Hello everyone,
I hope this is the right forum to ask this in - I'm looking for some help narrowing down the genre of my novel. I ask this only because I'm just starting to think about researching agents, and I want to make sure I know what I'm looking for when I go down their list of interests.
So here's the rough pitch: set in late-90s Atlantic City, Rivka, a young con woman struggling to get by on her own, falls for a snarky gambler and sets up a long con they can run together at one of the big casinos. Things get complicated when the gambler refuses to participate in the crime and Rivka's domineering brother arrives in town to lure her back into his own unstable orbit. It's Ocean's Eight meets Better Than Chocolate. F/F with ace (asexual) representation.
The bulk of the book is the development of the relationship between Rivka and the gambler. (That wasn't my intention when I set out, but it turns out I needed to write a book about what happens when a conflicted ace woman falls in love.) There is also a fair amount about the fraught relationship between Rivka and her brother. All of that while Rivka is trying to set up for the first long con she has ever been in charge of. The con itself occupies the last third/quarter of the book.
So, it's definitely LGBT, but is that the only label I should use? It's not exactly crime, but kind of. It's not historical, but not really contemporary either. Is it women's fiction? Is it commercial fiction? Is this an impossible question without more information?
Thank you so much for any insight you can provide!
K
I hope this is the right forum to ask this in - I'm looking for some help narrowing down the genre of my novel. I ask this only because I'm just starting to think about researching agents, and I want to make sure I know what I'm looking for when I go down their list of interests.
So here's the rough pitch: set in late-90s Atlantic City, Rivka, a young con woman struggling to get by on her own, falls for a snarky gambler and sets up a long con they can run together at one of the big casinos. Things get complicated when the gambler refuses to participate in the crime and Rivka's domineering brother arrives in town to lure her back into his own unstable orbit. It's Ocean's Eight meets Better Than Chocolate. F/F with ace (asexual) representation.
The bulk of the book is the development of the relationship between Rivka and the gambler. (That wasn't my intention when I set out, but it turns out I needed to write a book about what happens when a conflicted ace woman falls in love.) There is also a fair amount about the fraught relationship between Rivka and her brother. All of that while Rivka is trying to set up for the first long con she has ever been in charge of. The con itself occupies the last third/quarter of the book.
So, it's definitely LGBT, but is that the only label I should use? It's not exactly crime, but kind of. It's not historical, but not really contemporary either. Is it women's fiction? Is it commercial fiction? Is this an impossible question without more information?
Thank you so much for any insight you can provide!
K
then definitely don't put it as romance. Romance readers will stomp you in the ground. Definitely crime and women's fiction to me. She's a criminal and her criminal activities take up a large chunk of the book making it a crime. Without the criminal element, you wouldn't have a story. That makes this a crime novel. Second, she's a woman and this book shows her growing and changing and focuses on her experiences outside of her romantic relationship as well as focusing on the relationship with her brother so you got a little family drama in there too so that's why I'd say women's fiction. 