Yes but....oi....
Yup – length- see, that's one of my problems—but I don't want to pad something unnecessarily just to make it "fit-in" (and consequently possibly have the story drag); one comment I've gotten consistently from my test readers is they love the flow.
I've been to Duo Trope, Ivory Tower, Ralans, have my copy of the Writer's Market, etc, etc… and the few places that I submitted based on what I found basically said "doesn't fit our needs at this time"…which could be length OR content (or both, presumably, but I did target my search for word count and tried to look at those who accepted many similar genres). I don't want to give up on this story, but I feel like I'm trying to cut granite with a plastic spork. It's taking just as long to try and find any place where I might submit as it did to write the thing. Oi.
The issue with Samhain, Ellora's cave, (et alia), is that, from what I can glean, they are looking for something that ends HEA or HFN--- quite frustrating because my story isn't a romance per se…too much genre-bending (once a punk always a punk --story of my life, eh?).
I've been shopping around daily for the last several months simply trying to find someplace where this thing will fit--- which is why I thought that perhaps an agent might have a better clue. Obviously, being new in the marketplace (I've "thought about" getting serious for years but am finally trying out all that speculative research) I understand that it's that first piece that's the most difficult to get published (on average) and I am not doing myself any favors by starting out a maverick.
