Is this Fantasy, Magical Realism, Literary Fiction, or what?
- Thread starter SleepyMaggie
- Start date
I'm gonna be blunt here. The problem is not the ghosts, or the lists, or the genre. The problem is your pages. I had a look at them on Amazon, and the prologue is all telly backstory, a common rookie move, which is what's likely triggering all those form rejects. And the first chapter has serious pacing issues. I'm not saying this to be an asshole (I'm not that kind of a girl). I'm whacking you with the clue-by-four because I want to help you. You seem to be stuck in a rut--the mindset that the ghosts are the problem--when, IMO, that's not the problem at all. I don't want to watch you endlessly spin your wheels when all you need is a little push to get on the right track.
All just my humble opinion, of course.
I suggest you get thee and your pages to the SFF forum in SYW (password: vista). And, yes, put your query through Query Letter Hell, and your synopsis too. If you're serious about being trade published, you've got some work to do (IMHO). That said, since this book has already been published, I'm not sure it's even worth querying. I know that's harsh, but agents generally pass on previously published books.
Thank you for your honest input! I have often considered dispensing with the whole introduction thing. People seem to like it, but introductions are so last century.
I'm equally sure no agent has ever read my introduction, though, because I was never asked for my manuscript. I never included the introduction in any query where I was allowed to submit "first three chapters or 3K words." I always figured I'd leave whether or not to leave the intro in up to the editor after signing a contract. Needless to say, the "editor" assigned to me by the publisher I did eventually sign with never even noticed it!
I absolutely do fully realize what a hard row I'm going to have to hoe if I really want to hit "reset" and publish this whole series even though the first volume has already been "published." I may indeed end up having to start over with a new series. I won't scrap the existing one, though - I have fans asking me when the sequel is coming out, and I don't want to earn a reputation as one of those authors who lets readers down by not finishing series. Only George R. R. Martin can get away with that!
If I find myself eventually forced to, I'll self publish this series and traditionally publish a different one. I will still face the whole Genre question, though. because I'm not going to write any closer to pure genre with the next one than I am with this one.
I think the people who are suggesting "southern gothic fantasy" to me as a genre are remembering the old "Gothic Romance" novels of the 60s and 70s. They were great, I loved them, too! I used to sneak into the basement to read my mother's huge collection of them. Some of them had real ghosts and some of them were just psychological, but they all had big, mysterious houses and a mystery to solve. That was the atmosphere I was trying to recapture. The female leads in these stories, I realize now on going back and re-reading them, were dumber than rocks and fatally attracted to jerks (same thing, really) so I allowed my own female lead to be a little more self-actualized, but other than that, I think that's where the "gothic" thing comes from.
You're probably right that anyone who wasn't old enough to read in the 60s and 70s will probably not think of these books when they hear the word "gothic"!
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I'm going to join the chorus here and say that I suspect it's your research that is at fault, not the entire industry. The industry is doing fine - but you've been here since, what, March 2018 and haven't read the stickies or FAQs or found SYW? And although you say you read voraciously, you always follow that up with the fact that you don't read any more, or you don't read the complete books because they're not what you wanted to read.
My suggestion, if you can and if you haven't already done it, is to find a kind librarian and buy her a nice cup of tea, and do your research face-to-face. (If she's willing). Ask her what she would suggest you read, build up your knowledge that way. At least if you end up throwing the book from you, it's not costing you money. (But throw gently if throw you must. Onto a cushion or something. Other people have loved that book. PSA: Every time a book gets thrown, it makes the Baby Jesus groan).
ETA: Another PSA - if you put work up for SYW, read all the stickies first especially the one where it says to just thank and move on if there's a crit you don't like. Otherwise the whole thread tends to go down in a flaming heap, and I'm sure none of us wants that.
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OK, I'm a big believer in constructiveness so let's leave aside all the stuff the book is/isn't, and the stuff about the pages, and talk about how to actually research agents.
The common line, indeed, is go to your bookstore, find books you like, and see who repped/published them. This is a good line in that it heads off the new writers who haven't read anything and gets them thinking about just what they're trying to do. You are past this stage.
But this line is short. It's glib. It's shorthand for "do your research". It does not mean you literally need to go to a bookstore and try to find books exactly like yours. I get why this can be a frustrating experience, because bookstores may not stock all that much odd stuff, even when lots of cool, odd stuff is, in fact, being published. The big bookstores are increasingly no longer in the books business at all but rather the tacky stationery business. Unless you're fortunate to have a large, good indie with knowledgeable staff, it can be a slog.
So hold the bookstore thought, let's pivot and start somewhere else.
Here's the Association of Authors' Representatives member list. This will give you a lot of agents. Obviously, not all of them will rep fantasy. I find it helpful to instead look at agencies first--a given agent might not rep fantasy, but there's a good chance the agency has someone who does. Open the agency website in a new tab and scroll through all the agents there. Record any who rep anything even close to what you have: spec fic, fantasy in any of its sub-forms, paranormal, etc. When you find one you like, Google that agent's name specifically. Look for interviews, MSWL preferences, and their Twitter/website. See if they have special preferences. Some will say "no ghosts" up front--probably safe to cross them off your query list. Many, many say "yes, please!" to ghost stories, or anything weird. There are all kinds of tastes. Make a note of any agent whose interests and desires intersect with yours.
When you're done, close that agency's site and go back to the AAR database and open another. You'll find agents talk about each other a lot, and they talk about books they like a lot. While the vast majority won't be books you'd necessarily like, look for the odd one that looks even intriguing. Follow it. Check Amazon. Check the author name. Find out who repped them if you can, and then search that agent by the same method above.
Oh, there's a UK database, too.
The nice thing about searching the association databases is it acts as a kind of first pass on agent legitimacy. Try to avoid just searching "literary agent" on Google, because who knows who you'll get and bad agents are better at disguises than bad publishers. Run any agent--even the good ones--by the index here and at Querytracker.
I also write oddball literary fantasy, like several people in this thread. I have a query list of nearly 200 agents. I defy anyone querying in fantasy to end up at less than 100. It's a big, wide genre. And the thing about agents is that they are basically professional readers. They have, often, wide-randing and esoteric tastes. Yes, they're in it for stuff that will sell--they don't get paid until authors do, so it's an imperative. But they're readers. Often very experienced, well-read ones. I've been really pleasantly surprised how downright interesting some of them are. I mean sure, I've found lots of agents who are pretty commercial in their tastes, and I maybe make a note or even send a query but they're not top targets. Every time I dig through the lists, though, I come away more excited to query because there really are a lot of agents who, once you start to actually research them, seem like really neat people.
In general, try not to cross agents off your query list just because you're uncertain if they'd like your book. I mean, I'm unsure if anyone will like my book, but if I took that attitude I'd never query anybody. If they say they rep fantasy, I figure there's at least a chance they're open to something a bit different--it's part of what makes fantasy fantastic.
So, when you've got a list of prospective agents, now your bookstore comes into it.
Take each agent you want to query--I like rounds of 10 or so. Look at their client lists, which will either be on the agency website or easily Google-able. Scroll through the titles, check the books out on Amazon. Look for sales--who published them, how have they sold?--but also read the back-cover blurb and maybe some Look Inside. If you can't find any books in your genre, maybe consider taking that agent off, at least for now--some agents say they'll take fantasy but don't actually sell it, so you wouldn't necessarily want them. Again, be open-minded here. You're not going to find a book exactly like yours--that's the point. See if the agent has repped other broadly odd or interesting fantasy. Again, I can attest that there are lots because I have been doing this exact research the past six months or so.
If you find a book that's a particularly good comp, or particularly interesting to you, go read it. I'm fonder of using my local library for this than the bookstore. It's cheaper, and it's easier to order books in from a broad collection. Also, library collections can be a good barometer of a book's discoverability--if you can't find any of the books your agent has repped in your library, they're probably not selling to big publishers, and that's a problem. When you do find them--you will, for most--borrow them. Read a bit. See what happens. You don't have to finish every book, and not finishing doesn't necessarily mean you can't query that agent. You're just doing research, because now you're an informed querier. You know the agent's work, you know a bit about her tastes, and you have all that wishlist info from above to go on, too. Now you can really start to rank your top targets. You can personalize your query: "I really enjoyed BOOK YOU REPPED by Client Author and wanted to send your MY BOOK, which is a lot like it because _______ and ________." But what's important isn't ________ and _______, it's that you've done what like 0% of queriers do and actually done the research. It shows you know the industry and want the job, so to speak. Or: "I saw you requested books that ________ on Twitter and my book contains ________," where _________ might be sunflower-snorting pixies who are only mentioned once on page 22 for the sake of a good joke, but hey, maybe this agent likes that kind of detail or vibe and now you can show you've done the research.
When you submit--and this is IMPORTANT--you follow the submission guidelines to the letter. If the agent asks for a query, six and a half pages, and a pancake, you send the query, six and a half pages, and the best pancake you can make. You will find that some ask for a synopsis--have one. Know what it is and is not. Some ask for varying and bizarre numbers of pages just to weed out authors who can't follow instructions. Some want everything in their own, special format or through a badly-designed submissions portal. Whatever, follow the instructions. If they ask for pages, send the pages. It's their call to make.
Look, I agree with Pasty. You're got bit by a bad publisher that jumped you too far along the process too fast. The MS probably still needs some precision revision and if you're getting form rejects--and any variation of "it's not right for my list" is a form rejection and you can read absolutely nothing into it (for more on this, see this thread)--your query may very well not be hacking it, either. You're close to 50 posts; welcome to Hell.
Frankly, you may also get some form rejections because agents who are interested in the pages might Google the title (or your name) and see it's previously published. A lot of times what happens is people write a first book and fall so much in love with it that they never stop writing it--either they never write The End or they never start anything else, just extending and extending a series that doesn't actually exist yet. But there's a huge amount about writing craft that can really only be learned by starting a second book and not making the same mistakes you made on the first, and some of what has to be learned that way is a certain amount of critical distance that allows you to see the book as a Thing; a unique Thing and your Thing, yes, but a Thing with a place at least orthogonal to a market so that said Thing will attract the odd fan and thus buy you and your agent lunch every once in a while. Having another project on the go is just a good idea for all kinds of other reasons, too--not least because the best way to sell a book is writing another one.
What's happened here is that you know the industry as a reader but not as a writer. A reader is a consumer, and the customer's always right. It is totally your purview, as a reader, to go into a bookstore and throw up your hands at the sheer volume of tea cozies on sale and storm out. I have a similar relationship with the games industry. But when you want to jump into being a writer or creator, you have to start to see the industry as a market, which sometimes means seeing similarities and categories that may, on a purely intellectual level, feel a little forced or even boxy, but which exist to help the industry function. Agents are masters at these and can help authors navigate, but they get a huge number of queries every week and so, to stand out, you have to show that you're a willing student, and that means putting aside those frustrations and learning to pitch your book effectively.
It's not hard. But for every person who doesn't want to take the time, there are three others who will.
The common line, indeed, is go to your bookstore, find books you like, and see who repped/published them. This is a good line in that it heads off the new writers who haven't read anything and gets them thinking about just what they're trying to do. You are past this stage.
But this line is short. It's glib. It's shorthand for "do your research". It does not mean you literally need to go to a bookstore and try to find books exactly like yours. I get why this can be a frustrating experience, because bookstores may not stock all that much odd stuff, even when lots of cool, odd stuff is, in fact, being published. The big bookstores are increasingly no longer in the books business at all but rather the tacky stationery business. Unless you're fortunate to have a large, good indie with knowledgeable staff, it can be a slog.
So hold the bookstore thought, let's pivot and start somewhere else.
Here's the Association of Authors' Representatives member list. This will give you a lot of agents. Obviously, not all of them will rep fantasy. I find it helpful to instead look at agencies first--a given agent might not rep fantasy, but there's a good chance the agency has someone who does. Open the agency website in a new tab and scroll through all the agents there. Record any who rep anything even close to what you have: spec fic, fantasy in any of its sub-forms, paranormal, etc. When you find one you like, Google that agent's name specifically. Look for interviews, MSWL preferences, and their Twitter/website. See if they have special preferences. Some will say "no ghosts" up front--probably safe to cross them off your query list. Many, many say "yes, please!" to ghost stories, or anything weird. There are all kinds of tastes. Make a note of any agent whose interests and desires intersect with yours.
When you're done, close that agency's site and go back to the AAR database and open another. You'll find agents talk about each other a lot, and they talk about books they like a lot. While the vast majority won't be books you'd necessarily like, look for the odd one that looks even intriguing. Follow it. Check Amazon. Check the author name. Find out who repped them if you can, and then search that agent by the same method above.
Oh, there's a UK database, too.
The nice thing about searching the association databases is it acts as a kind of first pass on agent legitimacy. Try to avoid just searching "literary agent" on Google, because who knows who you'll get and bad agents are better at disguises than bad publishers. Run any agent--even the good ones--by the index here and at Querytracker.
I also write oddball literary fantasy, like several people in this thread. I have a query list of nearly 200 agents. I defy anyone querying in fantasy to end up at less than 100. It's a big, wide genre. And the thing about agents is that they are basically professional readers. They have, often, wide-randing and esoteric tastes. Yes, they're in it for stuff that will sell--they don't get paid until authors do, so it's an imperative. But they're readers. Often very experienced, well-read ones. I've been really pleasantly surprised how downright interesting some of them are. I mean sure, I've found lots of agents who are pretty commercial in their tastes, and I maybe make a note or even send a query but they're not top targets. Every time I dig through the lists, though, I come away more excited to query because there really are a lot of agents who, once you start to actually research them, seem like really neat people.
In general, try not to cross agents off your query list just because you're uncertain if they'd like your book. I mean, I'm unsure if anyone will like my book, but if I took that attitude I'd never query anybody. If they say they rep fantasy, I figure there's at least a chance they're open to something a bit different--it's part of what makes fantasy fantastic.
So, when you've got a list of prospective agents, now your bookstore comes into it.
Take each agent you want to query--I like rounds of 10 or so. Look at their client lists, which will either be on the agency website or easily Google-able. Scroll through the titles, check the books out on Amazon. Look for sales--who published them, how have they sold?--but also read the back-cover blurb and maybe some Look Inside. If you can't find any books in your genre, maybe consider taking that agent off, at least for now--some agents say they'll take fantasy but don't actually sell it, so you wouldn't necessarily want them. Again, be open-minded here. You're not going to find a book exactly like yours--that's the point. See if the agent has repped other broadly odd or interesting fantasy. Again, I can attest that there are lots because I have been doing this exact research the past six months or so.
If you find a book that's a particularly good comp, or particularly interesting to you, go read it. I'm fonder of using my local library for this than the bookstore. It's cheaper, and it's easier to order books in from a broad collection. Also, library collections can be a good barometer of a book's discoverability--if you can't find any of the books your agent has repped in your library, they're probably not selling to big publishers, and that's a problem. When you do find them--you will, for most--borrow them. Read a bit. See what happens. You don't have to finish every book, and not finishing doesn't necessarily mean you can't query that agent. You're just doing research, because now you're an informed querier. You know the agent's work, you know a bit about her tastes, and you have all that wishlist info from above to go on, too. Now you can really start to rank your top targets. You can personalize your query: "I really enjoyed BOOK YOU REPPED by Client Author and wanted to send your MY BOOK, which is a lot like it because _______ and ________." But what's important isn't ________ and _______, it's that you've done what like 0% of queriers do and actually done the research. It shows you know the industry and want the job, so to speak. Or: "I saw you requested books that ________ on Twitter and my book contains ________," where _________ might be sunflower-snorting pixies who are only mentioned once on page 22 for the sake of a good joke, but hey, maybe this agent likes that kind of detail or vibe and now you can show you've done the research.
When you submit--and this is IMPORTANT--you follow the submission guidelines to the letter. If the agent asks for a query, six and a half pages, and a pancake, you send the query, six and a half pages, and the best pancake you can make. You will find that some ask for a synopsis--have one. Know what it is and is not. Some ask for varying and bizarre numbers of pages just to weed out authors who can't follow instructions. Some want everything in their own, special format or through a badly-designed submissions portal. Whatever, follow the instructions. If they ask for pages, send the pages. It's their call to make.
Look, I agree with Pasty. You're got bit by a bad publisher that jumped you too far along the process too fast. The MS probably still needs some precision revision and if you're getting form rejects--and any variation of "it's not right for my list" is a form rejection and you can read absolutely nothing into it (for more on this, see this thread)--your query may very well not be hacking it, either. You're close to 50 posts; welcome to Hell.
Frankly, you may also get some form rejections because agents who are interested in the pages might Google the title (or your name) and see it's previously published. A lot of times what happens is people write a first book and fall so much in love with it that they never stop writing it--either they never write The End or they never start anything else, just extending and extending a series that doesn't actually exist yet. But there's a huge amount about writing craft that can really only be learned by starting a second book and not making the same mistakes you made on the first, and some of what has to be learned that way is a certain amount of critical distance that allows you to see the book as a Thing; a unique Thing and your Thing, yes, but a Thing with a place at least orthogonal to a market so that said Thing will attract the odd fan and thus buy you and your agent lunch every once in a while. Having another project on the go is just a good idea for all kinds of other reasons, too--not least because the best way to sell a book is writing another one.
What's happened here is that you know the industry as a reader but not as a writer. A reader is a consumer, and the customer's always right. It is totally your purview, as a reader, to go into a bookstore and throw up your hands at the sheer volume of tea cozies on sale and storm out. I have a similar relationship with the games industry. But when you want to jump into being a writer or creator, you have to start to see the industry as a market, which sometimes means seeing similarities and categories that may, on a purely intellectual level, feel a little forced or even boxy, but which exist to help the industry function. Agents are masters at these and can help authors navigate, but they get a huge number of queries every week and so, to stand out, you have to show that you're a willing student, and that means putting aside those frustrations and learning to pitch your book effectively.
It's not hard. But for every person who doesn't want to take the time, there are three others who will.
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There's a good example of a flaming heap in SFF SYW right now (don't everybody run over there at once).
There's a good example of a flaming heap in SFF SYW right now (don't everybody run over there at once).
I ran like a bunny. Too late!
Thank you for your post – lots of good stuff in there!
I am familiar with the AAR list and Query Tracker, also a very valuable tool for researching agents, because it often links to their listings and/or articles about them in Publishers Marketplace, and lets you know if they comply with AAR guidelines. I also like QT because you can look through all the queries an agent has received and see trends, such as (as you mentioned in your post) agents who say they take Fantasy, but all the manuscripts they ever ask to see are YA, and the only contract they've offered over the past two years was for a non-fiction piece. (I don't scratch them off my query list for that, though. They might have only recently added Fantasy as an interest, or something like that)
Using the above-mentioned resources, and also ManuscriptWishList and several others I can't call to mind right now, I never really did find any agent, not one single one, about whom I could say "Bingo! This dude totally publishes the kind of thing I write!"
But I did not cross any agents off my list because I was uncertain if they'd like my book. If anything, I erred in the opposite direction.
I will take up stalking agent conversations on AAR to find out what books they like, now, too, per your advice.
I wasn't doing Twitter back then, but now I follow many of the agents I found in my previous research, and stalk their agency accounts as well. I've even semi-formed a few sort-of relationships (if you can say that about Twitter) with some of them, including "not a horror kind of girl" girl who thinks ghosts equal horror, and who is actually a terrific person but does only YA now.
I have, however, never searched "literary agent" on Google. I'm pretty sure that's a great way to find lots of scammers!
I think it's fair to say I did quite a lot of research, back in 2016 when I was seeking out an agent for Seven Turns, and not just in bookstores. I use "bookstores" as shorthand, too, much the same way "go to a bookstore" is shorthand, as you say. (Though whenever I do find a book, through these methods, that I would like to read, I use Indiebound.org to order it through my local bookseller.)
I did find one book that was interesting to me, through all this research that I am really glad I found. It's called "Glimmerglass" by Marly Youmans. Brilliant, brilliant stuff – I really loved it. Very few people have ever heard of her. I wouldn't say my story is like hers, just similar in level of magic and light. I don't know what genre it is. Neither does she – Amazon lists it as "Literary" because they can't peg it either. I had a lovely, long DM chat with the author one night (I only asked for one bit of advice but she just enjoyed chatting!) She didn't seem to have any real advice to offer except to seek out smaller publishing houses. Most of her books are published by Mercer University Press, which I may query first this time around even though they insist on a dead-tree edition of the manuscript, which had caused me to put them last in my agent list.
This is also how I discovered "John Dies at the End" by David Wong, which I really, really loved, but I if you know anything about that book you're probably pretty sure his agent is definitely not looking for stuff like mine!
Just so you know, I also carefully read every single agent's bio/wishlist on every single agency website and chose the one (most of them have very strict policies against querying more than one, as you probably already know) that seemed like the closest possible fit before querying. None of them were exact, but I figured maybe someone might be willing to stretch a little, for the right story. But aside from taking a risk on sending them a query about work that is probably a wobbly fit, I did otherwise follow their instructions (not just the agency's instructions, but the individual agent's instructions) absolutely to the letter, pancake and all.
If have also, as you suggested, told a couple of agents "I really enjoyed BOOK YOU REPPED etc." I was lying, because I did not in fact enjoy the book at all and it took a lot of self-discipine to force myself through the first three chapters, but I don't think they knew that. What they did know was that my book was not like that book and so it was not on their List.
When I have attempted to give comps, I have mentioned Charles de Lint's work from the 80s. He was writing mostly YA and short stories in the aughts, so this didn't help much, then. Now that he has broken down and written a book for adults again at long last, maybe this will get me further.
And now I'll tell you: After doing all this research and compiling a customized list of about 230 Fantasy agents (yes, they were all fantasy. I didn't try any who were looking for cozies or anything else, as I may consider doing now) and small publishers, all of whose interests I had discerned at least partly overlapped with mine, I started sending out carefully customized individual queries at the rate of about two per day, three days per week. Slowly but surely, I accumulated 123 rejections over the course of about 8 months, only one of which was not boilerplate. I got two requests for my full manuscript, and one flat-out offer of publication from a small press in Canada, at which I balked because I am not familiar with international publishing stuff and wanted to hold out for a US publisher. I still wonder if I did the right thing. Probably not! Because the next offer I got was from the even smaller so-called publisher I wound up signing with.
I did write back to the two people who had asked for my full manuscript, letting them know I was considering an offer and would they like me to hold off until they had had a chance to read my manuscript. They both told me they were sorry but it was going to be another 6 - 8 months at least before they could get to it, so I panicked and signed on the electronic line. I probably should have waited. I still had a few agents left on my list that I hadn't queried yet.
Honest to god, I don't even know if this story even IS "broadly odd or interesting fantasy" or any kind of Fantasy at all. That's why I asked, in the first place. I'm still not sure.
I am familiar with the AAR list and Query Tracker, also a very valuable tool for researching agents, because it often links to their listings and/or articles about them in Publishers Marketplace, and lets you know if they comply with AAR guidelines. I also like QT because you can look through all the queries an agent has received and see trends, such as (as you mentioned in your post) agents who say they take Fantasy, but all the manuscripts they ever ask to see are YA, and the only contract they've offered over the past two years was for a non-fiction piece. (I don't scratch them off my query list for that, though. They might have only recently added Fantasy as an interest, or something like that)
Using the above-mentioned resources, and also ManuscriptWishList and several others I can't call to mind right now, I never really did find any agent, not one single one, about whom I could say "Bingo! This dude totally publishes the kind of thing I write!"
But I did not cross any agents off my list because I was uncertain if they'd like my book. If anything, I erred in the opposite direction.
I will take up stalking agent conversations on AAR to find out what books they like, now, too, per your advice.
I wasn't doing Twitter back then, but now I follow many of the agents I found in my previous research, and stalk their agency accounts as well. I've even semi-formed a few sort-of relationships (if you can say that about Twitter) with some of them, including "not a horror kind of girl" girl who thinks ghosts equal horror, and who is actually a terrific person but does only YA now.
I have, however, never searched "literary agent" on Google. I'm pretty sure that's a great way to find lots of scammers!
I think it's fair to say I did quite a lot of research, back in 2016 when I was seeking out an agent for Seven Turns, and not just in bookstores. I use "bookstores" as shorthand, too, much the same way "go to a bookstore" is shorthand, as you say. (Though whenever I do find a book, through these methods, that I would like to read, I use Indiebound.org to order it through my local bookseller.)
I did find one book that was interesting to me, through all this research that I am really glad I found. It's called "Glimmerglass" by Marly Youmans. Brilliant, brilliant stuff – I really loved it. Very few people have ever heard of her. I wouldn't say my story is like hers, just similar in level of magic and light. I don't know what genre it is. Neither does she – Amazon lists it as "Literary" because they can't peg it either. I had a lovely, long DM chat with the author one night (I only asked for one bit of advice but she just enjoyed chatting!) She didn't seem to have any real advice to offer except to seek out smaller publishing houses. Most of her books are published by Mercer University Press, which I may query first this time around even though they insist on a dead-tree edition of the manuscript, which had caused me to put them last in my agent list.
This is also how I discovered "John Dies at the End" by David Wong, which I really, really loved, but I if you know anything about that book you're probably pretty sure his agent is definitely not looking for stuff like mine!
Just so you know, I also carefully read every single agent's bio/wishlist on every single agency website and chose the one (most of them have very strict policies against querying more than one, as you probably already know) that seemed like the closest possible fit before querying. None of them were exact, but I figured maybe someone might be willing to stretch a little, for the right story. But aside from taking a risk on sending them a query about work that is probably a wobbly fit, I did otherwise follow their instructions (not just the agency's instructions, but the individual agent's instructions) absolutely to the letter, pancake and all.
If have also, as you suggested, told a couple of agents "I really enjoyed BOOK YOU REPPED etc." I was lying, because I did not in fact enjoy the book at all and it took a lot of self-discipine to force myself through the first three chapters, but I don't think they knew that. What they did know was that my book was not like that book and so it was not on their List.
When I have attempted to give comps, I have mentioned Charles de Lint's work from the 80s. He was writing mostly YA and short stories in the aughts, so this didn't help much, then. Now that he has broken down and written a book for adults again at long last, maybe this will get me further.
And now I'll tell you: After doing all this research and compiling a customized list of about 230 Fantasy agents (yes, they were all fantasy. I didn't try any who were looking for cozies or anything else, as I may consider doing now) and small publishers, all of whose interests I had discerned at least partly overlapped with mine, I started sending out carefully customized individual queries at the rate of about two per day, three days per week. Slowly but surely, I accumulated 123 rejections over the course of about 8 months, only one of which was not boilerplate. I got two requests for my full manuscript, and one flat-out offer of publication from a small press in Canada, at which I balked because I am not familiar with international publishing stuff and wanted to hold out for a US publisher. I still wonder if I did the right thing. Probably not! Because the next offer I got was from the even smaller so-called publisher I wound up signing with.
I did write back to the two people who had asked for my full manuscript, letting them know I was considering an offer and would they like me to hold off until they had had a chance to read my manuscript. They both told me they were sorry but it was going to be another 6 - 8 months at least before they could get to it, so I panicked and signed on the electronic line. I probably should have waited. I still had a few agents left on my list that I hadn't queried yet.
Honest to god, I don't even know if this story even IS "broadly odd or interesting fantasy" or any kind of Fantasy at all. That's why I asked, in the first place. I'm still not sure.
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No, it lets you see what people who are on it choose to say. That's all. It's not a substitute for real information.
Agents don't publish anything. If you couldn't find a single agent who repped what you write, you were doing it wrong, sorry.
You can figure out who is legit with... research.
She or her publisher called it literary, not Amazon. It's not deciding what genres books are, publishers are.
This is also how I discovered "John Dies at the End" by David Wong, which I really, really loved, but I if you know anything about that book you're probably pretty sure his agent is definitely not looking for stuff like mine!
Just so you know, I also carefully read every single agent's bio/wishlist on every single agency website and chose the one (most of them have very strict policies against querying more than one, as you probably already know) that seemed like the closest possible fit before querying. None of them were exact, but I figured maybe someone might be willing to stretch a little, for the right story. But aside from taking a risk on sending them a query about work that is probably a wobbly fit, I did otherwise follow their instructions (not just the agency's instructions, but the individual agent's instructions) absolutely to the letter, pancake and all.
If have also, as you suggested, told a couple of agents "I really enjoyed BOOK YOU REPPED etc." I was lying, because I did not in fact enjoy the book at all and it took a lot of self-discipine to force myself through the first three chapters, but I don't think they knew that. What they did know was that my book was not like that book and so it was not on their List.
I have no idea where you got the notion that agents rep exactly one type of book, and no deviations are entertained, but it's utterly invalid. Most agents rep a selection of genres, but even those who stick to one or two genres rep stuff that's not exactly the same type of book within those. A common reason for rejection by agents is that a work is too similar to something they already have on their list.
Guarantee the problem wasn't that he was more recently writing different stuff, but that you were using a 30+-year-old work as a comp.
That request rate suggests a problem with the query and/or pages. One person has already suggested there may be a problem with your pages. Once you can put up work for critique, if you wish, you can get other opinions, if you're willing to listen to them.
I would regard wishlists with suspicion tbh, because they are hard to interpret. I don't really enjoy most of the novels my agent cites as examples on her wishlist. Her mswl is itself very scattergun. On reflection, I suspect this just means she has wide taste. Now that I know her better, I understand why we matched, but it's not the kind of knowledge you can make into a bullet point list.
Meanwhile, many of the agents I thought would be a good fit were a fast form rejection (shrug).
Meanwhile, many of the agents I thought would be a good fit were a fast form rejection (shrug).
OK, but PastyAlien also said that your first chapter had pacing issues. So it's not just the introduction. And it could also be that no agent wants to handle a book that's already been published on Amazon.
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This right here. If you are currently querying a book that's already published, your query will automatically get binned. And very few agents will want to rep the second book in a series because very few publishers will want to take on a book in mid-series. (Exception: If the second book is truly a stand alone.)
As for genre, you're writing contemporary fantasy. Check out Andy Duncan's work (he writes short stories that are called Southern literary fantasy). Or Jaime Lee Moyer's Delia Martin books, which are set in the early 20th century in San Francisco, so not contemporary, but definitely not S&S.
And I'd strongly second what others said about visiting SYW. You can add to your post count by writing critiques in preparation for posting your own query and/or opening pages.