Is this Fantasy, Magical Realism, Literary Fiction, or what?

SleepyMaggie

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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."
 

-Riv-

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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.
This is quite surprising. I would think most fantasy agents are savvy enough to know that "ghost" doesn't equal horror, especially if the query isn't written in a way to indicate horror. Are you getting specific feedback about the horror aspect or just form rejections?

All the best,
Riv
 

Marian Perera

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No. I know what you are thinking. This clearly falls under the Horror purview, right?

I wasn't thinking that at all. I was thinking this sounds like a paranormal.

Ghost does not automatically equal horror. I wrote a romance in which the heroine started out as a ghost. Stacia Kane has a series in which there are ghosts, but the series is urban fantasy, not horror. Ghost Planet by Sharon Lynn Fisher is science fiction, not horror.

So, like Riv, I would like to know if agents have actually told you they are rejecting your manuscript because it's horror.
 

KBooks

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How much reading do you do in the genres of paranormal and fantasy? To me your book sounds like paranormal-(something).

Paranormal, which it sounds like might be what you've written, was really huge about a decade ago right after Twilight, but since then other trends have risen to take its place, although there's still a niche market of readers who love and seek out those books, we're not the biggest, shiniest thing at the moment. Which could be one reason behind the lack of bites from agents--publishers just aren't looking for that sort of book in big numbers like they are for other things.
 
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cornflake

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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."

Of course there are other books like yours. You seem to have some misunderstandings of genre and category -- urban fantasy doesn't require werewolves or vampires; magic is not in any way exclusive to or even particularly prevalent in YA; I'm not sure why you feel agents who rep fantasy would reject because you've got ghosts. Has anyone actually said that? There are a shitton of ghost books -- most are under the paranormal umbrella but depends on what's there.
 

lizmonster

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It's really, really important to nail your genre, and I think your own experience shows one reason why. For a lot of people it doesn't come up, because the genre is obvious; but if you're having trouble, the thing to do is NOT make random guesses and give up, but to read read read until you figure out what you're writing. (And read entire books, not just blurbs/the first few pages.) Really and truly, there's nothing new out there.

The other issue I think you may run into is querying a book that's a sequel of a currently published book. It's tough to find a new publisher for an existing series - not impossible, but a massive, massive longshot. This is another reason you want to nail the genre before you start the query gauntlet: you can't change the first book's history, but you can clear the obstacles you can control.
 

CathleenT

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This may be my bias, OP, but your work sounds like fantasy to me. There's a niche that does very well in SP, called witch cozies, and I think your work might appeal to those readers, or even classic fantasy readers. Many fantasies have set stories in the land next to elfland. Lots of fairy tales, too, although those tend to be hollow hill kinds of realms. And Tolkien used ghosts, which practically makes them canon.

I'd self-publish because if your book doesn't squarely hit the bulls-eye of genre expectations and have the hot new elements that publishers and therefore agents want right now, I think your chances of successfully running the agent-publisher gauntlet are slim indeed. They've never been good, but self-publishing has squeezed overall industry profits, and publishers have to make something to stay around. From what I can tell, not being an industry insider, it's a more risk-averse environment than it once was.

And also, this is the type of book that you really want to write. If you already had a successful midlist career, maybe you could get someone to take a chance on you, but they've already got so many submissions from people who faithfully follow all that manuscript wish list stuff. If you SP, you can go out and find your market. (And then you can at least get a decent cover--the one you have is doing you no favors. Looks like typical homemade SP on Canva.)

And one of several things will happen. You'll suck at marketing (because almost everyone does at first), get discouraged and give up.(Unfortunately, this seems to be the most common result.) Or, you'll master marketing enough to get results, but it turns out the reader base you're able to find isn't enough to generate any reasonable returns, so you pivot, pick a genre, and write books that satisfy more reader expectations. Or you'll figure out how to get your book in front of readers, and it'll turn out it's an under-served niche. You'll sell lots and get to keep on doing it.

Otherwise, honestly, if you don't have a book that fits exactly what agents/publishers are looking for, the most likely fate I see is that you'll languish trying to query these things for years. People have spent decades knocking unsuccessfully at this door.

Of course, there is the lightning rod chance that your work is so good that you'll find an agent to represent it on that basis alone. And then somehow they get the publisher to back your particular book, and it takes off that way. But of all the alternatives on the table, this seems the most unlikely.

I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer. This is the exact same process I went through looking at my work. I want to write fairy-tale based noblebright fantasy. This is not what publishers were looking for, but I believe that it still has a market. I really dislike the whole promotion thing. But it's a lot better than sitting on the sidelines, never getting to be part of the game.

As always, YMMV. :)
 
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Alvania

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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.
[...]
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.

Actually, what sprang to mind was Angie Fox's cozy series, Southern Ghost Hunter Mysteries, and Jana DeLeon's cozy mystery/romance series, Ghost-In-Law Mystery. And then there is Carolyn Haines's series, A Sarah Booth Delaney Mystery, which is set in the South, has a ghost, and romance. And there are others I could list that have ghosts, romance, and/or magical elements. Horror wasn't even a side thought for me.

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.

If it is a form rejection, how do you know it is the word "ghost" that is causing them to pass? That is a sincere question. Maybe the problem is you are querying fantasy agents when the book is a cozy mystery.

OK I've already written the book. In fact I've even published the book
[...]
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?)

If the first book in the series has already been published, it might be harder to get an agent interested in the second book of the series unless book one sold well.

But if I expect to do this, I need to peg it to a genre!

If the book(s) are cozy mystery, and it sounds like they are paranormal cozy mysteries, consider querying agents who are looking for cozy mysteries.
 

SleepyMaggie

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LOL in one case it was quite specific! There's an agent I rather admire on Twitter, even though she is one of the ones who rejected Seven Turns, and she was talking about wishing she could find some good Adult Fantasy. I said "Is it acceptable to have ghosts in Adult Fantasy?" and she replied (and I quote) "Oh, no no no! That would be horror, and I'm not a horror kind of girl!" Leaving aside the fact that a grown woman referred to herself as a girl, this did rather confirm my suspicions of what had been going on all this time with all the other agents, too.

This is quite surprising. I would think most fantasy agents are savvy enough to know that "ghost" doesn't equal horror, especially if the query isn't written in a way to indicate horror. Are you getting specific feedback about the horror aspect or just form rejections?

All the best,
Riv
 

SleepyMaggie

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The word "paranormal" is problematic, too. Maybe there was a time when it didn't, but nowadays the word "paranormal" assumes darkness and does not really permit happy endings. You are only allowed to have non-malignant magic and happy endings in YA, these days, it seems. Being a grownup is depressing and miserable, and grownup fiction should express this. At least, that's all I ever see in bookstores anymore. This is the paradigm I'm trying to break, because I hate it as a reader!

See my reply to Riv for the specific reference to how I came to realize the Industry dictates that ghosts must equal horror.

I wasn't thinking that at all. I was thinking this sounds like a paranormal.

Ghost does not automatically equal horror. I wrote a romance in which the heroine started out as a ghost. Stacia Kane has a series in which there are ghosts, but the series is urban fantasy, not horror. Ghost Planet by Sharon Lynn Fisher is science fiction, not horror.

So, like Riv, I would like to know if agents have actually told you they are rejecting your manuscript because it's horror.
 

lizmonster

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One agent is one agent. I think it'd be unwise to extrapolate to all others from a single Twitter exchange.

Her response is also a bit odd, as ghosts are common in urban fantasy; but she's entitled to dislike them, or any other traditional fantasy elements.
 

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See my reply to Riv for the specific reference to how I came to realize the Industry dictates that ghosts must equal horror.

I don't believe that the opinion of one agent dictates or reflects the opinion of a whole industry.

I think previous posters have provided useful categorisation and comp titles that should help refine the genre in order to target the relevant agents. However as someone said the main issue querying this project is more the already published initial book, not the genre that will put off agents.
 

SleepyMaggie

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Sounds like contemporary fantasy to me.

Is it legal to have contemporary fantasy without elves, dwarves, and epic battles with magic swords? I mean, I've seen some contemporary fantasy lately that I almost kind of liked (the Iron Druid series, for instance) but it still seems very Swords & Sorcery to me. I had thought S&S was yesterday's news and I'm glad to see Hearne has bucked this trend. I wonder if his publisher would be willing to consider a fantasy that is less S&S...
 

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Sounds like a great story and I’m certain there are many readers who would agree. I’m thinking paranormal or urban fantasy or even magical realism though I’m not certain of that.
 

SleepyMaggie

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To tell you the truth, I don't do much reading in those genres at all anymore, though I used to read everything that came out in them. The whole Twilight era has completely ruined them, which might explain why they've gone out of style. And that's why I don't want to use the world "paranormal" to industry professionals - they'll think I'm just another one of those wonks who is trying to come out with the next Twilight.

Sometimes I want to start my queries with the words: "There are zero vampires or werewolves within any of my pages and there never will be! Now, if you're still with me..."

How much reading do you do in the genres of paranormal and fantasy? To me your book sounds like paranormal-(something).

Paranormal, which it sounds like might be what you've written, was really huge about a decade ago right after Twilight, but since then other trends have risen to take its place, although there's still a niche market of readers who love and seek out those books, we're not the biggest, shiniest thing at the moment. Which could be one reason behind the lack of bites from agents--publishers just aren't looking for that sort of book in big numbers like they are for other things.
 

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I took a look at the book on Amazon. The reviews are great. If you get the rights back, you could continue to self publish but work on the cover - could definitely be improved.
 

SleepyMaggie

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There are lots of books with ghosts, yes, but they are thrillers and horror. They are all Very Very Dark. They are not about nice ghosts. Every ghost in every book out there nowadays has some kind of OCD about internal organs (namely, spreading them around) for some reason.

The notable exception is Romance, which can allow the ghost of the love interest to have some motivation other than Bloody Revenge. But my stories, though they might have romantic relationships in them, are not romances.

Urban Fantasy is all very dark, nowadays, too. It didn't used to be. Back when Charles de Lint first forged it, it was quite uplifting. Now it's all dark and dismal and hopeless and violent, and the industry seems to want it that way. I don't think all readers want it that way, though.

And yes, someone actually HAS said that. See my reply to Riv above.

Of course there are other books like yours. You seem to have some misunderstandings of genre and category -- urban fantasy doesn't require werewolves or vampires; magic is not in any way exclusive to or even particularly prevalent in YA; I'm not sure why you feel agents who rep fantasy would reject because you've got ghosts. Has anyone actually said that? There are a shitton of ghost books -- most are under the paranormal umbrella but depends on what's there.
 
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PS: There are NO vampires or werewolves, and there never will be! So the label "Urban Fantasy" is right out.

"Urban Fantasy" doesn't require vampires or werewolves, FYI. It's a subset of contemporary fantasy that often happens to include them, but an 'urban' (city) setting and often a gritty tone tend to dominate. (So still probably not yours.)

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?

We have a writer around here, Aggy (A.G. Carpenter), who has written one of those. Unfortunately, she is going through some rough life stuff right now so I can't guarantee she'll show up to talk about it. You could try reaching out but again, no guarantees.
 

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One agent is one agent. I think it'd be unwise to extrapolate to all others from a single Twitter exchange.

Her response is also a bit odd, as ghosts are common in urban fantasy; but she's entitled to dislike them, or any other traditional fantasy elements.
^^This. There is no reason to assume that form rejections from other agents have anything to do with ghosts simply because of one agent's opinion in a Twitter exchange. Ghosts aren't an uncommon fantasy element.
 

lizmonster

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I strongly suggest you focus on what's been published in the last few years, and read far more widely. You seem to have a lot of misconceptions about the adult fantasy market (it's not a genre I read from a lot, but even I'm aware of far more diversity than what you're assuming).
 

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You're right, I am totally going to have a tough row to hoe, trying to pitch mid-series. I may have to just scrap this series, but if I come up with another one, it is going to have all the same elements, and I'll be back at the same dilemma. I'm not trying to write to some market formula. I'm trying to write to a market that I believe does exist but is not being served right now because of industry trends.

I do read, voraciously. Well, I did, until the industry stopped selling anything I would enjoy. I'm not going to waste my time or money reading dark, dismal stuff with lots of gore and all the characters you love dying in horrible ways. Where the words "ghost" and "demon" are synonyms. And that's all that's available, nowadays, if you want magic for adults.

Everyone keeps telling me yes there IS stuff like I write, or like I want to read, out there, but nobody can give me a title - not one that's been published in the last twenty years, anyway. Believe me, if it exists, I would love to find it, because I would love to read it!

It's really, really important to nail your genre, and I think your own experience shows one reason why. For a lot of people it doesn't come up, because the genre is obvious; but if you're having trouble, the thing to do is NOT make random guesses and give up, but to read read read until you figure out what you're writing. (And read entire books, not just blurbs/the first few pages.) Really and truly, there's nothing new out there.

The other issue I think you may run into is querying a book that's a sequel of a currently published book. It's tough to find a new publisher for an existing series - not impossible, but a massive, massive longshot. This is another reason you want to nail the genre before you start the query gauntlet: you can't change the first book's history, but you can clear the obstacles you can control.
 

KBooks

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The word "paranormal" is problematic, too. Maybe there was a time when it didn't, but nowadays the word "paranormal" assumes darkness and does not really permit happy endings.

Oh gosh, this just suggests to me even more that you need to do some reading. This statement could not be further from the truth.
 

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Thank you for your reasoned comments! Witch cozies, eh? I don't believe I've head of those - I'll google that. Are they dark? I don't do dark. Also I refuse to have anything to do with stories about witches worshiping Satan because there is no Satan in that religion and I refuse to help perpetuate that kind of slander, either by writing it or by buying it (or by watching it on TV!)

Everyone encourages me to self-publish. "Don't worry, you can learn how to become a great salesman if you just believe you can!" Well, I can learn how to do anything I set my mind to. I've spent four decades of my life setting my mind to becoming good at doing things that are not what I'm meant to do (write.) I made up my mind several years ago to stop wasting any more of the years I have left on perfecting skills I don't want and that don't make my heart sing. If I'm going to spend most of my waking hours perfecting a skill that is not what I want to do, I may as well just go back to web development or copy editing for a living. Been down one time, been down two times - never going back again.

(LOL yah that cover! That's the one that so-called "publisher" came up with for me. Basically a BigStock image with a crappy font on it. Did I mention I've also been a graphic designer for a living? I could have done a much better job if they'd just been willing to let me do it myself - maybe not as good as a professional cover artist, but definitely better than that!)

I believe my work is good enough to rate a real publisher and that it can make money for a real publishing house. I realize my opinion may be biased, but seriously. It's good enough. I just have to figure out how to pitch it to someone who has always dreamed of perfecting their salesman skills!


This may be my bias, OP, but your work sounds like fantasy to me. There's a niche that does very well in SP, called witch cozies, and I think your work might appeal to those readers, or even classic fantasy readers. Many fantasies have set stories in the land next to elfland. Lots of fairy tales, too, although those tend to be hollow hill kinds of realms. And Tolkien used ghosts, which practically makes them canon.

I'd self-publish because if your book doesn't squarely hit the bulls-eye of genre expectations and have the hot new elements that publishers and therefore agents want right now, I think your chances of successfully running the agent-publisher gauntlet are slim indeed. They've never been good, but self-publishing has squeezed overall industry profits, and publishers have to make something to stay around. From what I can tell, not being an industry insider, it's a more risk-averse environment than it once was.

And also, this is the type of book that you really want to write. If you already had a successful midlist career, maybe you could get someone to take a chance on you, but they've already got so many submissions from people who faithfully follow all that manuscript wish list stuff. If you SP, you can go out and find your market. (And then you can at least get a decent cover--the one you have is doing you no favors. Looks like typical homemade SP on Canva.)

And one of several things will happen. You'll suck at marketing (because almost everyone does at first), get discouraged and give up.(Unfortunately, this seems to be the most common result.) Or, you'll master marketing enough to get results, but it turns out the reader base you're able to find isn't enough to generate any reasonable returns, so you pivot, pick a genre, and write books that satisfy more reader expectations. Or you'll figure out how to get your book in front of readers, and it'll turn out it's an under-served niche. You'll sell lots and get to keep on doing it.

Otherwise, honestly, if you don't have a book that fits exactly what agents/publishers are looking for, the most likely fate I see is that you'll languish trying to query these things for years. People have spent decades knocking unsuccessfully at this door.

Of course, there is the lightning rod chance that your work is so good that you'll find an agent to represent it on that basis alone. And then somehow they get the publisher to back your particular book, and it takes off that way. But of all the alternatives on the table, this seems the most unlikely.

I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer. This is the exact same process I went through looking at my work. I want to write fairy-tale based noblebright fantasy. This is not what publishers were looking for, but I believe that it still has a market. I really dislike the whole promotion thing. But it's a lot better than sitting on the sidelines, never getting to be part of the game.

As always, YMMV. :)
 

PyriteFool

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There are lots of books with ghosts, yes, but they are thrillers and horror. They are all Very Very Dark. They are not about nice ghosts. Every ghost in every book out there nowadays has some kind of OCD about internal organs (namely, spreading them around) for some reason.

The notable exception is Romance, which can allow the ghost of the love interest to have some motivation other than Bloody Revenge. But my stories, though they might have romantic relationships in them, are not romances.

Urban Fantasy is all very dark, nowadays, too. It didn't used to be. Back when Charles de Lint first forged it, it was quite uplifting. Now it's all dark and dismal and hopeless and violent, and the industry seems to want it that way. I don't think all readers want it that way, though.

And yes, someone actually HAS said that. See my reply to Riv above.

Dude, The Dresden Files has tons of ghosts, very few of whom are malevolent. I know that’s Urban Fantasy, but that also means it is notably not Thriller, Horror, or Romance. Nor are they particularly dark. And that’s just the most mainstream example that popped into my head. I’m actually a fan of scary ghost stories, but just going by the thread above, there are plenty of cozier ghost books to be had. I’m sorry you had a bad experience with an agent, but I’m concerned you are letting that prevent you from seeing that there IS an answer to your genre question. Honestly, when I looked at your description, Contemporary Fantasy (which is not known for elves or dwarves or swords, that is Epic Fantasy) and Southern Gothic were the first things that sprung to my mind. So there is hope!

Also, why do people keep rushing to tell everyone that their books don’t have vampires or werewolves in them, as if trying to assure people their books don’t have the flu and are safe to touch? I know we got that post-Twilight phase, but as someone writing a book with BOTH vampires and werewolves, y’all are starting to make me wonder if I missed a memo.