OK I've already written the book. In fact I've even published the book, via a disappointing "publisher" which turned out to be nothing more than a bunch of women pushing people's manuscripts through KDP in their home offices and claiming part of the proceeds without doing any marketing or distribution whatsoever. Lesson learned.
Anyway the advice I see a lot, here, is to Write The Story You Want to Write and worry about genre later. I did that, and I found out it was nearly impossible to find an agent due to not being able to peg my story strictly to a set genre. Hence my caving in and using aforementioned crappy publisher. I won't do that again, at least! Now that I am in developmental edits on the sequel, I am working on reclaiming my rights to the first book and seeking actual representation for this one (possibly both?) But if I expect to do this, I need to peg it to a genre!
Further advice often follows my stating this dilemma. "Go to a bookstore and look at the other books like yours and find out who publishes them." But there are no other books like mine. That's why I wrote mine in the first place! I spent years and years leaving bookstores empty-handed and disappointed because I couldn't find any books like mine, and that's when I realized I had to write them myself. I believe I am not the only person longing for books like this. The reviews on the copies I did manage to sell on Amazon, with my paltry salesmanship skills and nonexistent distribution capabilities, bear this out: there are people out there who crave this sort of thing. I need a real publisher to help put me in touch with more of them. In order to do this, I need to convince an agent somewhere to take a gamble on me.
The premise of the story-world is that there is an unassuming little Southern town you won't find on any map, but if you wind up there, it's because you were meant to be there. The first novel introduces this town to us via a burned-out author of ghost stories who books a room in a reputedly haunted bed and breakfast, in search of inspiration. She finds more inspiration than she bargained for, because the ghosts there are actually real, and they need her help with a problem of their own.
No. I know what you are thinking. This clearly falls under the Horror purview, right? No, it does not. There is no horror. My ghosts have no more desire to maim and disembowel the living than living people [generally] do. They are characters in their own right. The entire work is highly character-driven. Even the white-haired guy who plays old Eagles songs on the loading dock of his feed-store every day is a complex character with a backstory that will become an entire novel one day.
I tend to try to fit it under the "Fantasy" umbrella instead, because there is lots of magic in this town, much of which is due to the fact that the gate across the road into the meadow guards an entire kingdom of people who, for lack of a better word, we will call Neighbors, because you had better not let them catch you calling them "fairies."
So far, a mystery of the "cozy" variety has seemed to insert itself into every story, but it is not the central theme (though, to my delight, readers don't find the mysteries too easy to solve!)
There is also romance, but it is never the central theme, either. My author character, mentioned above, kind of has the hots for a the mysterious news-store clerk who isn't quite human, himself, but she's been around the block enough times to know she doesn't need a man to validate her existence.
PS: There are NO vampires or werewolves, and there never will be! So the label "Urban Fantasy" is right out.
So mostly I have been submitting to agents who express an interest in Fantasy, but the second they see the word "ghost" in my hook, they roll their eyes and say "But this is Horror! FFS why can't these stupid writers ever bother to read my wish list?" Then, without reading any further, they forward my query to the intern to have them send a form rejection.
I've had a couple of fans suggest a genre to me: Contemporary Southern Gothic Fantasy. I like the sound of that. Nice and atmospheric, like my work, but not horrifying. But would it mean anything to an agent?
My target audience is adults who like to read YA because they love the magic in them, but I want to show that you don't have to be a child in order to experience magic. And/or that, if you're an adult, any magic you do experience does not have to be malicious and horrifying.
I've been thinking maybe I should try to write the hook in my queries without using the word "ghost" until much later (if at all) in the letter. But I feel like that would be lying in order to get my foot in the door, and would probably get me the opposite of results!
What would you do?
If you're curious or if it would help you to know more details about the book, you can search Amazon for "Seven Turns by Kim Beall."
Anyway the advice I see a lot, here, is to Write The Story You Want to Write and worry about genre later. I did that, and I found out it was nearly impossible to find an agent due to not being able to peg my story strictly to a set genre. Hence my caving in and using aforementioned crappy publisher. I won't do that again, at least! Now that I am in developmental edits on the sequel, I am working on reclaiming my rights to the first book and seeking actual representation for this one (possibly both?) But if I expect to do this, I need to peg it to a genre!
Further advice often follows my stating this dilemma. "Go to a bookstore and look at the other books like yours and find out who publishes them." But there are no other books like mine. That's why I wrote mine in the first place! I spent years and years leaving bookstores empty-handed and disappointed because I couldn't find any books like mine, and that's when I realized I had to write them myself. I believe I am not the only person longing for books like this. The reviews on the copies I did manage to sell on Amazon, with my paltry salesmanship skills and nonexistent distribution capabilities, bear this out: there are people out there who crave this sort of thing. I need a real publisher to help put me in touch with more of them. In order to do this, I need to convince an agent somewhere to take a gamble on me.
The premise of the story-world is that there is an unassuming little Southern town you won't find on any map, but if you wind up there, it's because you were meant to be there. The first novel introduces this town to us via a burned-out author of ghost stories who books a room in a reputedly haunted bed and breakfast, in search of inspiration. She finds more inspiration than she bargained for, because the ghosts there are actually real, and they need her help with a problem of their own.
No. I know what you are thinking. This clearly falls under the Horror purview, right? No, it does not. There is no horror. My ghosts have no more desire to maim and disembowel the living than living people [generally] do. They are characters in their own right. The entire work is highly character-driven. Even the white-haired guy who plays old Eagles songs on the loading dock of his feed-store every day is a complex character with a backstory that will become an entire novel one day.
I tend to try to fit it under the "Fantasy" umbrella instead, because there is lots of magic in this town, much of which is due to the fact that the gate across the road into the meadow guards an entire kingdom of people who, for lack of a better word, we will call Neighbors, because you had better not let them catch you calling them "fairies."
So far, a mystery of the "cozy" variety has seemed to insert itself into every story, but it is not the central theme (though, to my delight, readers don't find the mysteries too easy to solve!)
There is also romance, but it is never the central theme, either. My author character, mentioned above, kind of has the hots for a the mysterious news-store clerk who isn't quite human, himself, but she's been around the block enough times to know she doesn't need a man to validate her existence.
PS: There are NO vampires or werewolves, and there never will be! So the label "Urban Fantasy" is right out.
So mostly I have been submitting to agents who express an interest in Fantasy, but the second they see the word "ghost" in my hook, they roll their eyes and say "But this is Horror! FFS why can't these stupid writers ever bother to read my wish list?" Then, without reading any further, they forward my query to the intern to have them send a form rejection.
I've had a couple of fans suggest a genre to me: Contemporary Southern Gothic Fantasy. I like the sound of that. Nice and atmospheric, like my work, but not horrifying. But would it mean anything to an agent?
My target audience is adults who like to read YA because they love the magic in them, but I want to show that you don't have to be a child in order to experience magic. And/or that, if you're an adult, any magic you do experience does not have to be malicious and horrifying.
I've been thinking maybe I should try to write the hook in my queries without using the word "ghost" until much later (if at all) in the letter. But I feel like that would be lying in order to get my foot in the door, and would probably get me the opposite of results!
What would you do?
If you're curious or if it would help you to know more details about the book, you can search Amazon for "Seven Turns by Kim Beall."