No, not a thread about that silly SciFi Channel "reality" series. Sorry to disappoint.
This morning I received my 18th agent rejection (which isn't a lot, in the grand scheme of things, and this isn't a thread about query discouragement). Something in the short note made me stop and pause, and now I'm befuddled.
She said she wasn't the right agent for the book, and that she hoped I found an agent who did work with fantasy.
I stared at the sentence for a minute, because my story isn't fantasy. At least not in the Tolkien sense of fantasy. I checked the query I had sent. I called my book "urban fantasy," because nothing else seemed right. I wonder if that was a mistake.
Urban fantasy seems to dredge up images of magic, vampires, demons, and their ilk, in a contemporary setting. Paranormal, if you will. Now my novel has paranormal elements, but no magic, vampires, demons, or their ilk. The characters have extrasensory powers, but they are not magical or alien. They are a biological anomoly, like the X-gene in the X-Men universe.
Agents want to know the genre in a query, so I am now at a loss as to how to explain my novel. It could be considered science fiction, but even that dredges up images of space ships, aliens, future tech, and other planets. Again, none of that (although there is an android, but he's about as future tech as things get) exists in my novel.
I troll the SFF section of Borders about once a month, browsing the titles and looking for similar novels. The closest thing I've ever read to what I write is an X-Men tie-in novel called "Smoke and Mirrors," by Eluci Bes Shahar.
The powers my characters possess are all clairvoyant, telepathic or telekinetic based abilities (no one shoots beams out of their eyes or has blue fur). You know why their powers work, and how they came to possess them, and they have physical side effects to using them.
Should I state that my book will appeal to fans of X-Men (or even the new show Heroes)? I feel like saying "I've not seen anything similar in bookstores" will sound like a desperate plea (not to mention make me sound like an idiot if it turns out I'm wrong).
During the recent Crap-O-Meter, Miss Snark mentioned she will read anything dealing with superheroes, since they are hot right now. Is a new sub-genre emerging? Should I latch onto it with both hands?
Has anyone actually read this entire rant?
This morning I received my 18th agent rejection (which isn't a lot, in the grand scheme of things, and this isn't a thread about query discouragement). Something in the short note made me stop and pause, and now I'm befuddled.
She said she wasn't the right agent for the book, and that she hoped I found an agent who did work with fantasy.
I stared at the sentence for a minute, because my story isn't fantasy. At least not in the Tolkien sense of fantasy. I checked the query I had sent. I called my book "urban fantasy," because nothing else seemed right. I wonder if that was a mistake.
Urban fantasy seems to dredge up images of magic, vampires, demons, and their ilk, in a contemporary setting. Paranormal, if you will. Now my novel has paranormal elements, but no magic, vampires, demons, or their ilk. The characters have extrasensory powers, but they are not magical or alien. They are a biological anomoly, like the X-gene in the X-Men universe.
Agents want to know the genre in a query, so I am now at a loss as to how to explain my novel. It could be considered science fiction, but even that dredges up images of space ships, aliens, future tech, and other planets. Again, none of that (although there is an android, but he's about as future tech as things get) exists in my novel.
I troll the SFF section of Borders about once a month, browsing the titles and looking for similar novels. The closest thing I've ever read to what I write is an X-Men tie-in novel called "Smoke and Mirrors," by Eluci Bes Shahar.
The powers my characters possess are all clairvoyant, telepathic or telekinetic based abilities (no one shoots beams out of their eyes or has blue fur). You know why their powers work, and how they came to possess them, and they have physical side effects to using them.
Should I state that my book will appeal to fans of X-Men (or even the new show Heroes)? I feel like saying "I've not seen anything similar in bookstores" will sound like a desperate plea (not to mention make me sound like an idiot if it turns out I'm wrong).
During the recent Crap-O-Meter, Miss Snark mentioned she will read anything dealing with superheroes, since they are hot right now. Is a new sub-genre emerging? Should I latch onto it with both hands?
Has anyone actually read this entire rant?
As I was reading, I was thinking, ooooo, the query letter should mention that new show, Heroes. So you're on the right track there, imho. That's what your story is like. A current day contemporary story where ordinary people have develope superhero powers. 
From someone who labeled themself "HorrorWriter." 