Hi Ivan, I'm late to this party. I've skimmed through as many comments as I can, but I am still confused by the difference between Literary and UpLit. I read a lot of literary fiction because I like books with complex emotions, but send many of them back to the library when they are all about the writing with barely any plot. I have written a novel which imagines Sylvia Plath survived her 1963 suicide and is an 82 year old nobody in 2015. It has several narrative strands going back and forth in time, so some elements of it could be seen as historical, and I had always thought it was literary because it is dark and painful as well as hopeful, but now I am wondering whether it would fit Uplit because of the conversations that could follow from the way I have speculated about what might happen to Plath and why. Would you count Claire Keegan and Douglas Stewart as literary? Could you give a couple of examples of bordeline literary Up lit, but which you would come down on the side of Uplit? That would really help me understand the difference.
Hi Ivan , I’m really enjoying your posts and site. So my first adult book is a paranormal romance. I have written a children’s fantasy and am working on a contemporary children’s story which is realism but it has a parrot that talks - a lot. What if a parrot discovers AI?
I’m writing a novella series in the Crime genre, a group heist crime with some spicy romance sprinkled in for fun 🤩. I haven’t updated my Substack in ages, but as I write more in my series I really hope to share my writing and researching journey in heists and build a readership. Does that sound like anyone’s cup of tea? Or, given the crime, shot of whiskey?
I write close POV character driven genre fiction. SF mostly. I have one book independently published and I am preparing to do that again for a trilogy I am working through. But I am going out on sub with the first book while book 2 is getting edited and I am 30k words into book three.
Hi! I write in two genres: epic fantasy (always centering queer characters and relationships) and trade/academic nonfiction (religious studies). I have substack newsletters for both but the nonfiction one is just getting started! I see some people have links to work, so here's my first traditionally published short story https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/the-institute-of-harmony/ (I also have a self pubbed duology, a sapphic epic being queried, and another sapphic epic wip).
Posts like this are invaluable. My name is Dylan and I write literary horror. My work typically leans into transgressive themes like addiction, trauma, and abuse. After writing all my life and only submitting one story that barely had a chance, I ended up in rehab for alcohol addiction at 38 years old. Ten months out of rehab, I had my first acceptance letter, and five more acceptances in the 5 months to follow, and I'll be honest, I have no idea what im doing. But, I'm still sober, and I'm taking writing seriously. Everything I post on substack is free, and I consistently update with publishing news, or thoughts/articles on the topic of horror fiction.
Thanks for hosting this space for people to find their readers.
I’ve published (small trad press) two private detective mysteries with women’s fiction elements (female P.I. with a desire to grow her one-woman biz into a classy, boutique investigation agency), but I’m also writing general fiction aiming for readers who also like Elinor Lipman and J. Courtney Sullivan.
Hi, my first book, Imperfect Bodies, is a narrative non fic that will be published next March by Héloïse Press. I had an extract published in The Stinging Fly and that's how my agent found me. Also, a bursary from the Arts Council of Ireland, and two mentorships, one with Words Ireland (now the National Mentoring Programe) and the Penguin Write Now program helped it gain traction. I am currently engaged in writing a historical novel based on two actual female rebels of the 1641 Rebellion, and am attending a workshop with Martina Devlin at the Irish Writers Centre next weekend to gain more insight into the genre, although I read a lot of historical fiction, and always have. I suspect there may be elements of magical realism and/ or autofiction emerging as small threads running through it, though, which compicate matters of genre... think Paul Lynch's Grace, and Doirrean Ní Ghríofa's Ghost in the Throat. And another strange novel is beginning to emerge which I initially thought might be crossover YA but is turning out a bit dark, so we'll see where that goes! 😂 I am just breaking the tip of 4000 subscribers here on Substack after 2 years. I love writing here, but I don't write fiction. It's been a bit of a slog at times, a labour of love. 💕
Our agency mmbcreative.com reopens our Horror book submissions email next month. If you're agent hunting, we're there to take a look. The UK readership for Horror is a small niche, though growing. I believe it will increase rapidly in future years.. As so often in our culture, there's a snobbery against the genre that readers under 30 are changing - being oblivious to the silly hierarchies between 'classes' of books. New readers - to my genuine joy - give no fucks about being identified as a Horror reader while also reading more widely. Historically, you had to label yourself as an outsider and embrace being a cultist.
Great post. I write upmarket fiction with a focus on suspense/mystery. I like my books to be full of excitement, while also engaging in those deeper questions.
Expert/subject-led non-fiction (I'm a psychologist). But I also have a couple of fiction ideas that won't leave me alone. One is YA Fantasy based in Irish mythology. The other is the modern day fictional life story of a Dublin prostitute and drug addict - tragic, no happy ending here I'm afraid...I don't know where that belongs.
Thinking she will turn her life around only to fall off the wagon and OD. Readers will be very upset (if it's ever finished that is). She has a daughter...she does well. Maybe that will save the story🤔
Hello! Currently posting a wide variety of fiction on my magazine, Darkling. I favour horror, speculative, literary, and overall weird fiction. Currently working on a contemporary fantasy horror novel that allegorises the tenuous HK-UK-China relationship and makes it a nasty tale about how we all want a little blood.
Memoir - grief, death, suicide, narcissistic mother, but humour, resilience and survival through animals and loving husband and children but dealing with husband and daughters death
Genre: Meditative Reflection, Philosophical Poetry, Spiritual Exploration, Contemplative Non-fiction or i don't know how to classify my writing. https://open.substack.com/pub/ericpollok?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=4w70w2
Hi Ivan, I'm late to this party. I've skimmed through as many comments as I can, but I am still confused by the difference between Literary and UpLit. I read a lot of literary fiction because I like books with complex emotions, but send many of them back to the library when they are all about the writing with barely any plot. I have written a novel which imagines Sylvia Plath survived her 1963 suicide and is an 82 year old nobody in 2015. It has several narrative strands going back and forth in time, so some elements of it could be seen as historical, and I had always thought it was literary because it is dark and painful as well as hopeful, but now I am wondering whether it would fit Uplit because of the conversations that could follow from the way I have speculated about what might happen to Plath and why. Would you count Claire Keegan and Douglas Stewart as literary? Could you give a couple of examples of bordeline literary Up lit, but which you would come down on the side of Uplit? That would really help me understand the difference.
Thank you.
Hi Ivan , I’m really enjoying your posts and site. So my first adult book is a paranormal romance. I have written a children’s fantasy and am working on a contemporary children’s story which is realism but it has a parrot that talks - a lot. What if a parrot discovers AI?
I’m writing a novella series in the Crime genre, a group heist crime with some spicy romance sprinkled in for fun 🤩. I haven’t updated my Substack in ages, but as I write more in my series I really hope to share my writing and researching journey in heists and build a readership. Does that sound like anyone’s cup of tea? Or, given the crime, shot of whiskey?
Always an audience for that genre. Best of luck, MJ.
Grace
I write close POV character driven genre fiction. SF mostly. I have one book independently published and I am preparing to do that again for a trilogy I am working through. But I am going out on sub with the first book while book 2 is getting edited and I am 30k words into book three.
Best of luck
High fantasy mostly. Sometimes Mystery.
The part one of the main story I am writing, The Legend of Sinardia, is finished already and proofread.
Best of luck.
Thanks!
Hi! I write in two genres: epic fantasy (always centering queer characters and relationships) and trade/academic nonfiction (religious studies). I have substack newsletters for both but the nonfiction one is just getting started! I see some people have links to work, so here's my first traditionally published short story https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/the-institute-of-harmony/ (I also have a self pubbed duology, a sapphic epic being queried, and another sapphic epic wip).
Posts like this are invaluable. My name is Dylan and I write literary horror. My work typically leans into transgressive themes like addiction, trauma, and abuse. After writing all my life and only submitting one story that barely had a chance, I ended up in rehab for alcohol addiction at 38 years old. Ten months out of rehab, I had my first acceptance letter, and five more acceptances in the 5 months to follow, and I'll be honest, I have no idea what im doing. But, I'm still sober, and I'm taking writing seriously. Everything I post on substack is free, and I consistently update with publishing news, or thoughts/articles on the topic of horror fiction.
Thanks for hosting this space for people to find their readers.
I’ve published (small trad press) two private detective mysteries with women’s fiction elements (female P.I. with a desire to grow her one-woman biz into a classy, boutique investigation agency), but I’m also writing general fiction aiming for readers who also like Elinor Lipman and J. Courtney Sullivan.
Hi, my first book, Imperfect Bodies, is a narrative non fic that will be published next March by Héloïse Press. I had an extract published in The Stinging Fly and that's how my agent found me. Also, a bursary from the Arts Council of Ireland, and two mentorships, one with Words Ireland (now the National Mentoring Programe) and the Penguin Write Now program helped it gain traction. I am currently engaged in writing a historical novel based on two actual female rebels of the 1641 Rebellion, and am attending a workshop with Martina Devlin at the Irish Writers Centre next weekend to gain more insight into the genre, although I read a lot of historical fiction, and always have. I suspect there may be elements of magical realism and/ or autofiction emerging as small threads running through it, though, which compicate matters of genre... think Paul Lynch's Grace, and Doirrean Ní Ghríofa's Ghost in the Throat. And another strange novel is beginning to emerge which I initially thought might be crossover YA but is turning out a bit dark, so we'll see where that goes! 😂 I am just breaking the tip of 4000 subscribers here on Substack after 2 years. I love writing here, but I don't write fiction. It's been a bit of a slog at times, a labour of love. 💕
Our agency mmbcreative.com reopens our Horror book submissions email next month. If you're agent hunting, we're there to take a look. The UK readership for Horror is a small niche, though growing. I believe it will increase rapidly in future years.. As so often in our culture, there's a snobbery against the genre that readers under 30 are changing - being oblivious to the silly hierarchies between 'classes' of books. New readers - to my genuine joy - give no fucks about being identified as a Horror reader while also reading more widely. Historically, you had to label yourself as an outsider and embrace being a cultist.
Great post. I write upmarket fiction with a focus on suspense/mystery. I like my books to be full of excitement, while also engaging in those deeper questions.
Expert/subject-led non-fiction (I'm a psychologist). But I also have a couple of fiction ideas that won't leave me alone. One is YA Fantasy based in Irish mythology. The other is the modern day fictional life story of a Dublin prostitute and drug addict - tragic, no happy ending here I'm afraid...I don't know where that belongs.
I've sold a few junkie/street stories. Trainspotting aside, its very tough to find readers. They feel identified in a way they don't love.
Thinking she will turn her life around only to fall off the wagon and OD. Readers will be very upset (if it's ever finished that is). She has a daughter...she does well. Maybe that will save the story🤔
On Substack I write personal essays similar to those you might find in Elle or Cosmo.
I’m querying (&writing another) comedic mystery (a la dial a for aunties and Finlay Donovan)
Hello! Currently posting a wide variety of fiction on my magazine, Darkling. I favour horror, speculative, literary, and overall weird fiction. Currently working on a contemporary fantasy horror novel that allegorises the tenuous HK-UK-China relationship and makes it a nasty tale about how we all want a little blood.
Thanks for the opportunity!
Memoir - grief, death, suicide, narcissistic mother, but humour, resilience and survival through animals and loving husband and children but dealing with husband and daughters death
Personally powerful, often cathartic to writ4, extremely hard to find readers. Best wishes Ivan
In the delete bin then
no!
Use the material for a novel of redemption?
yes.
Not sure redemption is quite the right word for me, te old curmudgeon