Hello! Newish member with finished circus themed illustrated YA, getting that discouraged feeling..

Hi all! I finished my YA manuscript after 2... 3 years (I can't remember anymore.. haha) of research, writing and polishing. I made this account to get some guidance and support, as my first batch of about 5 queries came back with all form rejects. So I figure I better start posting on other posts in query letter hell.

But I'm a little concerned I might be on the bad side of a trend, or my book might be a bit particular to market. It's set in 1912 in a traveling circus, and it's speculative... And illustrated. Not graphic novel style, but more like Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar children incorporates visuals, or The Invention of Hugo Cabret (If you're curious about my art, it's at theshimmeringcircus.deviantart.com). My illustrations are in the style of vintage posters and portraits, as I'm a portrait artist. Some are based off of vintage photographs.

Im wondering if my query letter or first pages have issues, or if it's just a hard sell, or if there are too many circus books out there lately. I thought it would be unique with the illustrations, but I don't think agents have been interested enough to even view my page.

Anyways, if you have any thoughts or just want to say hi, please do!! Thanks

Thank you everyone for the responses! I'm taking a little break to get away from the my project and do other things (which works out because I'm pregnant , but I won't give up. I know a handful of responses is early, but I wrote and queried one book before and was more hopeful for this one getting a higher response, so I'm kind of adjusting to that.

Marissa, yes I figured that it might be trickier with the cost of printing and just the fact that it doesn't fit neatly into a box. Thank you for the info, regdog. And thank you for the encouragement, FrogLiver! I understand what you mean about focusing on things you can control. MaeZe, I plan to get more critiques, thank you.

JDlugosz, thank you so much for the compliment. It is always nice to hear that my drawings are appreciated. I've linked to them in my queries so far, but I've wondered if any of the agents actually followed the link at all. I have my doubts.

And thank you for the warm welcome, ktzeee!

I have one agent, Pete Knapp, who is kind of my dream agent/biggest hope for this project. I've never heard of any other agent asking specifically for a YA manuscript with illustrations. But I don't know when exactly I'd be brave enough to query him! The bummer about the querying process is that it feels like you burn bridges with each rejection, especially for such a specific project. I do know that I want to get more feedback and revise my query before I send anything else out, especially to dream agents. But I'm having my first daughter in mid January, so I'll be a bit tied up after that!