Paranormal is dead, and New Adult is about to thrieve!

Yes, that is what agents and editors are telling me. Paranormal has drown the market to the point that no one wants any more...for now.

So what do I do with my paranormal/supernatural thriller story? I either shelf it for awhile until the market dries out again or I change it. After three years of never-ending work I'm not ready to shelf it. I am now reworking my ending and making it a full Psychological Thriller...a few more months of work, but it'll be sellable.

Another new term that I am learning about and is a HUGE controversy is New Adult (main characters that are between the ages of 18-25 and is a second coming of age story.)

Our culture encourages greater time spent in college, prolonged dating periods, etc there is a gap between young adult and adults that have a career, house, spouse, and kids.

One agent said that we don't need to target that market because those age of people don't buy books. They may not buy books but I know I like reading about that age the most. Between 18-25 is when most people make their important decisions: what career they will have, who they marry, etc. and is many ways is the most interesting time period.

I also feel that way too often we force books into the YA genre when they really belong in a little older genre. Many times when I am reading a YA book the voice is older than 16 or 17 yrs old, and the relationships as well as the mentalities are more mature than high school kids. Why don't we just make a  new genre that fits??

Anyone else agree with me??  Any Thoughts on this subjects?

Conferences are priceless!!

If you are an aspiring writer the best advice I could give you would be GO to Conferences!! As many as time and money will allow. They are worth every cent.

I took this advice and went to my first Writer's conferences--The Las Vegas Writers Conference in April and the LDStorymakers Conference last weekend. (Not to mention I also painted my new house, moved, and went to the Health & Nutritional Conference as well! Yes, I've been very busy, which is why I hope you'll excuse my absence on my blog--it won't happen again--I hope)

At these conferences I met at ton of amazing people, learned about the industry and writing, found the best critic group, made what I hope to be life-long friends, and I'm inspired more than ever to become a great writer.

By comparing and contrasting my two conference I hope to help you glean a little insight on how to choose your conferences...I'm not an expert, so if you have knowledge of other wonderful conferences PLEASE share.  I can't wait to go to others!

The Las Vegas Writers Conference was unique from many others because they only allow 150 attendees. I never felt like a number in a massive crowd and I was able to meet almost everyone. It was very intimate...in fact I was invited to 'have drinks' for 2 hours 2 different times with Peter Joseph (Sr. Editor of Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin Press), Jeff Kleinman (Agent & founding partner of Folio Literary Management), Sara D'Emic (Agent of Talcott Notch Literary) and Rachel Ekstrom (Agent at Irene Goodman Literary)...tell me if there's another conf. out there where you can do that?!

The Vegas Conference is also where I found amazing writers to form a Critic Group; April Khaito, Jenny Ballif, Allysa Shrout, and Amanda Skenandore. I love these ladies!! They are so talented and make me better just by being associated with them.

The LDStorymakers Conferences was much bigger (500+ I'm told), but I learned so much in the classes, met people I will never forget, and even had a famous author read my first chapter and gave me feedback on it!

So research conferences and GO, but tell me about them too!