Is my novel anathema?

This is my first time posting, and let me say I'm glad to have found a writing forum where people consistently post.

I'm trying to figure out if the novel I've finished has a chance of selling in today's marketplace (I'll explain why in just a second). I've been sending out dozens of queries and have been mostly ignored (with a handful of form rejections thrown in--not a single personalized rejection at all). Not a single person has requested to read any of the actual book itself (although the few agents who require a couple of sample chapters with the query letter have at least had part of it in front of them), which is what is most frustrating. I realize people get rejected and ignored every day, but what I'm not sure about is if I should keep sending to agents or perhaps try an editor at a small press or something.

You see, my novel's target audience would be males, from their teens up through middle age or so. Out of the people who have read it so far, females haven't been as engaged with it as guys have. But the guys have really connected to it. I don't think it's guy-lit as we've known it, but more along the lines of books like Huckleberry Finn, On the Road, or Stephen King's short story "The Body" (which, of course, became the movie Stand By Me). It focuses on the brotherly relationship of four backwoods Texas young men, and, as such, hinges on their interaction. Obviously, this is something women probably won't be interested in (or might get tired of after a while). There's more to it than just that, like the main character going to New York after a girl he used to know who has become a celebrity (singer/actress), but anyway...

Is a story like this anathema in today's marketplace? I know the closest genre to it would be guy-lit, and that pretty much died a couple of years ago without making much of a fuss. Is the memory of that failure steering agents away from novels focused on men? Do the novels have to be tailored to women, even if they're about men? I guess this kind of ties in with the whole "Do Men Read?" thread. Personally, I think men read, they just don't browse bookstores. Would they read if their significant other gave the book to them? That's another topic, though.

It's not encouraging either that the form rejections I've received are signed by female assistants to the agents, most of whom I've found out, upon searching through the agency's website more (or seeing their myspace profiles--yes, a lot of people in the publishing industry have myspace profiles where you can find out about their personal tastes), are Ivy League graduates who really enjoy serious literary fiction. Are these the people making the decision on a book like mine--one written by a Texas boy who graduated from his local college? If so, am I screwed? I guess that's the basic question here--am I screwed with New York agencies? Should I look local or try a smaller publisher? I've even had the recommendation of a decently well-known author of books like mine, and still nothing (his East Coast agent rejected me--form, of course--and the West Coast I still haven't heard from after a few months).

I'm starting on my next book right now (just outlining and brainstorming), but I really don't want this first book to be ignored.

Anyway, that's that. Any thoughts? Anybody else run into similar situations? I want to write about things pertaining to being a man in today's society, but is that basically career suicide?

I look forward to engaging in this community.

Thanks in advance for the help,
Nathan

wow

Wow, that was an unbelievably quick reponse! I can't believe you even read all that in that little time.

To answer your question though, I've been pitching it in a way as a comic literary novel, I guess. I haven't actually used the word "literary", nor the words "commercial" or "mainstream." "Comic", yes. I've been saying "comic novel", whatever that implies. It leans more toward literary because the plot is more character-driven, but it's reads at a fairly quick pace, so...

Great Feedback

Thanks guys, this is really great feedback. So I'll definitely take my query to the query critique section.

I'm doing pretty good research on the agents I'm sending queries to, even though it's hard to find books like this that have had much success. Also, it's not really a "cool" guy's book, so that makes it tougher. In movie terms, my book would be "Stand By Me" as opposed to most guy books being "Fight Club", if that makes any sense. It's more heart and less hardness.

Yeah, I kind of figured that I haven't reached anywhere near the give-up point as far as how many rejections I've received, I just didn't know if I was headed in the wrong direction. I could honestly care less if the book was ever hot for the market, I just didn't know if I was even going to be considered in the market.

definitely not

Veinglory, I definitely haven't been telling people that women won't read it (especially not agents--I would never think to tell them who will or won't read something). It's just my own suspicions based on the difference in feedback I've received from males and females who have read it so far. Interestingly, more girls wanted to read it than guys at first, but their responses were kind of so-so compared to how the guys related to it.

Yeshanu, I haven't really told you the book's plot or anything because I didn't want to clutter up that first post (since it was long enough as it is). I thought I'd just give a brief reference point.

I'll post a sample query in the other section and then link to it from here. I can tell you right now that the query is more informative than that first post, I was just trying to frame a certain question.

Cath, that's a good point on the wording of "comic" vs. "comedic". I've never thought of that. Also, Sideways is a great comparison for the book, whether it is in the way the guys interact, the flow of the story, or the heart vs. hardness.