‘I finished a novel about a pandemic months ago and for obvious reasons it couldn’t be more topical. I’m worried that if I don’t send it out now it will be too late, but I’m also aware that it may not be the right time at all. Can you help?’
This is really tricky. My instinct is that it is not the right time, it feels too close to the bone. We’re in the midst of a seismic global crisis and the reality of it is a living-day harshness as many grapple to adjust. Fiction, among many things, is escapism. And to escape from this pandemic into a made-up one may be too much. I would also worry it would date quickly; we don’t yet know where this is all going and every day things change rapidly. If your book was taken on by a publisher it would most likely come out in a year’s time – unless it was rushed out, for a very good reason – and it could be judged as not being real enough, too real, or generally, a shattering of suspension of disbelief. It just feels too fragile. Think also how long its shelf life might be? One might argue that this is the publisher’s problem, but as an author it’s useful to know what might be going through an agent or publisher’s mind.