Market Question

[tiggywinke]

Hi, I'm writing a novel set in a magicless alternate history world. (It more or less counts as fantasy, as do Swordspoint, Outlander, and Guy Gavriel Kay's historical fantasies.) I thought such projects would be rare, since so few of them wind up in print, but here on the internet it seems like every time I turn around I run into someone doing something similar.

Is there some reason why tons of these novels get written, but few of them get published?

 

[TWErvin2]

...Is there some reason why tons of these novels get written, but few of them get published?

If you're talking about published, as in through a publisher in the traditional route as opposed to self-published, it's because the vast majority of novels written and submitted to publishers (large, medium, and small houses) do not get accepted for publication. So, while you see a lot of novels in progress being written, few of them make the final cut...and that would be a similar proportion for every type of fantasy novel--epic, dark, urban, etc.

 

[tiggywinke]

Well, yes, but it seems like a disproportionate number of alternate history manuscripts aren't making it past the publication gatekeepers. Anecdotal evidence suggests that there are tons of such manuscripts floating around, let's call it 20% of the total, while published alternate history books make up maybe 1-2% of the total.

I was wondering if there's something about this subgenre that publishers just don't like.

 

[Chessie]

I think it may be a hard genre to sell. Just today I read an article about an author who wrote an alternate history western with no magic and he had to self-publish it. Apparently the book did just fine, but he received some comments as to how it wasn't a western...which it technically is not due to lack of historical accuracy (meaning not set in the real world). It's tricky. I'm struggling right now with a story that is similar to this. It has magic BUT of the Native American sort so it really isn't magic, more mythology, but set in an old west type of setting. That may need to change. Idk htf to market it...but yeah, sympathies are all yours on this one. We just do the best we can, really.

 

[skip.knox]

> I was wondering if there's something about this subgenre that publishers just don't like.

I'm shooting in the dark here, but I'd guess that part of the problem comes from the historicity. Either the books get the history wrong, or they indulge in far too much historical detail at the expense of good story telling.

 

[Russ]

Well, yes, but it seems like a disproportionate number of alternate history manuscripts aren't making it past the publication gatekeepers. Anecdotal evidence suggests that there are tons of such manuscripts floating around, let's call it 20% of the total, while published alternate history books make up maybe 1-2% of the total.

I was wondering if there's something about this subgenre that publishers just don't like.

I am not big on anecdotal evidence personally.

Is there some way for your to support those numbers? How did you arrive at them? Did you compile lists of some sort?

I have never heard an acquiring editor say that they don't like alternative history with no magic, but I have never asked them directly either.

Editors buy what they think they can sell. How are the sales figures for the alternative histories that do get published traditionally?

The only things publishers tend not to like about a genre or subgenre is their belief they cannot sell enough of them to make good money. There is a wide variety of personalities among acquiring editors so I don't suspect it is any kind of irrational bias.