Band Wagon
There’s always a bandwagon coming along – some of which you can see trundling along in the distance – some of which are upon you so swiftly that they almost mow you down and you wonder how on EARTH the second and third and fourth books to leap upon the juggernauts as they rumble past are out of quickly.
If we could create the next bandwagon it would be great wouldn’t it? We always hear about star quality – that certain something that would be worth millions if it could be bottled, and it’s the same with books. Who knows what New Thing will be along and capture the readers’ imagination? Sometimes of course, the publishers get it horribly wrong, over-hype the wrong book (like Shadowmancer by G P Taylor)–and sometimes publishers will reject the wrong thing which then goes on to make millions –so all in all it’s very much a lottery, because who knows what the public is going to like?
I’ve noticed bandwagon jumping in our genre too, people jumping into it without actually knowing what it’s really about, and it shows, every time. I’ve also noticed some bandwagon jumping onto other subgenres such as GLBT YA and Historical. I suppose it is always going to happen. But I think it’s always sensible to write what you know, and what you LOVE.
I watched a programme recently about Mills and Boon Harlequin and one of their major editors said that, yes, they did get a lot of people leaping in thinking that it’s “easy” and “anyone can write one” – but they said that it was easy to tell these people, as they wrote what they thought people wanted, rather than to write from the heart.
SAVE US, MR DARCY!
It’s the same with these horror-classics, whatever the correct genre term is–no sooner did “Pride and Prejudice with Zombies” hit the shelf than it was immediately followed by several more of the same ilk. How did they all chase the success so far? (and WHY??? But that’s another rant entirely)
I suppose we are stuck with the band wagon jumpers, but at least usually we can spot them, especially with m/m, as it’s not as easy as people seem to think.
So – just for a bit of fun – here’s my prediction for a few of the Next Big Things that are bound to hit the bookshelves in 2010.
20,000 leagues under the sea with Elizabeth Bennet.
Journey to the Centre of the Earth with Emma
War and Peace with homosexuals
The Vampire Dairies (the moosical)
Any predictions from you? Serious or otherwise?
Well, my fantasy has always been to have a gay version of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (yes, I know, it’s a movie, not a book but it is always on my mind). Unfortunately, Paul Newman is dead, and Robert Redford is showing his age, and Heath Ledger, who could have reprised the role of Butch quite nicely is also dead…even so, I am sure we could dream up some nice actors to play the parts.
Of course, someone could also write it as a book…now there’s an idea. 🙂
Oh, and gay steampunk. I only found out what steampunk is two weeks ago…LOL.
L
Leslie, steampunk is the current and coming thing. Those of us who love it are pleased to see it taking off, although we worry that it’s going to lose the punk edge and end up all gaslight romance and “oooh shiny!” Not that there’s anything wrong with some of that too.
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Rest assured, those of us who write m/m are on it! (although mine so far have been f/f, m/f and m/m/f, although the last lady is a cross-dresser and likes pegging) I am planning to write a gen piece for an anthology and maybe a whole m/m steampunk novel. NaNoWriMo is coming, after all.
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What do I see getting big? Fairies.
Vamps are so over. Shifters are getting long in the tooth.
Fairies are the next big romance genre. Some will say Zombies are the next big thing, and while I have read more than one piece of zombie erotica. I don’t see it catching on.
The next big thing? E-publishing in general.
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There’s been evidence of this, at least among aspiring authors, since the economy tanked. I know of publishers who experienced a SIGNIFICANT increase in submissions since last spring . . . or maybe even winter. This has resulted in, among other things, a doubling of “lag” time between acceptance and publication (a real shame, because the rapidity of the publication process was one of the things that made up for the lack of advances and advertising campaigns in e-publishing).
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Readers, too, are discovering the advantages of e-books. Once all the formatting wrinkles are ironed out and e-readers become more affordable, I do think there’ll be an explosion of electronic titles.
I’d go for faeries. Maybe trolls, there must be handsome trolls out there in name only. Time for someone to shake up the generally accepted perceptions about trolls. Look at all those hot Norwegian guys.
Would be nice if the next big thing were books set somewhere besides anonymous (or not so anonymous) North American cities. I am looking at a painting of Prague on my wall. Amazing city, very romantic, very sexy. What about Rio during carnival? Barcelona? Rome? New Zealand? I would love to see more books set in other countries. If you want to get past the language thing (why would two Brazilian guys be speaking English?) then have one character be a Brit/Cdn/American/Aussie ex-pat. Believe me, they are thick out there around the globe. If you can write about Miami but never been there you can write about Madrid. The internet is a wonderful thing, full of amazing facts and maps and info. But I’d really prefer that one of the characters be “local”. If you just plunk two Americans in Tokyo then its not quite the same, as the culture becomes just another setting for two people with the same cultural mindset allowing them to ignore the culture within which they live. I think culture clash could be a great conflict for a couple in love.
So there’s what I WISH was the next big thing, but likely not as most publishers seem to think readers don’t cope well with the unknown. Pphhhhttttt.
Not faeries, please.
I have to say that I’m already fed up with steampunk and I’ve never actually read any. There’s so much twittering about it with several authors writing one that I feel sure that in 6 months we’ll all be inundated.
Well, if we are inundated with gay steampunk in the next six months, then I’ll have guessed the next big thing, won’t I? 😉
KZ: “Readers, too, are discovering the advantages of e-books. Once all the formatting wrinkles are ironed out and e-readers become more affordable, I do think there’ll be an explosion of electronic titles.”
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Now days almost everyone has to have a cellphone. I started reading “for fun” again, because I could read e-books easily on my smartphone without the cost of (or the need to keep up with) a separate reader. I know a few who bought a smartphone for no other reason than to call & read on one device. I currently can read e-Reader(pdb), Mobi(prc), & Adobe(pdf). I always have my phone with me, thus I have at least 20+ books at my disposal. I back my books and annotations up on my laptop. I can’t imagine going back & reading any other way.
Like Cathleen I like reading ebooks on my mobile phone. Yes, I have them all my ebooks on my hard drive as pdf files, and I like reading them on my laptop, but I also love the fact that I have currently well over a hundred novels/novellas/short stories on my mobile phone, to be read whenever I’m stuck somewhere or I simply feel like it. And of course that number is not even scratching the surface of my phone’s memory card.
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I don’t actually have a particularly sophisticated phone, and therefore can only read books converted to plain text, but that seems to work surprisingly well. Though it means it really bugs me if publishers disable saving to text in pdf files – are text files even easier to pirate than pdf files?
Zombies. Whoa. That skirts a little too close to necrophilia. Not to mention Night of the Living Dead. Can’t imagine too much that’s less sexy and romantic.
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Unless the zombies are all lawyers.
I’ve seen too many zombie movies to ever be able to go for “zombie erotica” (ick). Now trolls would be doable, in fact I have seen at least one book that features a troll as the love interest – one of Willa Okati’s Brotherhood books from Loose Id had a cave troll. His trollishness wasn’t exactly apparent at a glance, however. Kinda like the current singer of Finntroll. 😉
Ally Blue did a zombie story that is free on her site. Very funny but yeah, not really something I’d like to read about much more than that. Body parts falling off mid-passion is … wrong? LOL
I forgot to add for those of us Canadians who like the zombies (not in a romantic way) it’s a zombie weekend on Space this weekend. 🙂
LOL Tam, I can’t believe you remember my little zombie tale! That was a fun one *g* And yeah, it’s still on my website if anyone wants a little zombie lovin’, heh.
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Me, I could totally go for more zombie stories, with or without romance. I love me some zombies, y’all. OMG, my boy-child has some game demo with space zombies that freaks me the fuck out. I covered my eyes and squealed like a total girl the first time he got gutted and beheaded by one. Told it to stop killing my baby. He laughed at me, the rat <_<