- Joined
- Apr 18, 2006
- Messages
- 294
- Reaction score
- 84
All -
I just received an encouraging rejection from an agent reading my full ms. Encouraging, because he gave me a detailed list of the reasons he chose not to take it on, giving me a better idea (from an industry point of view) of what I need to work on. But among his observations was this:
"An historical novel really has to be either romantic if written for women, or educational if written for men."
The context of his comment is that mine is essentially an adventure/war story set in an obscure period, with little in the way of Big Events or Big Names to anchor it in history. I see his point, at least from the marketing perspective: a historical anchoring point is probably a significant part of a book's hook, although I have never thought of it that way.
Anybody have any thoughts on this?
Thanks!
HN
I just received an encouraging rejection from an agent reading my full ms. Encouraging, because he gave me a detailed list of the reasons he chose not to take it on, giving me a better idea (from an industry point of view) of what I need to work on. But among his observations was this:
"An historical novel really has to be either romantic if written for women, or educational if written for men."
The context of his comment is that mine is essentially an adventure/war story set in an obscure period, with little in the way of Big Events or Big Names to anchor it in history. I see his point, at least from the marketing perspective: a historical anchoring point is probably a significant part of a book's hook, although I have never thought of it that way.
Anybody have any thoughts on this?
Thanks!
HN