Bibliophile Stalker is an odd place to find a collection of almost everything publishing to read from some very reputable sources. I found it after I wrote last week’s blog entry, yet there was a lot I found to confirm just about everything I said. Isn’t that sad?

For some reason luck does play into publishing, more so than I thought. Some people are just luckier than others, hence the fall into a bucket of shit, come out smelling like a rose quip. But, luck can be made. How does the average writer hedge their bets? Make their own luck?

One thing I’m not, is boring. I have enough posted over at my Central Park blog to confirm that. And although I’m not perfect, I’m doing all I can to use proper punctuation and grammar, carefully editing myself into print, polishing my every last word, giving each piece a foot-deep shine. I work hard on this, believing I’m helping myself make my own luck. True, luck is still luck, but boring, bad, sloppy writers are not going to get the contracts . . . Most of them . . . One always manages to squeak by . . . You tell me how.

I’ve been told I can write by more than one agent, but I haven’t sent out a requested manuscript to any agents for some time, and small publishers are not offering me contracts. I’ve written much fantasy, a lot of horror, and one naughty fantasy I’m very proud of, and one crime thriller I’m just about to finish. I’m not hot. No vampires in the lot, yet it’s been said that vampire fiction will remain hot for some time to come. I did write a short story about a female vampire I can turn into a series of three books, but she’s a real vampire, not the cardboard cutouts that inhabit today’s novels. She soulless, evil, ruthless. She would just as soon kill you as kiss you.

Although the protagonist is a vampire, she’s not the type of vampire that the prevailing market wants to sell to consumers. Rather than being a "popcorn" read, this series of three or more books would be more literary in nature. Less dialogue, with more atmosphere and suspense. Would it be worth the time to spend a year or more on these three novels? That’s what I’m asking myself right now. I would be writing passionately about a hot topic, but would an agent or publisher want to buck the current or possible future trend? Their vamps are so soft-core, and mine would runt fuck them just for meanness. She does finally fall in love in book three, or what for her passes as love. She dies at the end, too, bucking yet another trend.

Herein is where the real problem resides. I could ask all the agents, all editors, and all publishers the same questions, and all they would tell me is to write it and see what happens. Hope for the best!

I don’t want to write it and hope for the best. I want to write it and get it published. Yes, I could possibly tone her down, some, but couldn’t pull her fangs, or make her camp fare. As a character I feel and know, she has her own life. I know her passions, and her cravings. She not, "We’ll just go out and solve us a bunch of crimes, hon. Okay by you?"

I don’t see a way of getting past that particular problem. Making my own luck by knowing the mechanics of writing well, writing about what I feel most passionately about, even within the current trend, guarantees absolutely nothing. I’m damned if I do, and damned if I don’t. See you next week.