Mental Illness

In terms of mental illnesses being absent from literary fiction, I don't think that's true at all. I had to do similar research in the past few months as part of my MS (middle grade!) involves dementia. Even in YA/MG, mental illness is present. I would simply structure your query as if this is a normal part of the MC's world. I just read a successful query last night that involves Tourette syndrome, and it doesn't shy away from how if affects the MC within her natural world (kids teasing her in school).

I've also seen agents with "mental health issues" listed on the MSWL. It's not super prevalent yet in mainstream fiction, but the conversation is happening and I think it'll only become more common to see it reflected in books/tv/movies in the future. Just look at a show like "Homeland." There's hope!

Prowlsgirl said:

I'm in the process of self-editing my novel again, and it's getting as streamlined as I can get it. I've written a realistic fiction novella about different mental illnesses, and I was thinking of sending off a few query letters, but I don't know who is looking for the kind of book I've written. Mental illness apparently isn't a topic covered in most fiction. I haven't found anybody who'll take it, and I am looking for suggestions on how to structure a query letter about it. If not, I can go with self-publishing, but I was hoping to see what others thought of it.

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The bigger problem may be with querying a novella. Most agents will only consider novel-length work.

As for mental illness as a topic or theme for fiction, I'm not sure I understand. Many novels explicitly deal with mental health issues, and many more touch on aspects of mental illness through their characters. I can't recall seeing an agent specifically excluding books on mental illness (there may be, I just haven't seen that.) On the contrary, many #ownvoices calls include mental health issues as an aspect of representation.

As to further information on queries, take a look at the Query Letter Hell subforum. The stickies have a wealth of resources related to queries, even if you aren't interested in posting your query for critique. I would also recommend browsing through the archives at the Query Shark blog.

Where did you hear that mental illness wasn't a topic widely and commonly covered in fiction at the moment? I'd be interested to know. In my experience, that's definitely not the case. I can't comment so much on Adult fiction as I read less of it - though mental health crops up quite regularly - but there are tons of YA contemporary books covering mental illness, either as the focus of the book or as part of the book. And there is definitely space for much more.

I tend to read quite a lot of heavier literary fiction, so there's often allusions in those kinds of books to issues like depression, addiction, social anxiety... You could perhaps write it in such a way that it hitches a ride on the #writeyourresistance wave (or has that passed?! - let others guide you there), and say perhaps: Given the stigma still attached to mental illness in society, in the spirit of #writeyourresistance, my novel deals with xxx issue.

I'd recommend workshopping your query in SYW once you have 50 posts. People get a lot of conflicting feedback sometimes, but I've seen amazing results come out of that process - ie: finding an agent/publisher.

Mental illness is often discussed in fiction. It's a really common topic. However, if your work is a novella rather than a full-length novel you might well find it difficult to find an agent able to represent you.

I agree with everyone else - there are so many books with mental illness in them (Silver Linings Playbook, Turtles All the Way Down, All the Bright Places just to name a few.) If you Google "books with mental illness" you will come up with many. I think agents will be looking at the plot and execution more than the inclusion of mental illness and would structure the query letter in the same way as any other query letter. As others have mentioned, looking for an agent for a novella may present a bigger problem than it being about mental illness.

Many writers write/have written about mental illness. Many agents read/accept works about mental illness. Many publishers have/do publish works about mental illness. That's not your problem.

How are you pitching the book?

Get up to 50 posts here, and then you can post your query in Share Your Work (Query Letter Hell, subforum). That will give you a better idea of the sticking points.

I've seen fiction based around MI plots firmly in the Contemporary genre - it's one of the mainstays recently, especially as Contemporary YA is a hot genre right now.

If you have a twitter account, it might be worth checking out the #DVPit tag, there is usually a twitter event twice a year to pitch marginalized plots/authors to agents and publishers. I believe the next one is in April.