Current mood:	confused
Entry tags:	publishers, self-publishing, soul mates

Publisher's Review
I had a very positive rejection letter for Soul Mates through the post today. I suppose that sentence is a contradiction but I assure you it does make sense.

For a start it was a personalised letter, not one of those bog-standard photo-copied ones. This guy actually sat down, read through my cover letter properly, took in everything I'd written, and then went onto read the sample chapters I'd sent.

When a rejection letter starts with I really admire your writing, and I am grateful to you for contacting me you know the letter might just turn out to be a good one. But although he did enjoy the story (he said so again at the end, gosh, aren't I going to get a big head?), he didn't feel he could take it on. He had some suggestions as to why I'd have difficulty getting it published. The first being my inability to set down on one category/genre (my words, not his). He said I mentioned to him at least five different categories it could be slotted into in a bookstore. He said "Soul Mates" was a one-off (his words, not mine), and that I was creating a category of your own.

He helpfully suggested I look into a company who helped another author with similar work to mine, which I thought was super nice. But he also said that he thought a specialised publisher might find it a book they'd want to work with. By specialist I think he meant one that focuses on gay/lesbian books. But I don't write about being gay, I just write stories where some characters are gay, others are straight, even more others are bisexual. My inability to pick a genre again, I think.

So I'm stuck. I feel like I'm being sent a sign to do something with this book but I'm not sure what. I clearly have a unique story/genre on my hands here so how do I go about seeing if other people want to read it? Should I continue to try the publishers the way I have been - sending out letters, synopsises and sample chapters - via the post? Or do I try what I did with Shadows and go down the self-publishing route?

Shall I give you a brief idea of what "Soul Mates" covers within its, well, cover? It's set in 540AD South Wales but is definitely fantasy-based. There are two conflicting genres there: both history and fantasy. Two of the main characters are gay, one is a straight, two are bisexual, and the people they meet along the way can be one of the three, depending on what they reveal to me - so there's three conflicting genres. There's romance involved, as in the lovey-dovey, fate stuff, but there's also hardcore rampant sex as well - conflictions in the market. The characters are in their late-teens/early twenties which is a weird genre to be in anyway cos it's not really young-adult but it's not adult either. I'm not saying I'd in any way change the book, the story, the characters, the setting, to fit into one particular genre. I'm just pointing out the different genres I have going on. Imagine you're in a bookstore and you're looking for a book like that - where would you look? What sub-section? I'd go for fantasy, cos that's the base of the book. But would you?

So I'm in a state of confusion as to what to do next. I have one more letter out there, circulating, getting itself reviewed as I write, I assume. That may bring back other news. You don't often get personalised letters in return so when I do I really like to think on what's been said. I feel like I should know what to do with this book - it's my baby, remember, and I want it to have the best start in its life out there in the big wide world of publication. So I'm confused. Is there a route I haven't thought of yet? Should I continue harassing the publishers? Or should I go the "indie" route and self-publish cos that's what a hell of a lot of authors are doing who have gay/lesbian content in their work?