I think your comment is exactly right. Here, I was speaking to the phenomenon that in many cases “new” authors have the tendency to mimic what’s already out there, but can’t quite connect the dots on bringing it to market.

For your situation, I feel that there is a way to “get them to market,” and I will be happy to address that in a separate blog post next week.

Unconventional settings and stories in the fantasy genre is a dichotomy. Some of us love to write works that stretch the boundaries of the traditional (i.e. not including talking animals, dragons and magic in our work) - but it seems that publishers want more of what has sold before (and of course I understand the economics of that.) My fans love my fantasy (i.e. Elysen) and yet my agent couldn’t get any large publishers interested in the series. (I recently terminated my agreement with that agent due to other issues.)

If we write stories that are outside the bounds of the tried-and-true, how do we get them to market?