START YOUR READING LIST
If you haven't already, you need to start listing the books you read.
Make a note of all the publishing information as well as a brief plot summary, the type of book it is, and your impressions of the book, then put it in a file for later when you begin to plan the marketing of your book.
Also mention where the book is physically. This will save you from ripping your keeper shelves apart when the book came from the library or was loaned to you.
You may be eclectic in your reading, but the NY publishers aren't eclectic in their buying. Every line, whether romance or otherwise, has neat little pigeon holes for each kind of book, and if you choose the wrong pigeon hole to put your book in, they'll toss it back to you.
Being published for the first time is hard enough when you have an incredible book that's perfectly crafted. Don't shoot yourself in the foot and waste your time and some editor's by sending a book written for one market to another.
Also, notice what the first-time writers have sold to publishers. Nora Roberts can do incredibly innovative things because she has the name and audience to do it so editors let her write whatever she pleases.
The first-time writer shows you what you probably can get away with and sell. Of course, if that new writer's book failed badly, I wouldn't use it as your poster child to a successful career.
If you are going to self-publish, all this information will be useful in not only figuring out where to put the book but how to market it.
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