Does your genre make it difficult to find an agent?

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Susan Quinn
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Re: Does your genre make it difficult to find an agent?

Post by Susan Quinn » March 13th, 2010, 6:03 pm

I think the right approach is to look at your market, not so much the number of agents (although, granted, that could be an indicator of the market). YA is big, MG is getting bigger. SF adult is dying on the vine, but I'm hopeful that MG SF is on the upswing (right Nathan??). I think writers (and agents) also shift somewhat depending on what is "new," everyone trying to figure out the next big thing. This won't make a romance agent into an SF agent, but then again crossover SF romance is hot, so who knows?
Susan Kaye Quinn (young adult and middle grade author)
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ryanznock
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Re: Does your genre make it difficult to find an agent?

Post by ryanznock » March 13th, 2010, 6:21 pm

I'm pitching my current novel as "science fiction" because it's set in the future and tech plays a major role. But it's more complicated than that. The characters interact both in the real world and in an online pirate-themed video game, and at 3 points in the narrative there are moments of magical realism. And there's a love story.

What's a good genre category name for that? If I say sci-fi, do I have better or worse odds than if I call it fantasy? Or romance? Or could I get away with calling it literary, because it's set only 6 years in the future, and the magical elements are space widely?

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Ishta
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Re: Does your genre make it difficult to find an agent?

Post by Ishta » March 13th, 2010, 8:57 pm

JustineDell wrote: Or take my genre for example, romance. My genre boasts huge sales compared to some, and readers range in age from 18-102, so I wonder if it's easier? Don't get me wrong, I personally, haven't found it easier yet, but I wonder since the market for that genre is on the constant upswing, if theres a better to chance to break into it?

~JD
I'm working on a YA/Teen romance, so I sure hope so!

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slavandria
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Re: Does your genre make it difficult to find an agent?

Post by slavandria » March 14th, 2010, 9:46 am

I don't think so. Then again, I write across many genres so the field is a little more open to me. I think it's more the quality of the writing, not the genre, that makes it difficult to find an agent.

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Lynn
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Re: Does your genre make it difficult to find an agent?

Post by Lynn » March 14th, 2010, 12:40 pm

What if your book branches genres? For instance, what if the big twist is that the reader thinks it's one thing, but it's another? How in the world does on present that?

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mmcdonald64
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Re: Does your genre make it difficult to find an agent?

Post by mmcdonald64 » March 15th, 2010, 12:29 am

Seamus wrote:I don't write to genre. I know that is commercially naive, but it feels more natural to let a story be what it is and try to categorize it later.
I did that with my first novel. I'm still trying to figure out the genre, and I have yet to find an agent. I could blame it on my crappy queries, but I think part of the reason my queries were crappy is because it's a cross-genre story. I think it's possibly magical realism, but that's not even a search catagory on Querytracker or AgentQuery.

I started my second novel a month ago and this time, i chose a genre right off the bat. Romantic suspense. At least, that's my target, but I may be bending those rules too. lol.

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