Which route to take?

romance_author · Sep 15, 2018

First, I apologize if this is the wrong forum, but this seems to be the forum with the most experience in querying, agents, publishers, changing representation, and all that goes with those topics.
If it's the wrong place, please direct me to the right one. Thank you, I really appreciate it.

Second, here's my situation. I'm querying a series of fantasy romance novels. The author queried them back in 2011 to about a dozen agents. Since she queried them as Christian Sweet Romance no one was interested except for Mary Seymour (hope I got the name right) who rejected the author because one of the characters used the word sh*t. After that she stopped querying and concentrated on writing as she has more than 80 novels in this series and is busy writing other series including a completely different fantasy romance series that would be marketed under fantasy romance and science fiction. I mention it because that will be the next series I query.

So, what I have learned from our fan base is that the novels that appeal to one reader don't necessarily interest our other readers. Tastes vary widely, more widely than I imagined.
I have at my disposal the opportunity to just send a link to a query agent and allow them to log into our member site and read whatever novel they want rather than ask for partials or pages.
This would allow the agent/publisher to read whatever novel they wish in its entirety rather than waiting to receive a partial or full manuscript.
I am worried, however, that most agents and publishers won't bother with that. I would hope that they would see the possibility of a long chain of 80 novels and that would persuade them to log in.
But I might just be wishful thinking.

Third, keeping in mind this is a series of about 80 novels which is better to query at this point--agents or publishers?

Fourth, which genre do I target? I don't want the series to be pigeonholed into Christian romance because that seemed to go nowhere when the author first tried. I don't want to fail or at least not fail completely.
Romance? Fantasy? Knowing that there is an occasional swear word and no references to Biblical scriptures I don't think a Christian romance publisher would take it, especially since some novels in the series approach other topics that those publishers don't want in their books.

So, those are my four questions/areas of concern. Any help would be greatly appreciated. If you have a link to a specific publisher or agent that would also be incredibly helpful.

Thank you.
Cat

zmethos · Sep 15, 2018

I'm a little confused, so bear with me as I try to clarify for myself:

1. You're querying these novels FOR the author? Or you're a co-author? What's your relationship to the work?

2. These 80 novels have never been published?

As for sending agents/publishers a link, they likely wouldn't respond to that. Telling them, "Here, go look it up yourself," is more work than they have time for. Pick the strongest novel--or the first one, if the series needs to be read in order--and query that one.

Agents vs publishers depends on what you hope to achieve. Agents are necessary to get some publishers to look at your work; other publishers don't require an agent for you to submit. But if you're offered a contract from a publisher, you'll want an agent or attorney who is versed in literary contracts to look at it. A rule to keep in mind: Don't query agents and publishers at the same time.

Genre? Well, if the books don't have Christian themes and do have swear words, I'm not sure why the author chose to market them as Christian romances, but I haven't read them, so... Where would these books be shelved in a bookstore or library? What kind of person would pick them up and read them? It sounds like, from your description, the series is not necessarily consistent regarding genre--you say some people like some of the books but not others. Why is that? Are some leaning more on fantasy and some more on romance?

Not sure if any of this is helpful, but I hope so.

cornflake · Sep 15, 2018

romance_author said:
First, I apologize if this is the wrong forum, but this seems to be the forum with the most experience in querying, agents, publishers, changing representation, and all that goes with those topics.
If it's the wrong place, please direct me to the right one. Thank you, I really appreciate it.

Second, here's my situation. I'm querying a series of fantasy romance novels. The author queried them back in 2011 to about a dozen agents. Since she queried them as Christian Sweet Romance no one was interested except for Mary Seymour (hope I got the name right) who rejected the author because one of the characters used the word sh*t. After that she stopped querying and concentrated on writing as she has more than 80 novels in this series and is busy writing other series including a completely different fantasy romance series that would be marketed under fantasy romance and science fiction. I mention it because that will be the next series I query.

So, what I have learned from our fan base is that the novels that appeal to one reader don't necessarily interest our other readers. Tastes vary widely, more widely than I imagined.
I have at my disposal the opportunity to just send a link to a query agent and allow them to log into our member site and read whatever novel they want rather than ask for partials or pages.
This would allow the agent/publisher to read whatever novel they wish in its entirety rather than waiting to receive a partial or full manuscript.
I am worried, however, that most agents and publishers won't bother with that. I would hope that they would see the possibility of a long chain of 80 novels and that would persuade them to log in.
But I might just be wishful thinking.

Third, keeping in mind this is a series of about 80 novels which is better to query at this point--agents or publishers?

Fourth, which genre do I target? I don't want the series to be pigeonholed into Christian romance because that seemed to go nowhere when the author first tried. I don't want to fail or at least not fail completely.
Romance? Fantasy? Knowing that there is an occasional swear word and no references to Biblical scriptures I don't think a Christian romance publisher would take it, especially since some novels in the series approach other topics that those publishers don't want in their books.

So, those are my four questions/areas of concern. Any help would be greatly appreciated. If you have a link to a specific publisher or agent that would also be incredibly helpful.

Thank you.
Cat

I don't understand who you are either with the pronouns but....

No, no one is following a link to read your stuff.

The AUTHOR, not a publisher, queries an agent for ONE stand-alone book. Why are you, presumably a publisher, looking for an agent and publisher?

These are apparently all published, so the chances of finding an agent or publisher interested in them is slim to none, basically.

Curlz · Sep 16, 2018

romance_author, you have the strangest website I've seen. There is membership mentioned but no log-in page, there is price mentioned but the books are not clickable and there is no way to purchase, there are no instructions either. Is that some super secret club or something?

Also, there probably are agents who will visit a link, and consider a series of novels rather than one, but those are definitely not the agents one wants to work with. So best is to pick one novel and query under the general Romance genre. Best way is to actually read some books published by somebody else other than yourself and compare how the genre fits.

Treehouseman · Sep 16, 2018

You need to sell the AUTHOR not the work. I'm assuming you're acting in some kind of sub-agent capacity?

If these books have been for sale or made available via a website, I'm afraid you are unlikely to find either agent or publisher for them. Best to put them on Amazon and consider it lessons learnt all around. (A small press might take the bulk of the works on if you can prove there are still sales and sign them over as a package)

The author will have to query under their name and on her own from now on, although you could act in a low-key advisory capacity and not let the agent know.

If she is still going to write in that category, it seems to be "Sweet Romance", which although is not overtly Christian tends to be read by a lot of Christians. The other alternative is a fairly new genre called "Clean Fantasy" , but in that one too you must absolutely lose the swearing.

AFAIK shorter clean romances can be pitched to one of the Harlequin lines (but it will need to be new and never published), or you'll have to utilise the power of Google and find a small press. Try and find authors who write a similar genre and see who's repping them. Romance tends to be most successful self-published or direct to publishers.

EDIT: Just saw the website - ??? Looks like the links are broken and is Author Owned, yes?

I think if it's yourself, you'll be fine with just pitching a single good romance book that's never been published. Try Querytracker.net and do a search for agents.

Old Hack · Sep 16, 2018

romance_author said:
I'm querying a series of fantasy romance novels. The author queried them back in 2011 to about a dozen agents. Since she queried them as Christian Sweet Romance no one was interested except for Mary Seymour (hope I got the name right) who rejected the author because one of the characters used the word sh*t. After that she stopped querying and concentrated on writing as she has more than 80 novels in this series and is busy writing other series including a completely different fantasy romance series that would be marketed under fantasy romance and science fiction. I mention it because that will be the next series I query.

It's the author's job to query his or her books. Most agents and editors I know will automatically reject queries from intermediaries.

You don't query series, you query individual books.

I notice from one of your other posts at AW that you're a publisher: it would help if you'd explain why you're querying this series on behalf of the author, because our advice will be different if you're trying to sell foreign or subsidiary rights as a publisher, for example, rather than working on finding an agent for this particular author.

I have at my disposal the opportunity to just send a link to a query agent and allow them to log into our member site and read whatever novel they want rather than ask for partials or pages.
This would allow the agent/publisher to read whatever novel they wish in its entirety rather than waiting to receive a partial or full manuscript.

This will earn you an automatic rejection from most of the agents I know.

Third, keeping in mind this is a series of about 80 novels which is better to query at this point--agents or publishers?

It's better for the author to query her own work. And to do so one book at a time. In my opinion, it's better to find an agent and let that agent find publishers.

Fourth, which genre do I target? I don't want the series to be pigeonholed into Christian romance because that seemed to go nowhere when the author first tried. I don't want to fail or at least not fail completely.

We can't tell you which genre to target without knowing more about the book. Please don't query these books: let the author do it herself. You'll only close off opportunities for her if you do it.

Which route to take?

romance_author

zmethos

from words to worlds

cornflake

practical experience, FTW

Curlz

cutsie-pie

Treehouseman

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman