the category market is shrinking
According to H/S, this is top secret news. According to the nine thousand writer’s loops I belong to, every single writer in the world knows this news already. I won’t say more on the topic, except for the fact that I was happy to hear the line I’m concentrating on writing for is planning on concentrating on their best-selling themes (ie military-ish stories). Bad news is, they’re cutting down on the titles per months and focusing on their bestselling authors. Ouch.
But seriously, what publishing house ISN’T cutting back? The market is shrinking shrinking shrinking and writers who are not all that great are getting way too much money, which really ends up screwing over new writers. I’m tired of getting rejections that say things like, ‘it’s hard for a new writer to break in to the romance market.’ Obviously, yes. But the ones who do the rejecting act like it’s out of their control to let the new writers in. The market wants to go with the ’safe’ writers (read: the ones who will make tons of money off the bat - because most new writers won’t) - and thus, the agents aren’t going to take on anyone who’s not bestseller material. It’s the whole death of the midlist crisis again. And hey, I read the midlist. I love reading brand-new authors too- but unfortunately, can’t find all that many of them.
Okay, rant is over for now. According to the powers that be (the eharlequin message boards), the official scoop will be given to everyone tomorrow. Which makes me wonder when/if I should contact SIM and inquire as to the status of my requested full. I sent it June 1 and haven’t gotten the SASP back yet. Here’s to hoping it made it there safely and that they are indeed still considering military stories from unpubs.
As for the mini-vacation I spoke of in an earlier blog, it was awesome. Tons of beach time and fun time with good friends. Lost my daughter’s nap schedule somewhere along the way and lots of sleep myself, but it was worth it. The only good/bad parts were no internet access (it’s amazing how addicting the web can be) and the fact that I did NO writing for 5 days. None, nada, zip. And I didn’t jump right back onto the horse today either. I need inspiration - I need a good book to read. Lately, nothing’s satisfying me. It gets frustrating when your crit partner’s books are the best that you’ve read in a long long time and she can’t get her foot in the door. (ah, see how I went full circle back to the publishing rant?).
Okay, I must write something today. Anything. I’m thinking of a hero named Bat . . .
Steph T.
