Writing a Western romance for a publisher that’s stopped publishing Western romances
My family was between homes. We’d sold our house in California, and despite several trips to New England, we hadn’t found a suitable house to purchase. Andrew was starting work in Boston. As the months rolled on, and Christmas approached, and we bumped around AirBnBs, the stress piled up. And when I’m stressed I love nothing more than to bury myself in a Western romance.
That’s right: I’m a rock-chick that loves a good Western romance novel.
Got a problem with that?
Boston Library had a terrific selection of Harlequin Western romances. And while I say there was a good selection, I should also mention that they were displayed in a way that suggested the library (which is historic and BEAUTIFUL) was slightly ashamed to be in possession of them. Around this time I’d finished my first full-length novel, but it was a mess. There were too many things going on. It rambled for over 100,000 words, but I’d been working on it for about two years, and the pages had become a quagmire I couldn’t figure out how to unmuddle. Harlequin romances were a panacea for a woman grown weary with words.
Writing a paperback novel seemed a nice alternative to turning my behemoth literary novel into something readable. And I was digging this whole Western vibe. Our family had planned an amazing road/camping trip up through Lake Tahoe into Yellowstone across to the Badlands, that COVID-19 had put to bed. I began writing The Guardians, about a divorced mother from California beginning a new chapter of her life in the ranch country of Montana.
Writing a Western romance was my way of getting a little Montana in my life,
When I couldn’t actually get to Montana.
With everything going on—eventually buying a house, cleaning it, starting the renovations, furniture shopping, homeschooling the kids, plowing and shoveling the driveway, learning which wild animals liked to live around here, enrolling the kids in public school, and starting a new job—my sweet little Western romance novel took longer to write than I’d expected. Then, another six months on the rewrite and editing. Finally, it was ready enough to send to the publisher except…
Where did I submit my Western romance?
Actually… where did their Western romance novels team go?
I’d been buying their books and reading them to check that I had the style right. But I hadn’t seen a new one for a while.
The publisher was actively requesting manuscripts for their Christian “Inspired” series, and manuscripts from authors that identified as being from a minority. And while I am pro diversity and inclusion, I do have an issue with companies swinging a hard left just to tick a box. As far as I could tell, the company was trying to please two extremes of America, while ignoring the rest of us in the middle.
I was bummed, not only as an author, but also as a reader. Their Western romances had been excellent. Plus, Western romances were a great jumping-off genre to offer diversity and inclusion (hello, Brokeback Mountain). Half the characters in my novel were African-American. African-Americans have a long history in the West, where they often moved to as part of the exodus from the South in the 1800s. Besides which, the obvious: Native Americans, whose land was taken, and who continue to be relegated to the worst areas of the plains.
Alas, wish as I might, Harlequin had stopped accepting Western romance manuscripts. They were releasing some as Special Editions, but those also seemed to be few and far between.
There was nothing left for me to do, but send my manuscript rogue.
I tweaked the novel and sent query letters and passages to a couple of commercial fiction agents. I wasn’t surprised when I didn’t hear back. The novel I’d written was never intended for the commercial fiction market. I’d written it very specifically, for a very specific publisher. Oops.
I realized I’d ignored advice I read early in my writing journey:
Write what you enjoy reading.
Not what you think a publisher wants.
Not what you think the market wants to read.
I thought the advice had come from James Patterson, but it might have been Quentin Tarantino… They’re easy guys to mix up, right?
Time to pivot.
I love Western romances, but if I’m being honest, I prefer to buy and read novels with a little more depth.
I am rewriting The Guardians. Turning it into the novel I secretly wished it was as I drafted the original version. It’s time-consuming, but hopefully it’ll be worth it.
In the meantime, learn from my mistake, and don’t limit yourself by writing a novel for one publisher, who could stop purchasing manuscripts for that niche at any moment.
Three quotes to remind us to write what we love:
Don’t market yourself. Editors and readers don’t know what they want until they see it. Scratch what itches. Write what you need to write, feed the hunger for meaning in your life. Play at the serious questions of life and death.
— Donald Murray, Pulitzer Prize winning author and writing professor
Don’t write what you think people want to read.
Find your voice and write about what’s in your heart.
—Quentin Tarantino
Write a book you’d like to read. If you wouldn’t read it, why would anybody else?
Don’t write for a perceived audience or market. It may well have vanished by the time your book’s ready.
—Hilary Mantel, two-times Booker Prize winning novelist