The book in question, aka "my Africa book," was published (and did reasonably well, at least on par with my previous work) in the UK...but did not find a home in the US.
Although I'm not sure how reasonable it is to draw conclusions from this; there were other factors at play, and also, it's actually written to seem very like a conservative thriller until a sudden perspective shift on what's been happening roughly midway through (hey, thrillers need twists, right?) But it's fair to say that in today's dichotomized America there's a sizable built-in audience/market for present-day/near-future conservative thrillers, but no obvious liberal equivalent until you venture into sf/f and Cory Doctorow, Charles Stross, Peter Watts, Jo Walton, etcetera.
On the other hand, that means a liberal thriller would be new and edgy, which the industry claims to admire, so I'd say it's still worth a shot, from a purely commercial perspective.
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Although I'm not sure how reasonable it is to draw conclusions from this; there were other factors at play, and also, it's actually written to seem very like a conservative thriller until a sudden perspective shift on what's been happening roughly midway through (hey, thrillers need twists, right?) But it's fair to say that in today's dichotomized America there's a sizable built-in audience/market for present-day/near-future conservative thrillers, but no obvious liberal equivalent until you venture into sf/f and Cory Doctorow, Charles Stross, Peter Watts, Jo Walton, etcetera.
On the other hand, that means a liberal thriller would be new and edgy, which the industry claims to admire, so I'd say it's still worth a shot, from a purely commercial perspective.