So there’s this book called TWILIGHT and it’s kind of popular.
Whenever there is a popular book, my inbox explodes with query imitations. There was the epic and ongoing TOTALLY NOT HARRY POTTER deluge, quickly followed by the TOTALLY NOT DA VINCI CODE phase. Often these queries boldly come right out and say they are the “next” [insert book they are imitating].
The current TOTALLY NOT TWILIGHT era we’re in blows all of the other eras out of the water, particularly when you combine it with non-vampire paranormal and/or urban fantasy tropes. Well over half of the queries I am receiving these days involve some combination of vampires, zombies, faeries, pixies, ghosts, and/or Dick Cheney.
Now, don’t get me wrong. This doesn’t mean that you can’t write or query me with urban fantasy/paranormal. The opposite in fact. Just look at the bestseller list.
And before I get angry comments, let me also say that I’m not accusing everyone who writes in these genres of imitating TWILIGHT. I’m not saying that.
But I think it’s important to keep some things in mind if you are querying in these increasingly well-trodden genres:
1. I don’t know if I speak for other agents, but I’m getting some serious vampire/faerie/zombie fatigue. Whether it’s the misfit teenager who is secretly communicating with a ghost or the misfit teenager who is actually a vampire (or, conversely, has a crush on one), I’ve seen it all and I’m seeing it often. Now. That doesn’t mean I don’t want you to query me with urban fantasy or paranormal. But I’m not going to be favorably disposed to something that sounds like the same old paranormal story. It needs to be something different and it needs to feel fresh. I know it’s really difficult to do something different and fresh when everyone and their mom and their grandma and her mom are writing paranormal. But thems are the breaks.
2. Do. Not. Mention. TWILIGHT. Don’t mention TWILIGHT. It never existed. You didn’t read it, it has no bearing on your book, you aren’t comparing yourself to it, you’re not living on the same planar field in which that book was written. Don’t mention it in the query. Agents don’t want the next TWILIGHT. Well. Caveat. We want something that is as popular as TWILIGHT. But we don’t want a straight up imitation. And saying your book is going to be as popular as TWILIGHT just makes you look…. well, like you think faeries are real. (They’re not, are they?)
3. Understand what you’re up against. You might think that because you happen to have a novel in the hot genre du jour that it’s going to grease the publication tracks and you’ll soon be showing off to your friends with a new hardcover of the next TWI… that other vampire book that is kind of popular. Keep in mind that because there are so many people writing these novels now, the stakes are raised. Ground has been trodden. You have to either trod new ground or trod the existing ground with spectacular, mindboggling execution. It’s not, in other words, easier.
Ultimately, the same old advice applies: write what you love, write a really amazing, incredible book, and let the gods of publishing take care of the rest. Or should I say the publishing zombies…
I'm not quite as horrified by Twolight as the last post I read, but I'm with him otherwise. My daughter and MIL are obsessed.
I was kind of bored by the writing, although the premise wasn't bad. But, because I'm not jumping up and down screaming in delight over the book, I'm kind of looked upon like a moron.
It's okay. It's the only book I can truthfully say I liked the movie better about. LOL
Mostly, I think it filled a gap for teenagers in the vampire hype. But the POV doesn't interest me and the writing style is boring, so I highly doubt I will use it as an example.
Good luck at the party, Patrick Rodgers….
There is a marvelous writer in my writing group writing a vampire story.
It is nothing like Twilight.
It is just wonderful. I am totally hooked on it. The new chapter just are not coming fast enough for me.
The thing about vampires, is that, there are so many ways to imagine them. That's the FUN!!!!
Although I do not 'totally hate' vampire lore…of late it feels to be shoved just a tad more than usual down our oh so willing throats. I like the dark and creatures that dwell so comfortably there… but I must say that it would be nice to have a series of books for youth to follow featuring a hero that did not involve ,draining, sucking, tearing ,ripping or other painful and non productive acts. I would rather see a Bad Assed Fairy with attitude who bumps off trolls and takes out bad witches with one fell swoop….
Jodi
All of my common sense tells me you are so right … but then I see these same exact books getting the crazy high money deals. Kind of stinks, you know?
There's a twilight board game on sale now at Amazon. Maybe I should send one in along with my vampire book query…
Re. Anon 12:31. Nathan, question. Say you rejected a query, then another agent wanted to sign the writer. Prior to signing could the writer return and ask you for re-consider?
Good food for thought. Good thing thinking doesn't add weight, right?
Just this week, I was thinking about why us humans are fascinated by magic. We never seem to tire of it from one generation to the next.
From television shows to movies, books and magazines, even in folk lore, magic draws us in like a magnet. It will continue to do so, I think.
So. Why magic? Magic is a form of a miracle, something that happens to solve a problem. It is an escape from reality that we exist in today, yesterday, and will tomorrow because reality is either too harsh, too shallow, or too boring, or life is too short (vampires have eternal life, sorta).
Magic and the paranormal are fascinating.
Fairies? I know where they live.;) Dragons are real, too. Vampires? Never met one, but I think my x was a warewolf. He was a real monster during a full moon (during any phase of the moon for that matter).
I like your blogs, Nathan, because you speak your mind, give us the latest, the news, and how it feels to be on the other side of this creative muse we all suffer from.
We can all agree to disagree here and no one gets their undergarments in a twist.
After about the sixth rewrite (no longer a book…it is a quest), my son now likes my novel.
Now, "if I had more time, I would have written less…" Pascal.
Lucy and the Magpie
Twilight I just liked. Patrick Rogers post I LOVED.
I recently got a deal for an urban fantasy series involving vampires and other paranormal elements. There's no sparkling in the sunlight, no "marble" features, no angsty teenagers, etc, etc. It bears no resemblance to TWILI– err… THAT WHICH SHAN'T BE NAMED other than the inclusion of vampires and werewolves. And, no, I didn't mention YOU KNOW THE ONE in my query. I guess what I'm trying to say here is that, despite the glut, it can be done.
Particularly by application your points here:
It needs to be something different and it needs to feel fresh. I know it's really difficult to do something different and fresh when everyone and their mom and their grandma and her mom are writing paranormal. But thems are the breaks.
…You have to either trod new ground or trod the existing ground with spectacular, mindboggling execution.
It is possible to do these things.
There are quite a few good books with vampires out there — for starters, see Jim Butcher's series (the Dresden Files), Kim Harrison's series (the Hollows), Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, and Mr. King's SALEM'S LOT. I'd hate to see people give up on all books with vampires (or werewolves, for that matter) just because they didn't like one or two authors. Is there a glut of these books? Sure. Are they all bad? No. Emphatically, no.
I just want to say I've written a vampire story *g* I started it ten years ago, and finished it – for the most part – around 2004. Then I started fine-tuning until a few years ago when I put it away as too hard to get it perfect enough for publication. At least, I'd had knock-backs enough to become discouraged. Publishers over here in Australia just weren't interested in paranormal, especially when it was combined with elements of Christianity and inspirational. And, also, to be honest, the story needed a lot of work. I have lots of problems with sytax and some other elements of style.
Up until this year I'd never heard of Twilight. Say what you will to this, but I live in Australia where the novel is not well-known, especially about in the country where I live. Even now the movie has come out, most of my neighbours haven't heard of Twilight. Well, they're elderly and not interested in teenage angst or entertainment. My novel is for adults, but I like anything to do with vampires,as long as it's not too gross.
I was gob-smacked when the movie came out this year because there are so many similiarities in the plot. It was uncanny. Funnily, enough, the success of the movie inspired me to dust off my ms and have another go at getting it into to shape.
I'm hoping that Twilight coming out right now will work for me rather than against me. If not, there's always posthumous publication. *g*
I now realise I'll prob. never heard back from Nathan on my vampire novel query. Combined with querying something that is pretty much passe, I broke just about every rule in his query ettiquette book. After discovering this blog, I became a little too over-excited and dashed off a query before I'd read most of the posts.
Aah, well…you can use my query as an example of what not to do, Nathan.
I am so moving to Australia Wendy the place sounds like a dream, a place where Twilight isn't big and I don't have to daily resist the urge to kill someone with a Twilight book. Heaven on Earth.
I also think there is a Utah counter-culture thing to it as well as Meyer is a Mormon housewife. I don't know this for a fact but evidenced by the knowledge that I can't go to any waiting room or any place where someone might have a book and that book is likely to be a twilight book.
If the books were any good I could get behind the insanity. I didn't think such murderous thoughts about the people dressed in Wizard robes awaiting the latest Harry Potter tome at midnight. I actually encouraged the mania getting my youngest sister to read the books.
But my blood boils, my anger rises and I see red every time I see one of those hated books. I can't even come to Nathan's blod my place of sanctuary without seeing mention of them. I need therapy and a good book deal thats what I need.
Yes, but I've learned that it's not good to be too original either. Nobody knows how to classify your work and you end up with a small press.
First, I don’t really think it was just the vampires that sold Twilight, and maybe those who are trying to imitate it should look a little deeper. I agree the writing is substandard, but the conflict, WOW!!!! How many stories can keep up the conflict after an affirmation of love?
Second, I’m a middle grade teacher, and this year I witnessed kids reading those books all the time, way more than I’ve seen reading between classes, when work was done, during lessons (put the book away) in ten years! Seeing them read for pleasure was a real pleasure. So kudos to SM for writing something they can’t put down!
"The stakes are raised," you say, Mr. B? Those are WOODEN stakes, I hope?
What about books about REAL vampires, like, say Bernie Madoff or those Enron guys?
lol. Funny post. I love vamp stories, but it's too bad your inbox has to suffer.
I don't mind if they keep publishing vampire books forever, as long as some of those books turn into awesome True Blood-like shows.
True Blood. OMG. Latest TV obsession!
stephen-
There's no rule against it but I would most likely defer to the interested agent.
I'm not a huge fan of vampires or urban fantasy stories in general and I told myself I'd never write a paranormal novel.
Of course, my writer's mind rebelled and came up with one 😛
No vampires or werewolves or zombies; something based more off a myth. Still, it's a long way off from even being considered publishable material (still in the research/first draft phase!) and by the time it's ready (if ever) the tidal wave of vamp fiction will be passed.
Maybe.
Or else someone will have come up with a similar idea. 😛 I still have my other historical fiction novel to work on too.
Anyway, I'll just write what I love and what story is speaking to me at the time despite the trends. If it doesn't get published, it'll be sad but I'll deal–at least I'll have the story for my own sake (and for a few family members and friends). 🙂
Yet you would consider it? Good to know.
I think this rule still sticks:
Write what you know, and if you want to write about something you don't know, do research first.
'Tread new ground'… I have a vampire romance novella that I wrote years before Twilight ever twinkled in Steph Meyer's dreams. It's not much like it, either, except for a frisson of deathliness and longing. An agent took it around Bologna book fair in 2008 and got ten publishers interested in seeing it. They loved the writing and the story but rejected it because the outcome was more psychological than literal – and they actually said they wanted it more like Twilight.
Publishers in the UK don't want originality. They want what everyone else has already done. I also seem to be going through this same experience with an adult literary novel I've got. I get praise for the concept, the writing, the humour, the characters, the story – but they pass because it's 'too different'. Why does that matter, since they clearly enjoyed it? They also say they'll watch me with keen interest to see what I do next. So they'd like to read something else I did too!
That's what UK publishers think of originality. The feedback they are giving to agents and authors is that they want copycats, not trail-blazers. Makes my blood boil.
I think what you've said, Nathan, goes perfectly with what you've always said.
Good writing trumps all.
Okay, I was not a fan of the Twilight series, (Although I do enjoy the genre. Even my 16 year old daughter thought Edward was a creepy stalker.)
But a friend showed me this video https://www.rebelliouspixels.com/2009/buffy-vs-edward-twilight-remixed and it made me laugh, so I thought I'd share. (Yes, I was a Buffy fan.)
Hi Nathan,
This is my second comment to your post, sorry about that.
But, after reading these comments, I thought it might be fun/interesting if you did a post allowing your Blog readers to discuss their FAVORITE vampire,zombies,faeries,pixies,ghosts and/or Dick Cheney novels.
With so many out there, I'd love to find a few I may have missed on the shelf.
Just a thought.
Thanks for your great posts.
Well, that's too interesting to let pass.
So, Nathan, you're saying that if you refused a query, and someone got a offer from another agent, they could let you know that and ask you to consider it a second time?
Good.
First, it's nice for writers to have more in their arsenal than the query letter. And second, authors should be able choose the agent they prefer. Consumer rights.
Rick Daley-
Your first "agent" letter made my day. If I wuz a big tyme litterary agent, I'd fer sure want to see 1,000 or so pages of that there fictional novel book. (!)
Sparkle plenty…
Janny
Hi Nathan –
I'm new to your blog this week, but so far I've found it very enlightening; both from your perspective, and from the fellow authors.
This particular post couldn't have come at a better time, as I'm just finishing up a novel in this genre.
My question to you is:
How would you feel about a book based on a modern-day Wiccan family (ages 18-60) — with cool powers — along with some new twists?
I didn't see anyone mention anything about witches, so I'm curious to hear your perspective on it.
And thanks for having this blog…I've learned a LOT so far.
Brandi
The fact that I'm writing a YA urban fantasy NOW actually concerns me. I'm writing it because I've always read urban fantasy – even before I knew to call it that – and it's what I love.
But the sudden "hotness" of the genre? Eep! Hopefully it hasn't waned by the time I get my manuscript finished.
(Note: Luckily, I am at least not writing about vampires, fairies, or zombies.)
Tyreke Evans… interesting.
bryan-
I'll take it. I wasn't really on the Rubio bandwagon.
we'll stop writing them, when you stop publishing them.
(and by 'we' I don't mean me, and by 'you' I don't mean you, but you get what I mean. Or possibly not)
I've never understood the vampire romance genre, they're dead people. I've never understood the werewolf allure either, they're dogs; as for other romance alpha male shape-shifters, I've seen dolphins, hamsters, and bunnies. It's sad.
That's a big athletic backcourt you have there…
As opposed to Minnesota's new mini-me backcourt. They don't actually think Rubio and Flynn can play together, do they?
bryan-
My guess is that Rubio will be traded. Or one is the starter and one is the backup. That was a strange back-to-back pick though. I think the T-Wolves were backed into a corner because they wanted a SG but both Harden and Evans were off the board.
One of my favorite parts of the night was when your Cavs made their pick, followed by about 30 seconds of silence as everyone tried to figure out who in the heck he was.
That was my rationalization of the choice, too. I think Minnesota thought Harden would fall to them, and then they'd pick the best of the remaining point guards.
And my Cavs obviously didn't want to eat up any of their cap space with a 30th pick… so take an athlete and stash him overseas. Which makes me think they still have a few plans for the team…
And that Orlando trade, too… a healthy Jameer Nelson surrounded by Howard, Lewis, Turkoglu and Vince Carter? The Cavs better do something more.
Yeah, I agree, the Orlando trade could be great or blow up in their faces, but I don't think Shaq is enough help for LeBron. They need someone who can carry the load more consistently than Mo Williams.
A new coach wouldn't hurt either…
I don't mind Mike Brown, though I don't think he responded well to the problems Orlando caused. He looked a little panicky whenever Orlando started taking advantage of their matchup problems. But, you know, if they get the perimeter four man and the big guard they need, I can live with him. 🙂
Well, I'm not such a fan of Cleveland's offensive structure. Or should I say the lack thereof.
You mean the Give the ball to LeBron and move out of the way philosophy?
The scary thing, of course, is that it almost worked.
Stephen J. said… "Say you rejected a query, then another agent wanted to sign the writer. Prior to signing could the writer return and ask you for re-consider?"
But, why would you want to do that? Wouldn't you rather have an agent who loved your book from the start, rather than someone who has to be convinced based on other people's interest?
I'm baffled by the discussion about authors resubmitting to an agent who initially passed on their novel because they now have ANOTHER agent who is interested in their work.
Why would anyone consider passing over an agent who is genuinely hyped about representing (e.g. selling) your novel to revisit an agent who lacked the same interest?
People, you want an agent who is both capable and passionate about representing your work.
The initial agent passed because they either don’t actively (e.g. successfully) represent the genre or the story didn’t “resonate” with them.
You can’t transfer the second agent’s zeal and publishing connections to the first agent simply because you “like” the first agent.
Personally, I don’t want an agent I had to bait with another agent’s interest, and why would an agent want an author who would dump agents this way?
Word of the day: Unprofessional
I am soooooo glad that someone finally figured out where Cheney really belongs. 🙂
CKHB: I love your picture! Yes, indeed. Let's celebrate.
anon-
Yeah, I agree. All I said was that there's no rule against it, not that I would be favorably disposed to it. If you have an interested agent, congratulations. And the best agent is the one who is both reputable and the most excited about your work.
Nathan, I hear what you're saying. But I'd like to continue this because I think CKHB and Anon,
are missing some important points.
When you send a query, it's one of hundreds and hundreds. It could be very easy for an agent to dislike your query, and after a second look, like your book.
I want the best agent, not the one who happened to like my book first.
You get a very short time with an agent reviewing your query; this could give you a second shot at it.
Also, it's not dropping an agent to shop around.
Many writers are very used to thinking of themselves as powerless in this process. Own your power, people. Make your own choice, you don't have to let the choice be made for you.
Mira,
I almost did not respond, but I like you.
Do you really want potential agents seeing your name on this discussion?
This is a sure fire way to lose their interest quickly… and when you’ve lost their interest, you've lost your bait!
Then, what will you fish with… the same manuscript that the first agent rejected and a tarnished reputation among agents.
Many, many blog lurkers work in the publishing industry.
Reread Nathan's last comment.
How could he trust that such an author is not using him (his name) while re-querying other agents that the author may like even more than him?
You made your choices when you selected the agents you wanted to query. If you are not certain that you want to work with a specific agent, don't waste his/her time by querying.
Please do not confuse unprofessionalism with power.
You accept email queries, so what should go in the subject line of the e-mail? You've given great examples of query letters, but I didn't see advice about the subject line. Thank you.
Anon,
Thank you for liking me. I like you, too, for your concern, and that you took the time to address me on this. That means alot. 🙂
I had to make a choice. I re-make it every day I post on agent blogs. I am aware that I am very outspoken, and that could rebound on me.
But using my name, rather than posting anonymously, gives more power to my words. And that's why I write. To have an impact and a voice. If I let myself be silenced out of fear now, why write at all?
Maybe it's the wrong choice, I don't know.
I do want to say, however, that I am not talking about playing games. The heart of what I am saying is not hostile to the industry. It's about the empowerment of the writer. Writers are downtrodden in this industry, from my perspective. They need to feel their power more.
How is shopping for an agent different than an agent shopping a book? An agent will get several offers and choose the best one. No one would accuse the agent of being disloyal.
When I look for a doctor, a lawyer, a therapist (I could use one) or other professionals, there's an understanding that the consumer has the right of choice.
The writer should have that same consideraton.
That does not mean I'll play games. I won't query agents that don't interest me, just so I could get an agent I like to sign me. But I would think about my different options, and explore all of my avenues.
I never mean to be hurtful, greedy and small-minded in my comments. Alittle outrageous, I don't mind. 🙂
Btw, if you think I don't know what's potentially at stake here, that's only because you can't hear how fast my heart is beating.
I also want to say it's amazing that Nathan allows discussions like these. He's a prince.