I just finished a story with a main character who's in her late teens to two years into her twenties. The first third of the book takes place in the last two years of high school, then the final two thirds in the four years of college. The problem she faces requires that story arc.
I assumed that this wouldn't fit in the YA category, and the NA category doesn't seem to have taken off much in the publishing world. So I just decided to self-publish and see if any of my few hundred followers bite.
However I took the finished novel with me to a movie/TV catchup night with a friend. It was a POD copy with front and back book covers and typeset and all. I just wanted to wave it around and show I really had been working on something instead of ignoring her in the six weeks it took me to write the book. (I was working almost 24/7 with time out only for sleeping and fixing food and so not very present in her life.)
Normally she just reads the first page or two of my books and says nice things about the beginning. This time she was hooked and stayed up late to finish the entire book. Then she told be to send it to agents who focus on YA.
Now, she's a savvy and successful business woman and fairly hard-headed and grounded. She prefers more factual books and contemporary books than I do, who read and write several genres. I explained to her about the central focus of most YA books and that NA has only a small market share. And that hybrid YA/NA books have had little success in today's markets.
She said nonetheless, when she was a teen she'd have loved this book, and even today enjoyed it. So hustle it to some YA agents and see what happens.
My problem is I just spent a couple of hours going over agents' submission guidelines and can't find anyone who might reasonably be interested. Do you have any agent recommendations?
I assumed that this wouldn't fit in the YA category, and the NA category doesn't seem to have taken off much in the publishing world. So I just decided to self-publish and see if any of my few hundred followers bite.
However I took the finished novel with me to a movie/TV catchup night with a friend. It was a POD copy with front and back book covers and typeset and all. I just wanted to wave it around and show I really had been working on something instead of ignoring her in the six weeks it took me to write the book. (I was working almost 24/7 with time out only for sleeping and fixing food and so not very present in her life.)
Normally she just reads the first page or two of my books and says nice things about the beginning. This time she was hooked and stayed up late to finish the entire book. Then she told be to send it to agents who focus on YA.
Now, she's a savvy and successful business woman and fairly hard-headed and grounded. She prefers more factual books and contemporary books than I do, who read and write several genres. I explained to her about the central focus of most YA books and that NA has only a small market share. And that hybrid YA/NA books have had little success in today's markets.
She said nonetheless, when she was a teen she'd have loved this book, and even today enjoyed it. So hustle it to some YA agents and see what happens.
My problem is I just spent a couple of hours going over agents' submission guidelines and can't find anyone who might reasonably be interested. Do you have any agent recommendations?
