There are no rules

Sometimes I wonder if my story is marketable. I wonder if what I’ve written is so far left field that it will leave publishers scratching their heads. I was recently asked who my audience was and I couldn’t answer. I’d always been told to just write. Just write the story you want to tell, the story you want to read. Just write and worry about who is going to be reading it later.

I came across this article by one of my favorite people and writers, Aaron Micheal Ritchey. He has such a positive attitude about his work and I respect it so much.  Also, I have to say, his books are really quite good. This man is a poet.

I wanted to write something simple, something completely genre, completely marketable, a perfect example of a young adult romance. I studied the genre. I read broadly. I outlined the story. I kept the characters relatable, and I worked on streamlining the language. I hired an editor, took it through my critique group, used beta readers, did a final polish. In the fall of 2014, I started querying my young adult romance. The rejections were slow in coming. Several agents read the whole thing. I was closer than ever! My hard work had paid off! Last week I achieved the ultimate victory! I got a rejection from a big-time literary agent who complimented my story structure and called my writing commercial. However, she basically said my book was too genre; it wouldn’t stand out.