I’m definitely a geek when it comes to metrics. If you read some of my earlier posts, you’ll find charts for tracking draft word count, and revision page count as well as query status. It keeps me from going insane and puts the numbers in a context an engineer can appreciate. Publishing is a numbers game, and as scarce as useful feedback is, I try to divine trends from the raw numbers as much as anything else. Sometimes it feel like reading tea leaves or chicken entrails would be just as reliable though…

Genres are tricky right now. It seems like everyone is searching for the next huge breakout, but nobody can tell what that will be. (More tea leaves…) I’m having a little difficulty understanding the military fantasy label though. I’d never even heard of it until an agent suggested it as an alternative for me. What titles would you categorize as MilFan?

Good on you for slogging through NaNo! I wrote the first draft of Renegade in NaNo last year, but bowed out of this year. I’m still deciding what to work on after I finish revisions on Guardian (if I finish revisions on Guardian…)

Cheers and good luck with your own search!

Your earlier post on finding an agent was very helpful. Reading your posts, make it seem like a manageable project, as opposed to the big, scary mess other writing sites describe. Plus, your approach and use of metrics (like the little chart above) is exactly the kind of thing I was thinking of doing, so now I have a model to work off of.

I think it’s hugely encouraging that you’re getting positive feedback with the rejections. Most people don’t get any feedback at all. It says to me that you’re on the right track in terms of the craft of writing, so now you just need to look at how you’re using those skills, which is, what I think you’re talking about when you talk about exploring other genres.

Urban fantasy is very hot now, although I wonder if the market’s tapped out. I think it’d be tricky to find a unique angle. Military fantasy has a smaller pool and might be a good place to break through. I keep hearing noise around Steampunk and the “New Weird”, although I don’t really know exactly how the latter is defined.

My approach (so far) has been to keep writing things in different styles/genres in the hopes that at some point I’ll hit on that combination of something I do well and that will sell. Fortunately, I read pretty broadly, so I can try lots of different things and still stay within genres I like and am familiar with. Also, I’m trying to avoid trilogy or series ideas, so I don’t have to feel like I’m abandoning something when the first book doesn’t sell–I’d hate to be in that position.

So that’s my nickel’s worth of free advice (as my Dad would say). Keep smiling and keep the updates coming!