Goodreads Authors/Readers discussion

My new thriller novel, “The True Virus”, is timely since the recent conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza is similar to what happens in my book. Would an agent or publisher take this into consideration in accepting my submission?

A novel based on a specific current event is risky. It takes about a year after signing a deal to deliver books to the retail shelf. What if real life fails to conform to the authors plot?

On the other hand fiction inspired by contemporary issues of science, politics or social conflict is bread and butter. Clancy and Crichton spun great stories from contemporary issues.

I don't know whether echoing current events (either by design or luck) is advantageous, but I think being on a fashionable subject or trend can really help.

Books involving environmental issues or weather disasters for example, or zombies, might benefit from riding the current trend in popular subjects.

Judging by all the books/movies/comics etc. over the past decades, does the market ever get tired of war and destruction?

Paul wrote: "Judging by all the books/movies/comics etc. over the past decades, does the market ever get tired of war and destruction?"

you can say same of sex, of serial killers, of courtroom thrillers/dramas, of aliens and extra-terrestrials, vampires, zombies, werewolves...

I just happened to publish a novel based on Edgar Allan Poe's dying days (and his unfinished work, "The Lighthouse") right before the film THE RAVEN came out. Very advantageous!

It is my experience that current events drive readers. I think you should market your book ASAP.

My novel, “The True Virus”, takes place during the last Gaza conflict (Dec. 2008 to Jan. 2009). The tension between Gaza and Israel has and will always exist. So I feel my book will always be timely.
I have one publisher who is interested in my novel and has asked me to add more Middle East countries and terrorist factions and resubmit. He feels a book like this will be successful.

I wrote my first novel in 2009. It's about a female Sportswriter looking for love in Boston. She's a huge Bruins fan and her love of hockey makes many appearances throughout the novel. I queried the heck out of the thing through most of 2010. Had a publisher picked it up the book would have hit shelves just as the Bruins were winning the Stanley cup for the first time in 39 years. Sadly no Agents/Publishers had the same vision I did and I never got a deal. No worries, I self-pub'd earlier this year. Unfortunately the NHL is in lockout and my book (paperback only) hasn't gotten the response I think it might have had if it went out in 2011.

In the end does any of this matter? No, not really. I'm honestly just happy to have the thing published and in the mainstream!

Good luck with your hitting up Agents/Publishers. Something tells me a Middle East thriller/conflict story has a better shot of getting picked up than a "Tomboy-meets-Townie love story"! Just get on it asap for maximum benefit!

How would current events not help the success of a book? I think it would impact sales greatly if the topic is clear and broad enough. If it itll help, by all means take advantage of some help!

Charles wrote: "My novel, “The True Virus”, takes place during the last Gaza conflict (Dec. 2008 to Jan. 2009). The tension between Gaza and Israel has and will always exist. So I feel my book will always be timely

I have one publisher who is interested in my novel and has asked me to add more Middle East countries and terrorist factions and resubmit. He feels a book like this will be successful.
..."

I find that agent's response utterly baffling. What is he basing it on? More Hizbollah and Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa brigade readers possibly reading the book if they feel included?


You wrote the book you wrote with the plot that worked. Putting in these other elements would change your conception of the book drastically I would have thought?

I agree that current events greatly impacts a book's sales. In the DISTRICT COMICS: AN UNCONVENTIONAL HISTORY OF WASHINGTON DC anthology (which I contributed to) there was a story about the Obama inauguration that got some good play because of the election season. It was even reprinted in it's entirety in the Washington City Paper. And my contribution, which was about the 1867 Washington Nationals, also got some good play because of the 2012 Washington Nationals playoff run. But in both cases the key was to explicitly tie the correlation to the stories in the reader's heads. Also, I think it helps that both stories (and other stories in the book) focused on more unconventional tales - most people in DC didn't even realize that there was a team called the Nationals in 1867 and they certainly didn't realize the importance of that franchise to the future of baseball.

Our relentless pushing helped, too. Last week the book was named one of the top 20 books of 2012 by the Washington Post. Sales seemed to have responded.

I even released my short THE END OF STARS sort of in response to Hurricane Sandy. Although I wrote it before the hurricane hit, it is a fable about climate change aimed at kids. It was my most downloaded side-project so far, potentially because of that correlation.

But looking back at it, I don't think it helps to necessarily release something in response to a current event all the time. It could be seen as exploitative. It's all in how you handle it. If my book was about how climate change is a joke, it probably wouldn't have sold as well. If I changed it from the sky falling to an actual hurricane, I imagine it would have been viewed as a bit tacky.

There's a balance in all things.

I think being influenced by Zeitgeist type current events maybe beneficial when your fleshing out a new story. I'm just not sure I would alter any well laid out plans to fit in current events. The other issue is that most currents can often be very short lived.

If a publisher is interested then I say go with it. Current events is kind of a hit and miss thing but if you've caught someone's interest then play that card for all it's worth!

My most recent book, Moon on the Bayou, featured a shoot out with the Vesta drug cartel in Nuevo Laredo after a body was snatched from a crime scene. A couple of months later, fiction turned to reality and the body of a notorious Vesta leader was taken from the morgue after he had died in a shoot out.

Taylor,
I didn't have a strategy in place for that particular turn of events, but it has helped to focus attention on the book. For some reason, the Australian market has been the most receptive. It will be interesting to see what the holiday season brings.

AJ