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Author Interview – Judith Tarr
Nov. 21st, 2012 11:31 amThis seems to be the season for great author interviews - yesterday ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
desperance and today, dancinghorse:
Author Interview Special Edition – Judith Tarr, American Fantasy Writer | Ideas Captured
She says: Write what’s in your heart to write. Don’t try to write to market, or let anyone else dictate what you write. Of course you will listen to input at the revision stage, but when you decide on a subject–that should be all you.
Ah, balm to the heart of any writer struggling which all the howls and shrieks about "the market" and how to play that game - that drown out that precious inner voice.
This leads me to a moment of appreciation for my agent. Judith says she used to run ideas by hers and get advice/feedback on where the market was likely to go. Certainly, that's a common and accepted discussion. Agents must feel a great deal of frustration when they love an author's work and can't find a home for it in traditional publishing. But it's not a conversation I typically have with mine. I don't know if that's because of how this particular agent works, or our own history, or that I have not had occasion to ask (in the last decade, when I've been focusing on the Darkover series).
I just turned in my original epic fantasy - The Seven-Petaled Shield, all 3 books of it, completing the first round of editorial revisions - and opened a conversation about where to go from here. Whether to stay within this subgenre or branch out into something I haven't tried. We talked about the risks of writing more books in a given world or type of story when we won't know how well the first books do for some time (although that information is easier to come by now than years ago, when you had to wait through several royalty statement periods). Here's what he said:
"... the fact is that this what you are best at, what you love to do, and you have a rich world crying out to be further developed. Trying to write in other fields, genres, and formats which you aren't committed to deep down is probably not going to result in a book we can sell."
In other words, he gave me Judy's advice: write from your heart and passion.
desperance and today, dancinghorse:Author Interview Special Edition – Judith Tarr, American Fantasy Writer | Ideas Captured
She says: Write what’s in your heart to write. Don’t try to write to market, or let anyone else dictate what you write. Of course you will listen to input at the revision stage, but when you decide on a subject–that should be all you.
Ah, balm to the heart of any writer struggling which all the howls and shrieks about "the market" and how to play that game - that drown out that precious inner voice.
This leads me to a moment of appreciation for my agent. Judith says she used to run ideas by hers and get advice/feedback on where the market was likely to go. Certainly, that's a common and accepted discussion. Agents must feel a great deal of frustration when they love an author's work and can't find a home for it in traditional publishing. But it's not a conversation I typically have with mine. I don't know if that's because of how this particular agent works, or our own history, or that I have not had occasion to ask (in the last decade, when I've been focusing on the Darkover series).
I just turned in my original epic fantasy - The Seven-Petaled Shield, all 3 books of it, completing the first round of editorial revisions - and opened a conversation about where to go from here. Whether to stay within this subgenre or branch out into something I haven't tried. We talked about the risks of writing more books in a given world or type of story when we won't know how well the first books do for some time (although that information is easier to come by now than years ago, when you had to wait through several royalty statement periods). Here's what he said:
"... the fact is that this what you are best at, what you love to do, and you have a rich world crying out to be further developed. Trying to write in other fields, genres, and formats which you aren't committed to deep down is probably not going to result in a book we can sell."
In other words, he gave me Judy's advice: write from your heart and passion.
