This section of AbsoluteWrite has to be the cellar. Helloooo, anyone here? Was that a squeaky door somewhere...?
Anyway, a reveal-all nonfiction about the purpose of tarot--factual, without any fluffy conjecture may sound appealing to the relevant market, even the world, but factual doesn't sit well in the niche. Then again, I guess the tarot niche is the place I should start? I suppose I've answered that question myself already, have I...?
So I want an agent. (I've also written a trilogy of mainstream fiction, mainly for women, and there's sumptuous classical type artwork too which is why I want an agent).
Searching agents hasn't turned up any that express a direct interest in tarot. There's Spirituality/Religion. Agents in the field seem a bit like this part of the forums, "Other, overthereaways..."
I know that mentioning tarot even in a query is like flicking most agents' switches to off. Saying it's not Harry Potter, that was fiction, this is the real thing--off, because the consensus of the literati is that the subject has nothing new or serious to offer. Those who claim it does or dare suggest a factual slant are fruitloops with some cockamamy theory. Sure, the mysticism I avoid is full of that, but even so, no one pitches their slant that way to an agent. Ok, if I'm cunning with my pitch, an agent's presumption can be overcome. But then there's the question of my expertise, my education, the letters after my name, which in the current market and indeed the world amount to, duh.
I was a Hell's Angel. Then I went overseas and met a group of people who changed me into a sophisticated man-about-town. Yeah, I know it can't be done. A bank manager that I went into business with and other acquaintances have agreed this among themselves. A dapper sophisticate, confident at all levels, the Angels probably tolerated him because he bought them a bike or something. Well no, my demeanour frightened people. I couldn't communicate unless I'd had a good drink. My school grades were, duh and duh, respectively. After my Pygmalion-like change it was presumed I was the black-sheep of a wealthy family and so I let my past slide. It's easier that way, but while people congratulate themselves on their ability to assess other people, on paper the picture of me is quite different. I've considered forging papers, but I'm not like now.
Maybe I should pitch my mainstream, women oriented fiction, but it's harder to sell than nonfiction. Besides I'm a man and what do men know about women... Write what you know, so they say--will it help to explain that I raised my characters from Hades or thereabouts, and that they tell me their stories which I write, hmmm? I can't tell an agent that, let alone anyone else. Maybe that means I'm an elitist who baulks at the limits of a marginalised subject. Maybe I should keep to the margins and hope that explaining facts for the lay muggle, so to speak, will appeal to the mainstream. I guess that's what I should do and it seems the only thing I can do.
Do I know how weird this post sounds? Well, obviously. But being me isn't the entire question. An agent will sell most anything if they believe it will work. Their boxes need to be ticked. The real reasons for tarot, and a man who knows the inner depths of women... Off, off off! I tick all the wrong boxes. I look back to my wild days, and I wonder if ignorance wasn't bliss. People screamed at me, threatened, and back then I never knew why. My life was a haze.
Agents and querying is a different haze, and this post has been cathartic and focussing, for me at least. The impossible, well, all I have to do now is get an agent.
Thanks, Saritams8, I checked out your links. To Atheist seeking Atheist, good luck finding your atheist, and to the passing AbsoluteWrite editor who pokes their nose in to see what's going on, hi.
Anyway, a reveal-all nonfiction about the purpose of tarot--factual, without any fluffy conjecture may sound appealing to the relevant market, even the world, but factual doesn't sit well in the niche. Then again, I guess the tarot niche is the place I should start? I suppose I've answered that question myself already, have I...?
So I want an agent. (I've also written a trilogy of mainstream fiction, mainly for women, and there's sumptuous classical type artwork too which is why I want an agent).
Searching agents hasn't turned up any that express a direct interest in tarot. There's Spirituality/Religion. Agents in the field seem a bit like this part of the forums, "Other, overthereaways..."
I know that mentioning tarot even in a query is like flicking most agents' switches to off. Saying it's not Harry Potter, that was fiction, this is the real thing--off, because the consensus of the literati is that the subject has nothing new or serious to offer. Those who claim it does or dare suggest a factual slant are fruitloops with some cockamamy theory. Sure, the mysticism I avoid is full of that, but even so, no one pitches their slant that way to an agent. Ok, if I'm cunning with my pitch, an agent's presumption can be overcome. But then there's the question of my expertise, my education, the letters after my name, which in the current market and indeed the world amount to, duh.
I was a Hell's Angel. Then I went overseas and met a group of people who changed me into a sophisticated man-about-town. Yeah, I know it can't be done. A bank manager that I went into business with and other acquaintances have agreed this among themselves. A dapper sophisticate, confident at all levels, the Angels probably tolerated him because he bought them a bike or something. Well no, my demeanour frightened people. I couldn't communicate unless I'd had a good drink. My school grades were, duh and duh, respectively. After my Pygmalion-like change it was presumed I was the black-sheep of a wealthy family and so I let my past slide. It's easier that way, but while people congratulate themselves on their ability to assess other people, on paper the picture of me is quite different. I've considered forging papers, but I'm not like now.
Maybe I should pitch my mainstream, women oriented fiction, but it's harder to sell than nonfiction. Besides I'm a man and what do men know about women... Write what you know, so they say--will it help to explain that I raised my characters from Hades or thereabouts, and that they tell me their stories which I write, hmmm? I can't tell an agent that, let alone anyone else. Maybe that means I'm an elitist who baulks at the limits of a marginalised subject. Maybe I should keep to the margins and hope that explaining facts for the lay muggle, so to speak, will appeal to the mainstream. I guess that's what I should do and it seems the only thing I can do.
Do I know how weird this post sounds? Well, obviously. But being me isn't the entire question. An agent will sell most anything if they believe it will work. Their boxes need to be ticked. The real reasons for tarot, and a man who knows the inner depths of women... Off, off off! I tick all the wrong boxes. I look back to my wild days, and I wonder if ignorance wasn't bliss. People screamed at me, threatened, and back then I never knew why. My life was a haze.
Agents and querying is a different haze, and this post has been cathartic and focussing, for me at least. The impossible, well, all I have to do now is get an agent.
Thanks, Saritams8, I checked out your links. To Atheist seeking Atheist, good luck finding your atheist, and to the passing AbsoluteWrite editor who pokes their nose in to see what's going on, hi.
