Now that [i]Finders Keepers [/i]has been getting a lot of publisher interest, it’s also been getting a lot of publisher (or should I say editor) response. At present at least three publishers are considering [i]Finders Keepers[/i], but I’ve also learned a few things from the publishers who have passed.
And what I’ve come to realize–or at least believe–is that, unintentionally, I’ve been mismanaging their expectations. At it’s heart, [i]Finders Keepers[/i] is a buddy story and a backpackinNow that [i]Finders Keepers [/i]has been getting a lot of publisher interest, it’s also been getting a lot of publisher (or should I say editor) response. At present at least three publishers are considering [i]Finders Keepers[/i], but I’ve also learned a few things from the publishers who have passed.
And what I’ve come to realize–or at least believe–is that, unintentionally, I’ve been mismanaging their expectations. At it’s heart, [i]Finders Keepers[/i] is a buddy story and a backpacking adventure, with some goofy sci-fi/fantasy elements woven into the narrative. But because the goofy stuff is so, well, goofy, it’s such a great hook, and people are genuinely interested.
But what’s been happening, I think, is that I’m promising one kind of book, but then delivering another. So when the editors get [i]Finders Keepers[/i] they think they’re about to read non-stop cosmic lunacy, when in fact, it’s mostly set in the real world, with regular people on a backpacking trip, with some cosmic lunacy mixed in. Through no fault of the editors, [i]Finders Keepers[/i] isn’t meeting their expectations. Not in terms of quality, but in terms of tone.
I think back to the early 90s when [i]True Romance[/i] came out. The studios marketed it as a romance date movie between Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette, but when boyfriends and girlfriends sat down in the theater and there were guns blazing, salty Quentin Tarantino language and just loads of intense violence, the audience would get up and leave. The movie bombed (although made a nice comeback on DVD). Thing is, [i]True Romance[/i] is a great movie for the kind of movie it is. It just got marketed the wrong way. The audience expected to get one kind of movie, but watched another.
Same thing is going in with [i]Finders Keepers[/i]. At least that’s how I read it.
So what to do? A-ha. Always the key question. Well, I’ve gone back to the drawing board pitch-wise, and I’ve come up with a new, revised pitch that sets out to do two things: Sell the overall fun and goofiness of [i]Finders Keepers[/i], but also keep it a bit more grounded, so editors and publishers will have a better ideas of what they’re getting up front. This way, the editors will be better positioned to accept [i]Finders Keepers[/i] for the book it actually is, and enjoy it. And buy it.
And now that I’ve revised the pitch materials, and my agent has them to work with, we’ll see how it goes.
As always, I’ll keep you posted.
Post edited by: rcolchamiro, at: 2008/08/20 08:25
