Suppose I have a world that is largely fantasy in feel but science-fiction in technology, should I claim it is science fantasy... or are agents (and the like) more interested in the clearly established boundaries ie: "fantasy" or "science fiction"
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
You'll probably have to ask the agents.
What might help you, though, is if you can find out which agents have represented books similar to yours.
Posted by Doctor (Member # 7736) on :
Good idea! Any suggestions on how to do that? Posted by JamieFord (Member # 3112) on :
Agentquery.com is a great place to start.
Also, you can join PublishersMarketplace.com for a month and look up the agents of authors with similar cross-genre books in their "who represents who" database.
Posted by Alethea Kontis (Member # 3748) on :
It definitely depends on the agent -- Kathleen is right.
I think WRITER'S MARKET still lists agents and some of the clients they represent, don't they? WM is always a good resource.
Posted by Marzo (Member # 5495) on :
I'm in the same boat as you, Doctor. It's a wobbly little canoe at times.
Defining that kind of cross-genre work in a way that won't make an agent immediately scoff and cry, "this author doesn't even know what they've written!" is important.
Thanks for the suggestions so far.
Posted by AllenMackley (Member # 7771) on :
I know that the music industry is looking for clearly defined genres. They say artist often make the mistake, for example, of claiming they are "a unique blend of pop, rock, country, folk, R&B and soul," which sounds tacky, to say the least.
I don't know if it's the same for writer's publishing or not. However, I'd suggest choosing one or the other: fantasy or sci-fi, whichever you think you are closest.
[This message has been edited by AllenMackley (edited February 16, 2008).]
Posted by A.R. Martin (Member # 7793) on :
In OSC's book on "How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy"
He says that something is typically interpreted as "Sci-Fi" if it has nuts and bolts in it, where as, pure fantasy doesn't have those nuts and bolts. But yes, I imagine that it is the person that you are going to have to convince. Kathleen said it right, read a snippet of what they have published previously and see if it meets with your story. If you don't want to take the time to do that then just shoot off your work to somebody and begin working on another story while you wait to hear back. If they didn't like it then shoot it off to somebody else that you think will be a match... that being said.... good luck!
Posted by JeanneT (Member # 5709) on :
Actually I think that agents who are accustomed to certain cross-genres. Science Fantasy has been out there for a pretty long time. So I'd look for the writers who do that and research who their agents are. As has been mentioned you can use Publishers Marketplace and Querytracker. Both have a who represents database. I also find Locus Magazine worthwhile.
