How to query literary fiction?

jadeheavens

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Hi everyone, thanks for welcoming me to this part of the forum! I'm getting ready to query a 70k coming-of-age story and I've been researching, reading, and critiquing query letters for the past several weeks. I've had a hard time, however, finding many examples of query letters for literary fiction, on this forum or elsewhere.

I feel that some basics of querying are hard to achieve for many literary novels. For example, most successful query letters seem to have an exciting, concise hook; characters should show agency and drive the plot forward; the letter should get to the plot quickly, etc. While many literary novels do have exciting plots and can fulfill these querying conventions, however, I hope I'm not alone in feeling that my literary novel just doesn't fit the expectations for a query.

Things do happen in my novel and my character does make decisions/grow, but nothing is terribly exciting and it takes quite a while for my character to begin doing anything that would fit the conventional idea of showing agency, driving forward plot, making decisions, etc. I've drafted a query letter that I plan to post to query letter hell, but based on reading other critiques there, I have a hunch that people will find I take too long to get to the plot or my character is too passive--which I feel are actually reflective of the book, and I don't want to change those elements of the book.

A Google search for lit-fic queries turned up a successful example, but I feel the most compelling parts of that query were the author's already-impressive bio and connection to the agent. Thinking through some successful literary novels, I also have no idea how they would have been queried; some of my favorites seem pretty boring when I try to imagine their pitches. So I'm wondering, has anyone felt the same difficulties as I do, and do you have tips/resources/examples on querying literary fiction without an established reputation?

Thank you in advance!
 

onesecondglance

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I don't have a perfect answer to this, but here are some ideas.

Perhaps try thinking about your story in a different way. Plot-based queries work for plot-based books because that's where the "zing" and "pop" lies. If what makes your book "zing" is the quality of the writing and character moments, then make that your query.

Also, consider what makes your protagonist compelling. Active or passive is about whether they drive the events of the plot - essential in a plot-driven book. But even in something less plotted, the protagonist(s) still need to be vibrant and interesting, with needs and desires. If they're the centre of your story, bring that out.
 

mccardey

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Hi everyone, thanks for welcoming me to this part of the forum! I'm getting ready to query a 70k coming-of-age story and I've been researching, reading, and critiquing query letters for the past several weeks. I've had a hard time, however, finding many examples of query letters for literary fiction, on this forum or elsewhere.

I feel that some basics of querying are hard to achieve for many literary novels. For example, most successful query letters seem to have an exciting, concise hook; characters should show agency and drive the plot forward; the letter should get to the plot quickly, etc. While many literary novels do have exciting plots and can fulfill these querying conventions, however, I hope I'm not alone in feeling that my literary novel just doesn't fit the expectations for a query.

Things do happen in my novel and my character does make decisions/grow, but nothing is terribly exciting and it takes quite a while for my character to begin doing anything that would fit the conventional idea of showing agency, driving forward plot, making decisions, etc. I've drafted a query letter that I plan to post to query letter hell, but based on reading other critiques there, I have a hunch that people will find I take too long to get to the plot or my character is too passive--which I feel are actually reflective of the book, and I don't want to change those elements of the book.

A Google search for lit-fic queries turned up a successful example, but I feel the most compelling parts of that query were the author's already-impressive bio and connection to the agent. Thinking through some successful literary novels, I also have no idea how they would have been queried; some of my favorites seem pretty boring when I try to imagine their pitches. So I'm wondering, has anyone felt the same difficulties as I do, and do you have tips/resources/examples on querying literary fiction without an established reputation?

Thank you in advance!

Firstly - is it a literary novel (in which case just query it as the genre it belongs to) or lit fic in which case - just make sure it's complete and perfect (and not a lit fic piece because it doesn't fit anywhere else) and use the all the voice that the novel is built on.
 

Ari Meermans

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Firstly - is it a literary novel (in which case just query it as the genre it belongs to) or lit fic in which case - just make sure it's complete and perfect (and not a lit fic piece because it doesn't fit anywhere else) and use the all the voice that the novel is built on.

This. Remember Literary is not a genre, it's a marketing category. Because it is very important to know where your novel fits in the marketplace you should examine the main elements of your novel and look for comp titles to determine where your novel fits in the market and use those titles in your query. It's not always easy to determine the marketing category for your own novel so you really do need to look for comps to see how they were marketed. This infographic would be a good place to get started on that determination.
 

jadeheavens

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I don't have a perfect answer to this, but here are some ideas.

Perhaps try thinking about your story in a different way. Plot-based queries work for plot-based books because that's where the "zing" and "pop" lies. If what makes your book "zing" is the quality of the writing and character moments, then make that your query.

Also, consider what makes your protagonist compelling. Active or passive is about whether they drive the events of the plot - essential in a plot-driven book. But even in something less plotted, the protagonist(s) still need to be vibrant and interesting, with needs and desires. If they're the centre of your story, bring that out.

Thanks, this is helpful! I'll try to incorporate more of the voice and writing style of the novel in the query and express the protagonist's unique qualities instead of trying to wring out an exciting plot when that's not the focus.
 

jadeheavens

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Firstly - is it a literary novel (in which case just query it as the genre it belongs to) or lit fic in which case - just make sure it's complete and perfect (and not a lit fic piece because it doesn't fit anywhere else) and use the all the voice that the novel is built on.

Thanks for the suggestion! I will try to incorporate more of the voice and writing style driving the novel. Just a clarification--do you mean there's a difference between the terms "literary novel" and "literary fiction"? I was using the term "literary novel" to mean a novel-length work of literary fiction; I don't want to accidentally use that term if it means something else. And yes, the work is literary in intent--I've heard the term "mainstream fiction" applied to works that don't fit into any genre but aren't literary fiction, and that's not my intent for this novel.
 

jadeheavens

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This. Remember Literary is not a genre, it's a marketing category. Because it is very important to know where your novel fits in the marketplace you should examine the main elements of your novel and look for comp titles to determine where your novel fits in the market and use those titles in your query. It's not always easy to determine the marketing category for your own novel so you really do need to look for comps to see how they were marketed. This infographic would be a good place to get started on that determination.

Thanks for the reply! Goodness, I actually spent a lot of time staring at that infographic trying to figure out the terms when I first learned of upmarket fiction haha. You're right, I've had a terrible time trying to think of comps (the closest recently published thing I know of is The Idiot by Elif Batuman but I feel it's kind of obnoxious to use it as a comp since it was a Pulitzer finalist...). Right now I'm going with literary as the marketing category and Bildungsroman/coming-of-age as the "genre"...even though I feel those also aren't what people usually mean by genre...and, of course, I'm continuing to read other books!

Anyway, I appreciate all the thoughts so far, and welcome any further comments!
 

Ariel.Williams

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Adding to onesecondglance’s advice, it might also be helpful to think about what’s compelling about the overall all novel; what’s most special about it and what pulls the reader in. The point of a query is to entice an agent to read pages. If your query fails to follow the typical guidelines/answer the typical questions but still manages to peak the reader’s interest, I think you’re fine. Also, you should look at queryshark if you haven’t already.
 

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I've had a hard time, however, finding many examples of query letters for literary fiction, on this forum or elsewhere.

There are a few pitches for literary (or a subgenre therein) in the Pitch Wars showcase. Those pitches are quite short--three sentences--but might give you some ideas to play with. My general sense is that the literary pitches (the ones in Pitch Wars) tend to show an extreme personal challenge (e.g. close death) to the protagonist and what they do as a result to emerge more whole afterward, rather than opening with a goal/want and an external antagonist. But that's not an absolute.

Google Pitch Wars Showcase and Pitch Wars Agent Round and you should be able to sort the results to find the pages where the pitches are all aggregated. They keep the old showcases online too, not just this past year's showcase.
 
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