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My first novel was well received by agents, but I heard this more than a\u00a0 few times:<\/p>\nMy first novel was well received by agents, but I heard this more than a\u00a0 few times:<\/p>\n
“I don’t know how I’d market this. Humor, or horror? It’s not at all scary.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
There is a reason it’s not scary: it’s not horror.<\/p>\n
My first novel, Hell Comes with Wood Paneled Doors<\/em>, is a humorous coming of age story about a family traveling cross country in a possessed station wagon. It’s not <\/em>horror, but that didn’t stop some agents from treating it as such.<\/p>\n
More frustrating than agents treating the book as horror while saying it wasn’t scary were agents who said:<\/p>\n
“I really <\/em>loved this book! It was a riot and so much fun to read!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
One agent told me that even after she decided it wasn’t for her, she kept reading. That’s a great compliment, but it also confused me — if somebody loves something, why not support it?<\/p>\n
I know publishing is a business. I know there are books that sell and books that don’t sell. I understand agents are busy. I respect their time<\/a>. I’m definitely not one of those writers who takes any kind of rejection personally<\/a>.<\/p>\n
While I was a bit confused to receive good feedback for something nobody wanted to represent, that’s cool — I don’t want somebody representing something I’ve written that their heart isn’t into.<\/p>\n
Sometimes all I have going for me is heart, so I get that.<\/p>\n
*\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *<\/p>\n
Looking ahead to this year, I’ll be pitching another novel.<\/p>\n
I’m registered<\/a> for the Writer’s League of Texas Agents Conference<\/a>.<\/p>\n
This year, I’m not pitching a humorous coming-of-age story about a family traveling cross-country in a possessed station wagon; this year, I’m pitching a novel about a recently divorced celebrity chef who moves from Chicago to a small town in northern Wisconsin right about the time the most hated person in town goes missing.<\/p>\n
Maybe it will suffer the same fate as my first novel; maybe I’ll hear, “It’s a mystery, but there’s also a little romance in it…and it really deals with some dark themes, despite a happy ending. It really reveals life in a strange, small town. But what’s up with all the wrestling and poisonous bugs?”<\/p>\n
Maybe I’ll hear, “I really <\/em>liked this — even more than the first novel I requested. But I’m not sure how to market this one, either.”<\/p>\n
Or maybe I’ll hear, “Love this; I want to represent it.”<\/p>\n
The only way to find out is to keep putting my work out there and never giving up!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My first novel was well received by agents, but I heard this more than a\u00a0 few times: “I don’t know how I’d market this. Humor, or horror? It’s not at all scary.” There is a reason it’s not scary: it’s not horror. My first novel, Hell Comes with Wood Paneled Doors, is a humorous coming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[24,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.christophergronlund.com\/blog\/tjw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}