Adrian Stephens's Blog - Posts Tagged "wizards"

When I first decided I wanted to write, or I should say, when my first novel neared completion, I decided it would be important to research all of the possibilities that were available to me for getting my work out there.

I've talked plenty in previous blogs about that experience, so I won't get into it here. What I found, though, was that much like cliques in high school, everyone in the publishing industry wants to know where you fit in.

No matter whether you submit to a big publisher or you self-publish and sell through retailers and distributors yourself, fitting in is very important.

I always found this quite odd. If you want to get your story out there right now, you have a much better chance of getting published and getting shelf space, it seems, if your characters wave a wand, like the taste of blood, have wings, fangs or maybe all of the above.

High fantasy is the popular thing right now. No, not everyone likes it, but there are a LOT who do. Publishers, booksellers...they want to know what they can put your book next to. There's no place in the corner for the little book with no friends.

As a writer, I have never once thought, what can I do that is like everything else out there. Okay, I guess that's not totally true. I have an idea for an American tie-in to Harry Potter that I would love to do one day. Only because I have some original ideas I really like and think it could be fun.

And don't get me wrong, I'm not criticizing the authors who write in these genres. It works for them, and that's great. Plus, there's an audience for it.

My only question is, do we still care about stories that aren't the saturated idea of the moment? And that's the only real question for me. I'm not trying to say that my ideas are totally unique. I don't know that any idea is totally unique. Harry Potter wasn't the first story of wizardry. Twilight wasn't the first story about vampires. My first novel, In My Shoes, has had several comparisons to a modern day Freaky Friday, but with a boy/girl twist. I'm okay with that.

But where do you put that on the shelf? There isn't a body swap section at the book store. Freaky Friday is a great story, but it's been around awhile, and isn't currently taking up critical space at Barnes & Noble.

I guess what I'm hoping is, if the idea is good, and the writing is good, it won't matter that it isn't the pop fiction of the moment. We love what we love. If we love vampire stories, we are going to look for vampire stories. But, there's room on your shelf for something different, right?

That's what I'm hoping. That in this huge world, there's room not only for the popular books, but maybe the one in the corner too.