Something really cool happened to me not that long ago (OK, it was a year ago, but I am still riding high from it). I read something great. Now I don’t want to give you the impression that the occurrence is so rare that I have to cherish the memory of that-time-I- read-something-I-liked, but I mean that this was one of those transcendent reads. One of the ones that go beyond making you laugh or cry and beyond being memorable to the point that you are dreaming about the characters. This book more than got under my skin, I think it actually changed the way I felt about publishing and my role in it. This book reawakend my passion for my work to such an exquisite degree that I swear I came away a changed woman. And it wasn’t a self help book, or a business book or a religion book, it was a romance. It was an Epublished romance. It was a modest, epubbed romance by a little known author and probably very few people would ever find this book to read it and that, my friends, was a crying shame. A travesty. A crime against humanity. OK, so I might be exaggerating a wee bit but I am not exaggerating about how this book lit a fire in my belly.
So there is this thing in publishing that we all get frustrated by from time to time. I hear it from authors all the time: editors say they are looking for fresh voices and themes but it seems like they don’t really want to take a chance on something that is really different. Have a romance set in Italy? Uh uh. Have a book set in the 20′s? Not so much. Sometimes it seems like everything on the shelf is all the same and there isn’t any room for taking chances. As an agent, specifically an agent who works with commercial fiction, I totally have to be mindful of this. And not only am I mindful of it, I actually understand it and respect the reasoning behind it. I am, after all on the business side of publishing. Editors aren’t trying to make inflexibility an art form. We have to listen to what the market is telling us and readers speak with their wallets. As evidenced by purchasing habits, the bottom line is that readers generally seem to appreciate the familiar more than the uniquely different. Until that uniquely different thing becomes familiar. Paranormal, anybody?
So what is my point anyway? Despite the market research, despite market trends, there is a place in the market for innovation and risk taking. There is a place for voices that are wholly unique. Or there darn well should be and there will be if I have anything to say about it. I want to be moved by what I read, I want to be thrilled and a certain amount of freshness and a splash of the unique is a requirement for that. At least I think so. But back to this great read I had. This author took a theme that should have been anything but romantic, created a hero so profoundly flawed that a happily-ever-after should not have been possible. When I started the book I wondered, how will these characters ever get together? How will this ever be OK? And the author made it work. She set the stakes high and took extreme emotional risk and I just have to thank her for it. So now when the pressure to be commercial feels more like a thorn in my side than a pleasure, I am reminded about this gem of a book I found in such an unlikely place. Taking chances is a good thing and sometimes with great risk comes great reward. I think we are all looking for something to move us the way that this book did for me. We want to be startled and awakened and lucky me I get to be a part of finding a way to give that to as many readers as possible. Did I mention that I really love my job?
So what books have been really pivotal for you?
Laura Bradford
Bradford Literary Agency
Laura, I love the way your passion for books shines through here. The book responsible for bringing me back to romance was SIMPLY IRRESISTABLE by Rachel Gibson. It was one of the first books I saw with a cartoony cover. A librarian recommended it to me.
After I read it, I wanted to read more books like that, and write books like that. I wanted more of the same.:lol: And everyone seemed to be jumping on that romantic comedy subgenre. Now it’s no longer fresh to me. Although I still read RC, it’s not what I write. I think we’re always evolving, and that’s a good thing.
What a terrific blog, Laura. You can see your enthusiasm for your profession shining through. I enjoy meeting people who love what they’re doing.
The paranormal genre is what brought me back to reading romance. Around eight years ago I read Dara Joy’s “Rejar” and was hooked. It’s the only genre I can envision writing and the majority of what I read.
Now you’ve got my curiosity up as to who this author was that took you on such an emotional roller coaster ride. You gonna reveal her?
Hi Laura,
Wow, what a refreshing agent blog. Thanks so much for posting.
Hmm, a pivotal book…that’s hard! I guess the last books to really give me hope that reinventing the “wheel” so to speak is possible, would be the JR Ward Brotherhood books. Her vampires are so unlike any I’ve read, and like you said in your post – the tortured one really drew me in.
Q – Is there any genre, location or topic in a submission that the moment you read it, you’ll put it down and not read further, no matter how good the writing is?
Thanks so much for your time!
Meagan
http://www.meaganhatfield.com
Thank you, Laura, for finally connecting!
How about, “Paranormal, True, anyone?”
My manuscript sits, collecting dust, just because editors/agents/publishers won’t go for the real thing. How sad is that? To actually deny or ignore just how a part of our universe actually functions?
Kathleen “Kathy” Werstein
Laura, thanks for keeping it real. I try very hard not to let the market dictate what I write. It’s refreshing to hear an agent admit the reality, and then offer hope, too. Way to go, Laura!
A pivotal book for me was Susan Howatch’s The Heartbreaker. For a while I felt like a loser because one of my mss didn’t fit the usual romance read. (Something about cheatin’ husbands not appreciated by romance readers). A friend who knows my work suggested The Heartbreaker because she thought it mirrored my voice.
I picked it up, and couldn’t put it down.It’s a book that broke a lot of rules, its author multi-pubbed. So, I was very inspired by it and her.
Laura, it’s wonderful to see your enthusiasm for the craft. I think we all aspire to be the writer who motivates, inspires others.
My pivotal book had to be Julia Quinn’s How to Marry A Marquis. It was the first time I’d read a romance with humor. I sent her an email, but I think my gushing freaked her out (insert sheepish grin here). I was, um, enthusiastic.
So which book did it for you? C’mon, you gotta fess up after a hype like that one. Pretty please?
Kelly
Laura – for me it was Jo Beverley’s The Shattered Rose. There are several very controversial elements in it, including the fact the hero arrives home to find his wife inside their castle with her another man and a baby. And he’s been away for several years.
In that book Jo tackled some very, very interesting issues and managed to pull everything together into a happy and satisfying ending.
One thing she did do to help increase the marketability was to include a fun secondary romance, to offset the deeper/darker primary one.
It’s a powerful book and changed my perception of the romance novel forever.
Like everyone else has noted, Laura, your love for your job and the publishing industry shines through. Books that have inspired me are from diverse genres, but writers like Madeline Hunter and Connie Brockway (specifically My Dearest Enemy, which I think is her best) gave me new hope for the historical romance genre, and the way I feel after reading writers like Iain M. Banks (specifically Use of Weapons, but anything by him, really) made me really burn to leave readers with that same feeling after reading anything of mine.
Hi, Laura! Great post–as the others have noted, your passion for your job and the romance industry definitely shines through every word you wrote.
One of the main stories to inspire me was one that I actually read ages ago, Blood and Kisses by Angela Knight (novella).
Woohoo! I LOVE your blog, Laura. Talk about a passion for books.
The book that flipped me on my ear was Bitten by Kelley Armstrong. When I walked away from it, I found myself saying “This is how a story should be told.” At the time, I struggled through a 250,000 word werewolf manuscript that wasn’t fit for kindling. Something about Bitten straightened me out and changed my approach toward writing. It made me want to learn more about the craft, the business side of it, and how to squeeze my 8.5 shoe through the door. A year later, my first book was e-pubbed and I couldn’t be more proud. I’m more determined than ever to see one of my mss in print and I refuse to take no for an answer.
Great blog, Laura.
And it’s fun to see you here.
A book that moved me was Perfect by Judith McNaught. It’s old – early 90′s I think. By today’s standards – and from a newbie author – this book probably never would have been published in it’s current form. It’s long (600+ printed pgs), it doesn’t start with any kind of bang, there are long passages of backstory and info dumps. The author jumps around in POV and the HEA is drawn out when it could have been ended long before its time. But at the root of the book is this amazing love story and when I reread it (as I am known to do when I really want to lose myself in a story), I forget about all those other things and focus on the characters.
I love that you said, “Taking chances is a good thing and sometimes with great risk comes great reward.” I’m going to print that out and remember it.
Thanks for the great blog.
For me, it was Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels trilogy. That’s when I started making the realization that, at least at this point in time, I’m not going to be writing a romance novel.
Simon R. Green’s Nightside series also got me to try writing in first person for the first time, and it works!
Great post!
Thanks Laura,
Your blog gives all us unpublished authors hope! Just what I need to get back to writing on this snowy afternoon.
Laura, how wonderful that you had that experience with a submission! A dream come true. For me, LuAnne Rice, and Kristin Hannah are at the top of my list. WHITNEY MY LOVE, by Judith McNaught was one of those transcendent reads. I couldn’t put it down, luckily it was the weekend. I love when a book grips me, and doesn’t let me go!
Count me as one the people who wants to know what book this was. Wonderful post, by the way, and a very inspiring read. But, really, truly, I would like to get my hands on this book, too.
Hi Ms. Bradford,
Thanks so much for the great post. Lucky you, for having a job that enables you to pursue your passion for “finding that voice” and putting wonderful stories and readers together!
So many great books come to mind, but I’ll choose one from 2005 – THE FROG PRINCE by Jane Porter. I fell in love with this “unhappily ever after story” on page one and simply could not put it down. It’s a modern fairy tale of a single woman struggling to create her own happy ending. Caution: spoiler follows – our heroine Holly Bishop eventually learns she doesn’t have to continue kissing toads in order to find that happily ever after. When Holly discovers the magic has been inside her all along, she rescues herself and IS the Frog Princess.
It’s a wonderful book and I heartily recommend it.
-Kathleen Irene Paterka
P.S. Just received my March 2007 RWR today. Congratulations, Ms. Bradford, on your recognition as an RWA Recognized Agency!
For everybody who is wondering about the name of the book I was writing about, it is The Fifth Favor by Shelby Reed. Talk about the right book at the right time for me! And I totally agree with Edie when she mentioned Rachel Gibson’s Simply Irresistible. I love that book and just recently reread it. And Cynthia Eden…I have to agree with YOU about Blood and Kisses by Angela Knight. It was the first paranormal I ever read and it influenced my taste trememdously.
Meagan asked:
Q – Is there any genre, location or topic in a submission that the moment you read it, you’ll put it down and not read further, no matter how good the writing is?
Well, I’d love to say no, that of course the writing is the most important thing and plot is secondary. I suppose it would be more accurate to say that there are genres, themes, settings that make me not want to pick them up in the first place and ones I have to MAKE myself read to see if the writing is good. But I’m not saying what those settings and themes are. The first book I ever signed had a theme that I never would have looked at sideways had a colleague not tricked me into reading it for her (it was a time travel). But I was completely won over by the story and writing and learned the lesson, never say never. So I am open to the possibility that a manuscript can surprise me and try very hard not to let my own tastes and predjudices get in the way. I would hate for an author with something fabulous and daring to pass me over for submission because I had said once, I hate books about such and such.
I really loved “Blood and Chocolate.”
And I’m falling a little bit in love with “Lost Souls” by: Poppy Z. Brite.
And “Story of O.” pissed me off the first three times I read it but I keep coming back to it because despite that, I’m in love with it. I’m going to read it a fourth time very soon to see if it still makes me angry.
Zoe, so funny that you read a book that pissed you off 3 times. I’ll have to check it out.
I still haven’t read Blood & Chocolate. I’ll get to it today.
Thanks for such an uplifting blog, Laura.
I think “Flowers from the Storm” was the book that changed how I looked at romance novels.
the diana tregarde series by mercedes lackey changed my life. i had no idea at the time but it was the book that made me start writing seriously. it was the book that completely turned my world upside down. for a good 10 years i couldnt find it anywhere then it popped up in hardback all three in one giant book through a book club. i about cried.
I was really wondering about the book… and it turns out I’ve read it. Shelby Reed is one of my favorite authors. I think she’s quite brilliant at doing exactly this: taking an unlikely premise and making it work. Her “A Fine Work of Art” is another excellent example.
Bonnie Dee is another writer who often does this.
I predict both of them will be huge someday. And they should be.
The book that made me realize I wanted to be a voracious romance reader was KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR. The book that made me want to realize I wanted to be a voracious romance writer was … you know, I don’t even know the answer to that. It fermented in the back of my mind after KISA for years until I got drunk on the fumes!
Zoe, I think the Prologue is the best part of The Story of O. Well, not the best, but the part that made me think the most.
Thanks Laura, for such an enthusiastic post. I love books that just blow me away! I’m going to have to try that book!