I’m not querying my debut novel. I’ve shelved what I’d thought would be my debut novel. I wrote two other novels or parts of novels since then, thinking each of them would become my debut novel. Now I’ve put them aside too.
The novels I’ve abandoned for now didn’t play to my strengths. They were too serious in tone, and my personality isn’t the kind to breathe life into serious material. I don’t want everything I write to be a joke, either. But there’s room to stand between the stern and the ridiculous, and that’s where I can thrive.
Many years ago I submitted some stories to Peryton Publishing for their anthology of game-related stories. I loved writing them, but thought there wasn’t that much of an audience for game-related tales. Apparently, I was wrong. There’s an entire genre now devoted to them, and it’s called GameLit. Think Ready Player One. Sure, I knew there were novels based on Dungeons and Dragons campaign settings and other branded gaming systems. But I saw those as targeting rather small reader niches that an author couldn’t break into without reading a ton of game books and campaign materials. Ready Player One showed me I stood a chance at finding an audience for GameLit novels based on my own RPG system creations.
So that’s my path now. I’ve written an outline and am 17,000+ words into the first draft of a Fantasy GameLit novel using a RPG setting of my own creation. Will this novel see publication? I’ve learned from my mistakes on my previous three novel-writing attempts. Have I learned enough? Dear God, I hope so. I’m not a youngster anymore. But I still have the energy to rebound from failed attempts, so here I come.