Rejecting the genre not the writing
Nicola Morgan over at Help! I need a publisher! makes an interesting point here:
… publishers (and therefore agents) do not reject a genre, unless of course it’s actually a genre they specifically don’t handle. They reject the book or the writing. Almost always. You can overcome any amount of tiredness or disillusion with great, sparkling writing, a wonderful voice, a new take on an old theme. And the easiest way for an agent or publisher to reject a story they don’t think has those elements is to say, “We’re not publishing vampires any more,” or “No one’s selling medical thrillers.”
I think that sounds about right. However, it’s pretty important that you make sure your novel isn’t exactly like an existing piece of work. So fine, write about vampires if you must, as in this example, but don’t outright copy the Twilight novels. And don’t create a school for wizards called Bogwarts.
Basically, I think that if you have a good story, great characters and your writing is pretty spifferoo, you can’t go too far wrong. Put in the research and concentrate on those things. They should always come first.
