten years on, and I've got ten books out with a small press. It's still mostly political sf crossed with gay romance, and it's still a lot of fun to write. I hope everyone else has had as much fun reading it as I did writing it. Cheers.

Comments

[julesjones]

20k? Ouch. Though my problem's usually the opposite - I'm a natural novella writer, and there aren't many print markets for novella length.

So are you going to try shopping it in the US as well?

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

Reading US Writer, Agent and Editor Blogs is the main inspiration for me to reduce the word count (170k to 150k) -- I was originally aiming to cut at least 10k but last time I checked I seemed to be on target to cut the full 20k.

I'm wondering about the US market -- my writing and themes tend to be very British and I'm not sure whether that's going to be a hindrance or a help selling it elsewhere before I get a UK sale. What would you think?

[julesjones]

I think it'll mean you need to hit the right agent at the right time even more than usual, but it certainly wouldn't rule you out. There's a US market for Britlit, and although a lot of it is reprints, I know there are people who sold to the US first. Charlie Stross sold to the US first, although that's slightly different as he already had a name in short stories. You might want to ask in the relevant forums at Absolute Write:
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/index.php

As you will have already gathered, the US market is currently going for shorter books from first time authors, at least in science fiction and fantasy. 150k would be a hard sell, although not impossible. I don't know what the situation is in mystery. With it being somewhat cross-genre, it might be worth asking alg about both word count and the Britlit aspect if you haven't already -- I think the current "ask me a publishing question" post is here:
http://alg.livejournal.com/74060.html?mode=reply

My own experience has been that the British flavour of my books is very popular with the American readers, but that's not terribly relevent because it's a) small press b) a genre where part of the appeal for a significant number of readers is reading about exotic places. Remember that mine are marketed specifically as romance.

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that. As soon as the chaos at Real Work calms down I'll poke around at Absolute Write, like I've been meaning to do for ages.

I've been meaning to ask alg too. I've been following her LJ for a while, and I was about to post a question on that thread when I got involved in a minor argument with commenters on another of her posts. Hopefully that's all blown over and forgotten by now.

On the one hand a novel about Oxford academics ought to appeal to Anglophile Americans, but on the other hand we're talking socialists-with-money, which is either going to come across as quaint or completely alien to those readers. And then there's the whole Richard/James dilemma (and implied Charles/any-suitable-student) thing, which kind of fits the late 80's better than it fits current sensibilities.