08-26-2008, 12:09 PM
Monique Devereaux Wrote:It could very well be that gothic romances are being written and submitted to publishers, but the quality of the writing does not meet publication standards. Book publishing (and marketing) has changed considerably over the past 30 years. The majority of the gothics from the golden era were cliched and hackneyed. Stewart, Holt, Michaels et al continually see reprints precisely because their writing is strong enough to transcend the trend of a given era. I checked my local Brentanos recently and there are three Barbara Michaels titles on the shelf in fiction. Maybe another reason they continue to be reprinted is that there is nothing strong enough in the publisher's sludge piles to take their place. I read a discussion at Absolute Write today in which a well-published writer indicates that a) romantic suspense is NOT dead, and b) up and coming writers need to write what they love, not to write to "trend". With that said, any of our Readers who have a story in their head and have always wanted to write, what are you waiting for?
That is an interesting theory. Maybe that is true. That might explain a few things. I agree that more writers who love them,write one of your own and submit it.Maybe the publishers will get the idea.
Anyway, I have written a gothic novel, a short one. I entered it into a writing competition with Dorchester Publishers, but they wanted something longer. I submitted a query to an agent and she wasn't interested. I am going to try another agent. There are some gothics being published, for instance Eve Silver's, "His Wicked Sins" We just want more of them out there. So if we need to write our own to fill up the void, we will.
Linda C.
