So I had submitted a book to my publisher, and at first she liked it, but upon further reading, she rejected the story, Numbers Game, citing a lack of conflict. I was taken back, I have to say. I’ve published five e-books so far with Republica Press, and this hadn’t come up before. Perhaps I was due.
Let me say here I am not complaining about RP — they’ve been great, and helpful, and they are free to reject manuscripts.
I couldn’t help but puzzle over it, naturally. This was a story that had gotten good feedback and positive reviews on every site I’d posted it on. My editor may feel it lacks conflict, but in all the feedback I received, no one ever said so. It makes me wonder who’s right, if anyone. Like anything else, I’d imagine one person’s perceived lack of conflict (a point with which I disagree, more later) is another’s just-right-amount of conflict.
It is true that there isn’t much in the way of melodrama or histrionics in this story. No one dies, no one is kidnapped, no one is asked to replace their identical twin in the interests of national security. It’s just about two people who come together. One is a 32-year-old woman, Sara, fresh off a break up — her boyfriend cheated and then left her for a woman ten years her junior. The other is a 25-year-old hockey player, Dmitri, native to another country, who finds himself attracted to a woman he wouldn’t have expected to.
There are issues and conflicts. First, of course, is the age difference, which is more of concern to the woman. I think that’s most often the way that situation would go. However, after much thought and discussion with a good friend, she decides to take her chances. Still, she’s a grown-up — she has a job, rent to pay, responsibilities at work, things like that. The guy is a young hockey player; he makes a lot of money, is used to having much of his time be his own, and isn’t terribly experienced at relationships.
Dmitri becomes jealous of a slightly older, American teammate — youth can be insecure. Sara’s sister can’t let the age difference go; you’ll want someone closer to your age, she says, refusing to believe it can work. Sara gets furious with her sister’s objections, and herself for believing them. Sara’s in charge of a project at work that requires more and more of her time; Dmitri can’t imagine what’s that important. When she tries to balance work and her relationship, he feels she makes the wrong choice. When it comes to love, he doesn’t see the same shades of gray that she does.
To me, this is plenty of conflict, and likely closer to the types of struggles we all face in relationships. True, there are no cars careening around curves or off cliffs, no serial killers lurking around the corners, and no in-your-face screaming matches. But is that the only kind of conflict you can have in a romance? Can’t you have something more low-key, and more realistic?
Perhaps the answer is yes, you can, but don’t expect it to sell. 😉 I’m all for escapism, and enjoy stories where opposites clash and then come together, or where people look past what’s in front of them until it whacks them in the face to get their attention. Miscommunications are common in real life and books, and can often be funny, too, when you’re looking from the outside and you know it will get resolved. On the other hand, I also like a quieter story sometimes, one that’s more “real.”
I put this question (well, roughly this one) to a forum thread, and the answers ran in favor of sending it to other publishers. Certainly there are lots of them out there, and it’s the rare author who’s picked up by the first one. Even JK Rowling, one person said, was rejected 27 times. (Ack!) I guess later, I’ll see who else likes it, or who rejects it. But I probably still won’t know who’s right about all this.