Hi all, I posted this in the YA thread but realized it might be more of a "generic" question. So, without further ado...
Firstly, I've been on this board for years (as "writingfornothing" and now under my, ahem, real name).
I lurk like a ****** and sometimes post. Here's my big issue. I'm wrapping up the first draft of my novel. It started as a YA about a stuttering teen with an "abusive" father (not in traditional sense...just trying to cure his son of the stutter). However, I began sprinkling in short chapters from the father's POV (a stutterer himself but fairly covert and controlled).
The novel is now in the format of alternating chapters, from son's pov and father's pov, respectively. The novel is about 60,000 words and I expect to add 10,000 - 15,000 words during edits (I was very worried about not writing the first draft and refused to keep circling back...so I expect to flesh out a few aspects in later drafts).
I'm confused though about how to market this down the road to agents. I think the boy's chapters are sort of YA (he's jaded but resolute, he deals a lot of garbage that stutterers deal with in high school and also his rough father, etc.). The chapters from father's POV are based on some of my decent publications about fathers who really mean well towards their children but sometimes act like monsters (Pedestal Magazine, elimae, SmokeLong, etc). These chapters feel more like what some would dub "literary" than classic YA.
Is this a problem for me when approaching agents in terms of trying to categorize the book? Should I be looking at agents who do both YA and literary?
Thank you for ANY insight you can offer. David
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Firstly, I've been on this board for years (as "writingfornothing" and now under my, ahem, real name).
I lurk like a ****** and sometimes post. Here's my big issue. I'm wrapping up the first draft of my novel. It started as a YA about a stuttering teen with an "abusive" father (not in traditional sense...just trying to cure his son of the stutter). However, I began sprinkling in short chapters from the father's POV (a stutterer himself but fairly covert and controlled). The novel is now in the format of alternating chapters, from son's pov and father's pov, respectively. The novel is about 60,000 words and I expect to add 10,000 - 15,000 words during edits (I was very worried about not writing the first draft and refused to keep circling back...so I expect to flesh out a few aspects in later drafts).
I'm confused though about how to market this down the road to agents. I think the boy's chapters are sort of YA (he's jaded but resolute, he deals a lot of garbage that stutterers deal with in high school and also his rough father, etc.). The chapters from father's POV are based on some of my decent publications about fathers who really mean well towards their children but sometimes act like monsters (Pedestal Magazine, elimae, SmokeLong, etc). These chapters feel more like what some would dub "literary" than classic YA.
Is this a problem for me when approaching agents in terms of trying to categorize the book? Should I be looking at agents who do both YA and literary?
Thank you for ANY insight you can offer. David
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