What are you willing to do to get published?

[Gina Conroy]

I'm not a romance writer, but after my agent's repeated suggestions, I wrote a romantic suspense. He says romance is selling well in the inspirational market and after my first mystery didn't sell, and I already had this romantic suspense book partly written (for an anthology,) I finished it. Now all I can do is wait, and rewrite my original mystery with a romance angle.

I'm not thrilled about turning my married protagonist into a divorced, single mom or three so she can find love and live happily ever after, but I do want the book to sell, and it already made the rounds. I've been told editors liked the idea, but wished it was a romance.

So here I go again, writing a romance. Is this where I want to stay, no! But I'm hoping it will be a stepping stone to what I really want to write and in this economy and market, sometimes we have to take a different path if we want to get ahead!

[I. J. Parker]

Funny, Patrick. I can see that first one to be a public nuisance. Attractive and intelligent are quite enough without aspiring to sainthood.

[Patrick Balester]

I'm willing to kill to get published...and did so, in my debut novel. The victim was intelligent, attractive and devoted to preserving the environment. I killed her anyway. Now I'm working on my second victim, a NASA scientist with a big heart and a long list of enemies. I guess I'm just a serial writer.

[I. J. Parker]

Well, more power to you. If they are indeed buying in that category, that would explain why my literary thriller was sent to romance editors until I threw a fit.

[Gina Conroy]

And you shouldn't change, BR! I can see myself writing all kinds of genres, the hardest part will be narrowing it down. Thankfully romantic suspense and suspense aren't too far from each other and I know lots of writers who cut their teeth on romantic suspense and now write in other genres. So we'll see what happens with the latest WIP I sent in. The market is really open at the publishing house right now.

[B.R.Stateham]

We all have to choose our paths (to whatever extent we can) to pursue in getting published. In that respect, you are far more flexible than I could be in changing genres. I see myself writing two types of fiction. That's it. I don't wish to change.