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So CAMP is out a week from today, and there& #39;s been amazing reviews, a movie deal and so much support! I& #39;m amazed, and grateful - and also terrified. Queer books are hard to sell. Books are hard to sell now. And a lot is riding on this one, for me and any future books I write.
That& #39;s why I& #39;ve been emphasizing pre-orders. That first week is so important. It determines how excited people get - how interested the media gets, which leads to more excitement and sales.
Selling Jack of Hearts was hard. Not the hate mail, I brushed that off pretty easily, but the silence. The way people wouldn& #39;t even consider it and just didn& #39;t respond to pitches or queries. It was a book made invisible (in the US), and it suffered for it - and so did I.
At this point, my YA career is at a tipping point. If Camp does well, I get to write more queer books! If it doesn& #39;t... that& #39;s probably it for me. It& #39;s my 6th book overall. I& #39;ve never had a major success, never gathered a large loyal audience.
I& #39;ve had editors refuse to read books because they knew they& #39;d have to reject it anyway, based on my sales. I& #39;ve been approached for projects later abandoned based on my sales. It& #39;s been rough. If I were straight and wrote straight stories, would it be easier? Probably.
But I also feel like queer stories are why I& #39;m here. To give the queer kids - the me kids - the stuff I didn& #39;t get when I was their age. To try to give them something I wish I& #39;d had earlier; a love of my queerness, a love of the queer community, a feeling of place in history.
I& #39;ll probably delete this later. No one wants to know the dark side of publishing, and I don& #39;t want to offend editors (it& #39;s not their fault, so that& #39;s not my intention). But it& #39;s hard out there, and I don& #39;t have the bright shiny excitement of being a debut. I& #39;m old.
So when I say please pre-order, what I mean is & #39;please give me a chance to write more books. Please save me.& #39; If you want to see more of my books, if you think these stories have value, then please pre-order. Thank you. https://bookshop.org/books/camp-9780316537759/9780316537759">https://bookshop.org/books/cam...
