Finding Genre Niches

Great post on How To Find Your Niche In Urban Fantasy. A lot of people in the writing business are saying or predicting that Urban Fantasy is on the decline; there are too many vampires and werewolves and fairies already out in books or being written about, that it’s difficult to find a unique and fresh take on them. But Kevin Hearne, author of a new UF series, The Iron Druid Chronicles, makes a valid statement:

“There are still plenty of niches in urban fantasy that need filling. To my knowledge, there are no gay or lesbian main characters; there’s a profound lack of gnomish heroes trying to make a difference in a world dominated by human giants; there are no troll girls who think there must be something more to life than guarding bridges, and so on. Go see for yourself; the ideas are out there, waiting for you in the bookstore, between the books that are already on the shelves, screaming in all the voices of the world’s mythology that they deserve some attention.”

There are so many other magical critters besides weres, vamps, shifters and fairies, waiting around in legends, myths and history. A lot of them sexy, disturbed and haunted as hell - a great premise for featuring in modern UF. After all: you can take the kid out of mythology, but you can’t take mythology out of the kid.

I think/hope I’ve managed to do so with my current work in progress…