Description: Drawing a conclusion based on a small sample size, rather than looking at statistics that are much more in line with the typical or average situation.
What I am seeing is that people apply this too often to many of the genres out there in the publishing industry when things get "tough to sell." Right now, it is the historical market.
Look, I am not going to sugar coat anything here. Selling in this market is indeed tough, but to say that the historical romance genre is dead is too much of a stretch. Let me start at why people are trying to claim this idea.
We can start with small things such as when Harlequin Historicals decided many years ago to quit selling in the North American market. This was BEFORE Covid. It was at this time when many of the stores were cutting back on space for books (and I mean all books) and filling the space with other items to sell (we're not talking about just bookstores here). Harlequin then started telling people "Do you see that North American sales are down?" Well, no duh!
We also have a huge shift in general readership. Look, people for the longest time were just not reading, and I mean reading ANYTHING. So, if we want to base decisions strictly on numbers, you can see why people might want to selectively target historicals (and yes, ignore other genres).
Now we talk about how readers read today. They binge read (and watch). Thank you streaming services for this. People get on kicks for something and go crazy. So, when Bridgerton hit the TV screens, every author out there started cranking out Regencies.. This was already a hot genre and VERY consistent. But now, the authors flooded the editors desks with these soooo, obviously we can't sell these.
Is the market trying to find new time periods? Yes! There was a flex to WWI and WWII but it was really hit and miss. Editors and agents simply said it was dead. But... let me give you part of the reason for this that came up in a conversation I have had with some other editors and agents...
The quality of the writing is just not there. I have talked about this before, but with the rise of self-publishing, everyone felt that they could write (regardless of their abilities). People just were not working on their craft. Covid hit and everyone started cranking out their novels, and I mean "cranking out novels." The quality was just not there. One agent I talked agreed with me that we were just not finding anything that we A) fell in love with; of B) had the quality without a TON of re-writing and editing to even take to an editor.
I think there is another issue here, and that stems from the editorial side of things. They see a something that is "hot" and then go out and buy a pile of books in the same genre (or in this case a time period) and then, when it doesn't last, they are stuck with it. See, we can't sell a Regency "but we'll just say historical" so therefore historicals are dead.
Look, I have been saying, and I will continue to say, WWI and WWII are still the place to be. The success of programs such as Peaky Blinders is a good example!
But what we need are writers who can craft a quality story. Quit forcing the story. Just because you saw contemporary stories trying to do "Duel POV" doesn't mean you have to. Just because you saw people thinking that "DARK ROMANCE" or "MAFIA STORIES" are hot, doesn't mean you have to move those into the genre. Tell a damn good romance in a new time period.
I am making this an All Call!
Stories must be 75K-110K.
Must be either traditional romance (focus on the relationship and have a HEA) or traditional women's fiction.
No time travel or duel timelines
My recommendation is personally, avoid first person (these will be easier to sell, trust me)
Watch the level of baggage and excessive drama in the characters.
Tell a damn good story and again, DON'T FORCE IT!!!!!!!
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