Zen Novel

Tizio

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I've just completed a novel set in 9th century China. The theme is Zen Buddhism (Chan).
Can anyone suggest an agent who might receive a query letter about such a book with sympathy?
Thanks very much.
T.
 

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Sorry, Tizio, you have to do your own research.

We don't know what genre your book is, what style it's written in, what your aspirations are, how you prefer to work, or even where you hope to first sell your book.

Only you know all of that in sufficient detail to work out which agents would be a good fit for you and your book.

Good luck with your search.
 

ARoyce

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There are plenty of agents who represent historical fiction. Perhaps one of the best things you can do is see what published novels are similar to yours and then research what agents represent those authors. Such research can also help you see what the publishing market is like for such fiction.

In general, I recommend the following websites for agent info:

www.querytracker.net

Www.agentquery.com

But ultimately, as Old Hack says, you need to do your own research about which agents would be best for you to query.

Good luck!
 

Tizio

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Thank you, Aroyce.
For the record (and for the sake of clarity) my book is not historical fiction.
The genre, if you will, is Zen fiction.

I am not averse to research. In fact, I turned up one thread with a similar question.

http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97448

I posted because Zen fiction is a very specific niche, not because I'm lazy.
On the other hand, I was lucky enough to get two responses. Tangobob5000 didn't get any.
 

waylander

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Zen fiction is a genre??

The best advice, as pointed out above, is to find books that you consider to be similar to yours and find who the agents were and query them.
 

Mr Flibble

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If it is a genre, it's a very very sub sub one - I got one result looking for books in that category


So, Tizio, in addition to what's been said above, figuring out who repped similar books, if your book got into bookshops, where would it be shelved? Under what broad genre (that this zen fiction is a sub part of)? Just because it involves zen*, might not make it 'zen fiction', then again it might. But you need to knwo what broader area you're looking at.


*For instance, Lord of Light involves Buddhism, but isn't classed as 'Buddhist fiction', it's shelved under SFF
 

Cyia

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Due to the setting, it might still be considered (or pitched as) historical by an agent when it's on submission. It might also be considered a "spiritual" or "religious" novel.
 

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For the record (and for the sake of clarity) my book is not historical fiction.
The genre, if you will, is Zen fiction.

Until most bookshops have shelves dedicated to Zen fiction, Zen fiction won't be a genre you can use to classify your book while querying.

And we still can't tell you which agents might be suitable for you to submit to, I'm afraid.
 

Stacia Kane

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What do you mean by Zen fiction? Do you mean it's a story about Zen? Do you mean it's a story about something else with a Zen character, or illustrating Zen principles?

I know of a couple of children's books that use Zen parables/illustrate Zen concepts, and quite a few adult nonfiction books, but I'm not really aware of anything that would be called "Zen fiction."

Have you seen books like those? Who represented those authors?
 

Susan Coffin

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I've just completed a novel set in 9th century China. The theme is Zen Buddhism (Chan).
Can anyone suggest an agent who might receive a query letter about such a book with sympathy?
Thanks very much.
T.

:welcome: Tizio.

When I read the first sentence of your post, I thought historical fiction. However, if you truly believe it is NOT historical fiction, but Zen fiction (never heard of this one), go to the bookstore and find books in your genre, read the book acknowledgements for agent names, and query them.

Query Tracker (link in post above), in my opinion, is one of the best sites for agent research, because they have genre and sub-genre options, including multicultural. They have no option for Zen fiction. ;)

Good luck!
 

Tizio

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Thanks to all!

This is more fun than I thought!

2 examples of Zen Fiction:

The Dharma Bums

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
 

waylander

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Both the books you mention were published sufficiently long ago that they are not representatives of a genre in current publishing,
Can you think of any books published in the last 3 years that you can compare your work to?
 

Mr Flibble

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A quick and dirty check of my local bookshop reveals that Zen and the Art...is either shelved under Philosophy or Travel Writing. The other bookshops has it as the same. On Amazon, it's got most tags as travel writing.

ETA: The Dharma Bums is under general/literary, literary, and classics, respectively.


So again, given there are no shelves in most bookshops for Zen Fiction, where would your book be shelved? Then check out other books there, and see who repped them.
 

Stacia Kane

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Thanks to all!

This is more fun than I thought!

2 examples of Zen Fiction:

The Dharma Bums

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance


Yes, but again, what is your book about? Is it a story illustrating Zen parables? Is it a story about something else with Zen characters? It's been a while since I read THE DHARMA BUMS, but I recall it being a story about something else, using sort of Zen principles/characters aspiring to live in a Zen way, as opposed to stories about Zen.

And ZEN AND THE ART... is more like nonfiction, really, as others have pointed out. (I couldn't read more than a couple of pages without getting so annoyed and bored I put the book down.)

So what is your book about? What happens in it? That's what matters.


Also, what do you mean, "This is more fun than [you] thought?" We're happy to help you, and we're trying to help you, but we're not here for your amusement.
 

Susan Coffin

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The Dharma Burns was published in 1958. I've heard of it, but I've never read it.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was published in 1975. It's not a novel, either, it's more of a creative nonfiction. I started reading it but could not complete it.

Those books are not specifically Zen Fiction. You need something current, not books published over thirty years ago.

Really, there is no Zen Fiction genre. ;)
 

buz

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Thanks to all!

This is more fun than I thought!

2 examples of Zen Fiction:

The Dharma Bums

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

The latter is not fiction and the two things don't have anything in common other than Zen, as far as I can tell, which doesn't help for your genre. I mean, the book I'm currently trying to get repped is based on ancient Egyptian myth, but it has nothing whatever to do with Oxford's History of Ancient Egypt (nonfiction), or Wilbur Smith's River God books (could be historical, adventure, maybe speculative fiction; I don't remember it that well but I think there may have been some magic), or Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody series (historical mystery), or Stargate (SF)...

It's fantasy, so I query agents who represent fantasy. It's a low fantasy, "quirky," definitely odd, so I try to find agents who were a good match for that as well--but, whatever else it is, it's fantasy, so those are the agents I look for. I don't try to sort them based on Egyptness, if that makes sense. ;)