If I was to send you a query, should I include all my previous publishing credits? I'm working on a historical whodunnit, but I've successfully published several gay erotic romances.
The historical whodunnit would be under my own name; the erotica is under a pseudonym.
What I'm asking, I suppose, is are all genres created equal?
Sort of. Writing credits aren't about what you wrote so much as they are an indication you write well enough that your work was selected for publication. Writing credits also mean you've been over the waterfall one or more times and had most of your delusions rinsed away in the deep cold publication pool.
The way to cover writing credits in a separate genre from the novel you're querying, and a separate name is this:
Under a different name I wrote several gay erotic romances for Lipz Und Tipz, the leading purveyor of gay erotica romance for the discerning reader. (You'll want to describe the publisher in that many agents will not be as aware of publishers in this genre as they are, say, of thrillers)
2 comments:
This brings to mind another question... somehow. If it hasn't been asked already, you can toss this in the pool for future use - if interesting enough, and not too confusing. I tried to be clear, but who knows if this makes sense.
Here's the situation; what if an agented writer has written three books, each one a different genre. The first, a coming of age story, considered literary fiction, goes on submission, but doesn't sell. The second, historical fiction, doesn't go on submission (too soon after first). The third is literary suspense. If the agent sells the literary suspense book, is it possible the publisher would consider the other two as backlist books,and publish them eventually? Or could book two be part of a two book contract? (assuming book one couldn't be if it went on submission and was turned down) Or, does the writer have to consider the first two books were only training ground and may never be published?
I've always assumed editors who acquire a book do so b/c they like that particular genre...and work under with the particular imprint which may not support the variety of genres the writer might have completed.
I'll stop now. I'm probably making your head hurt. I know mine is.
Does that count for literary journal publications too? If I've published a lot of poems in Eastern Western Montana--New Jersey Literary Review, and elsewhere, but am querying for a memoir, will mentioning poetry publications do me any good?
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