Alfred J Kipper
Sunday 2nd February 2020 11:43am [Edited]
Aldershot
8,319 posts
Quote: Jemahl Evans @ 28th January 2020, 1:47 PM
I think, from my experience, comedy as a genre isnt really categorised by agents and publishers so it's difficult to get visibility in that respect. .
Quote: Jemahl Evans @ 30th January 2020, 10:55 AM
I write Blackadder/Flashman style stuff set in the English Civil War, but in all honesty it was luck that my first book got picked up by a publisher (as well as hard graft writing them), then got really lucky that the Times reviewer picked it as she liked the period. I havent given up the teaching day job yet though.
Kids are naturally drawn to humour so preteen books pretty much require it and most teen/tween books have a large dollop of it, but they are also less demanding as comedy consumers, I think. Biting satire tends to leave them bored stiff, but they love a good fart joke.
For the rest of us looking for comedy books, it leaves us trawling amazon in other genres. It's something the writing groups Im in all bemoan.
These are good insights thanks for posting. I think there is or used to be a Comic Novels category but they usually centred on literary examples with the odd well known authored properly funny book from a tight little circle of writers like Spike Milligan, but many are now being written by (greedy) comedians again in a very exclusive marketplace. I reckon a vast number of 'comedy novels' are actually Satires with varying amounts of LOL humour in them and as you say, are for more worldly readers usually.
Publishers have a reputation for being high brow and exclusive and this will naturally sift out a lot of comedy mss coming their way. Research and target your publisher carefully is obvious advice. I'm still slowly scribbling mine, long way off the rejection conveyor belt yet.