It feels like every day that I read another professional -- whether an agent, writer, publisher, or editor -- complaining about too much fantasy being derivative of other works. One today was from Paul Goat Allen and it went, "As a full-time book reviewer, I’ve read a lot of fantasy over the last few decades – and a sizable percentage of it is derivative (...) imitation.", this coming just after Patrick Rothfuss said, "...more and more people are finally realizing that there's more to fantasy stories than elves and wizards and goblin armies."
Now I totally understand why many if not most pros feel this way (though I do believe they are exaggerating on at least Tolkienesque fantasies; I have blogged in the past about how few Tolkienesque fantasy books there are to be found if one actually looks for them). My objection comes from the fact that publishing is supposed to be about making money. It shouldn't matter one bit whether every publishing pro in the world (as well as many readers) hates derivative fantasy; as long as there are lots of fantasy readers who do love it then it should be published. The problem is that I think the pros are screening out a ton of such fantasy that readers like myself wish to read.
My advice to these publishing pros: go ahead and look down your nose at it, but stop rejecting derivative fantasy just because you dislike it. Derivative fantasy can still be great, such as the Iron Tower trilogy by McKiernan, and there are far more fans of it out here than you realize. A whole bunch of us happen to love elves and wizards and goblin armies.
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Here here!!! Well spoken - or writen...lol
ReplyDeleteThanks, DRC. Sometimes I feel like I am the only one voicing these concerns, even though sales figures for books like Sword of Shannara and McKiernan's bear me out on the popularity.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about goblin armies, but I sure do love elves and wizards. And I totally agree, there are not nearly enough books with them.
ReplyDeleteAww, Matt. What's to dislike abut goblin armies? The sequences with goblins were among my favorites in Tolkien!
ReplyDeleteThis is why I'm a fan of the new world of self-publishing through ebooks. It takes out the middle men who have worked to make themselves powerful. It brings things back to a real writer-reader relationship. Writers can write what readers want and get it out to them without being rejected and screwed over by publishers.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, hi Ted. I'm a new follower (by way of Nathan B's). I've been writing that sentence a lot lately, lol.
ReplyDeleteThe first novel I queried was a fantasy with elves and dwarves (and other beings) in it. I wouldn't call it "high" fantasy exactly, but it did share several of those qualities. I never felt it was derivative, but I guess I could see how someone skimming over a query might have thought so.
I think you're right that there is a dedicated audience for those kinds of fantasy novels, but it seems there are only a handful of agents who are really into it. Don't know how to get around that though. I ended up trunking that novel and now I write more in the speculative fiction area.
Hi L.G., Good to have you here! But isn't it sad to have to trunk work that may have taken years of work just because the gatekeepers don't want to see any more elves and dwarves? I sure wish I could discover the few agents that you suggest might like this work, because I have been looking for three years now and I can't find any. I wrote mine specifically to aim at people like myself who love Tolkienesque high fantasy, but I seriously doubt now that I will ever sell this kind of work. Any THEY are the ones who like to say that publishing is about the money!
ReplyDeleteHey, Ted, have you seen this series and this series? I thought of you when I saw them.
ReplyDeleteBryan, I saw them but they didn't look like books that would have made it through our standard agents. If I recall correctly they were published in Germany.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think they're both translated. See, all you have to do is learn German, translate your own books, and you're set. And when they sell and people want to translate them into English, you'll already have English copies! Two for the price of one. Very profitable.
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