Help a girl define her genre?

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flamyngo

flamyngo

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Okay, so right now I feel like my book is an young adult urban science fantasy novel...

Apparently I want them to just toss my book out into the bookstores and it will fit on just whatever shelf it lands on.

I am not sure how to 'type' the novel.

The main character is a 16 year old super villain that can alter the future with her drawings, her family all has powers too. (fantasy)

Part of the plot is that they're collecting the stuff to build a high tech gun (so that's science fiction)

And... it's set modern day and she's in high school... (how urban, right?)

so.... this makes my novel a???

Youngascifantaurb?

Anyone have any advice for me here?
 
Sage

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YA contemporary spec fic

YA superhero fantasy

I would err towards fantasy than SF, b/c YA contemp fantasy is really hot right now. So YA contemp (or urban, depending on how urban it really is) fantasy

But if you're querying an agent who prefers SF, I might focus on the sci-fi elements in your query rather than the fantasy elements.
 
flamyngo

flamyngo

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I don't even know what spec fic is... (runs off to wikipedia)

so it isn't urban... it's contemporary?

thanks for the help!
 
Sage

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Urban suggests more of a "gritty city" quality to me than contemporary does. So it depends on how "gritty" the novel is, I think. If it's set in Metropolis or Gotham City or Chicago, for example, I'd call it urban fantasy, and if it was set in Smallville or Sunnydale or Forks, I'd call it contemporary. But it's also related to tone, IMO.

Some agents (and readers) see the terms as interchangeable, some don't. You're probably okay calling it either (although I know one agent called me out on whether my "urban fantasy" was urban enough).

Speculative fiction is an umbrella term for sci-fi, fantasy, paranormal, etc.
 

Momento Mori

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flamyngo:
The main character is a 16 year old super villain that can alter the future with her drawings, her family all has powers too. (fantasy)

Part of the plot is that they're collecting the stuff to build a high tech gun (so that's science fiction)

And... it's set modern day and she's in high school... (how urban, right?)
Click to expand...

I don't think you need to get too hung up on genre because if you're querying YA agents, they'll be more interested in the YA element up front that the sub-genre and like Sage said so ... sagely :), you can always tailor your query to suit the individual agent by drawing out the most pertinent elements.

Saying that, the main hook of your novel seems to be the superhero element so I'd be saying from the start that it's a superhero novel - that way the agent knows it's likely to have both fantasy and science fiction elements but can come at it more broadly.

MM
 
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