Young Adult Science Fiction Questions
- Thread starter ChrisIsStifled
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Welcome, Chris.
When I query my YA fantasy, I first query agents who want both. Then I query agents who want YA and don't specifically say they don't do fantasy. Then I query agents who want fantasy and don't specifically say they don't do YA.
Fantasy and sci-fi always tend to be a little longer than non-spec fic. The number one comment I got from betas for my latest YA fantasy (at 43K, querying at 50K) was that it was pretty short.
When I query my YA fantasy, I first query agents who want both. Then I query agents who want YA and don't specifically say they don't do fantasy. Then I query agents who want fantasy and don't specifically say they don't do YA.
Fantasy and sci-fi always tend to be a little longer than non-spec fic. The number one comment I got from betas for my latest YA fantasy (at 43K, querying at 50K) was that it was pretty short.
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What Sage said. 
Query the ones who rep both, then each one individually. It ended up working for me.
Query the ones who rep both, then each one individually. It ended up working for me.When I went for YA fantasy, I queried all YA reps unless they specifically say they don't want fantasy and then I queried all fantasy reps unless they specifically say they don't want YA.
It worked out pretty well, and I am finally getting my book, High School Heroes, published somtime next summer. So, all I can say is, go for both.
As far as the word length. Yes, 50,000 is a bit short, however, there are some YA books out there of similar length. The way I see it, write the length the story is. There is always someone who is going to tell you it's too long or too short, but I find that when I don't worry about the word count I get a better story than if I am writing under those constraints.
It worked out pretty well, and I am finally getting my book, High School Heroes, published somtime next summer. So, all I can say is, go for both.
As far as the word length. Yes, 50,000 is a bit short, however, there are some YA books out there of similar length. The way I see it, write the length the story is. There is always someone who is going to tell you it's too long or too short, but I find that when I don't worry about the word count I get a better story than if I am writing under those constraints.
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