A marketing tip
Katharine Kerr June 16th, 2006
According to my agents (US, UK, and European), what’s really selling well right now are historical novels that center around a historical personage of the second order, that is, someone real who sat just outside the spotlight.  THE GIRL WITH THE PEARL EARRING was the first of these, and now apparently there’s a bestseller about Anne Boleyn’s sister. Publishers, sheep that they are, are looking for more of the same.Â
That bodes well for my next novel, C-3PO: The Man in the Golden Armor. (What? It’s historical! “A long, long time ago…”)
Thing is, in the 2-3 years it would take for me to research and write a novel that would fit that niche, the needs would change and they’d want something else.
How Like Them!
They’re both actually quite good. Tracy Chevalier,the author of “Girl with Pearl Earring” went on to write “The Lady and the Unicorn” about the tapestry with the same name. and Phillipa Gregory who wrote ” The Other Boleyn Girl” has been a writer for some time before this particular book propelled her into more fame and fortune, and continuing the series with books on other tudor women.
Other historical writers of note are Sharon Penman and Alison Weir (non – fiction) have been in the game for at least 20 years (I started reading Sharon Penman about the same time I started your books, Kit) and the BBC has been very supportive of period fiction in the past by serialising them for TV. Think the Mallens, Flambards, I Claudius, Pallisers, Poldark etc etc etc. All works of literature introduced to me by watching top quality BBC mini-series on the telly.
Kristine, how right you are! I actually have a Roman novel on the back burner, but by the time I finish the other books I have under contract, and then finish the Roman novel, lo! the trend will have changed.
Mona, thanks for furnishing the title! My aged brain is beginning to drop these details.
Kit, did you see GalleyCat’s (somewhat snarky) comment on this post?
David
I kind of agree with GalleyCat (sans snarkiness). These type of fiction has been around for ages and the arguments for deep genre as proposed in this blog do apply to some extent. Most often than not, historical fiction gets filed into some bodice ripping section in one’s mind.
Kit , for a hell of a series on Rome, check out Colleen McCollough’s Men of Rome books – from Gaius Marius, Sulla, Pompeii to the great Julius himself. Bodice ripping it is not.
I guess this is my roundabout way of saying good novels and writers beat any publishing trends.
Serious question – since you all have established your reputation as writers, how much do you feel you need to have a regard for trends as well??
Well, I don’t quite qualify as established (seeing as my novel is still a couple weeks away from publication). But my personal feeling has always been that if you have any pretensions at Serious Art, the trends should be irrelevant. Watch them, yes… learn from them, yes… but only follow them if you were heading that way in the first place. And should everyone suddenly swerve off that path towards someplace else, stay the course and don’t worry about it.
What counts is writing well and producing a solid book. Do a good enough job, and who knows? you may be starting the next trend.