The Next Big Thing

I think every writer must feel a need to try and 'catch the wave' of whatever the next big thing is--it's a dream to be right there with a manuscript that's just what the editors want.

About 6 months ago, I remember seeing an editor that was actively seeking "steampunk" themed romances and novels.  I had to stop and wikipedia the term.  What I envisioned was some kind of dark urban fantasy where the environment is twisted in some way.  This lends itself to apocalyptic themes and time travel for sure.  But it did make me wonder--what is that editor thinking?  Will this be the Next Big Thing?  We're suddenly tired of vampires and werewolves?  I guess they have run their course, even I'm tired of them.

Then I picked up the new Katie MacAlister novel, Steamed, and suddenly everything was clear to me.  What the editor was really saying was, "I heard about this really great new book contracted by my competitors that is bound to be the Next Big Thing."  All of us want to predict the future.  We want to know what sells, what's hot.  The writers that keep their ears to the ground (or write really fast!) probably manage to catch that wave.  They were submitting their steampunk novels when I was still wondering what it was.

I've watched a lot of surfers in my years living near the ocean.  One pattern is very common.  They paddle out to a certain point, face the ocean and watch the waves.  When they see one they like, they turn their board and start paddling, trying to catch that wave.  Sometimes they've timed it right, sometimes they miss.

How often do two movies hit the theaters around the same time where the theme is generally the same?  I can name lots of instances, but think about when Kevin Costner's Robin Hood hit the theaters, about a month later, another Robin Hood movie was released.  No one remembers that one.  One of the big studios released a baseball movie (Eight Men Out in 1988) and then, almost immediately, there were more baseball films released (Field of Dreams in 1989).  Which means that these studios heard that the other one was working on a baseball movie and started looking specifically for a baseball plot.  Recently, there are plenty that follow that same pattern:  Planet 51, Monsters vs. Aliens, Aliens in the Attic, you get my meaning.

Lots of the social commentary movies are the same.  Every studio produced an anti-war movie about three years into the Iraq conflict.  They hear that one is making a movie and then the others have to do one too.  It's easy to see that in a competitive environment, like film and books, you'd want to be sure and have something to suit the next big thing.

From a writer's standpoint, we'd rather BE that next big thing.  I'd rather write the book of my heart and have some editor look at it and think: "This is great. This is big!"  Then all the other editors would want to be just like her... looking for something like MY manuscript that they can try to rush to market.

It's just one big crapshoot after all.  Hard to predict that wave.  We're all surfers.  Sometimes we see it and catch it, sometimes we miss it.  What's important is being out in the water.

--Sandee Wagner