Hello. I'm nearing completion on my current work in progress. I'm very excited, but I have a problem. As I'm writing my query, I'm wondering... what the heck do I call this masterpiece of pure genius?
Here is my dilema- fantasy, urban fantasy, paranormal, romance? I'm confused. (And I think an agent might think I'm insane if I refer to it as: fantasy/urban fantasy/paranormal/romance. Maybe I should just say "CURSED is a novel, you figure it out" or "you are looking for fantasy, so I'll call it that.)
So, I thought maybe I would get some support from my wonderful friends in the interwhatchamahicky ;)
My book contains the following:
Real world setting
Kids (Its definitely young adult)
Japanese mysticism/ Shinto beliefs
Buddhism
Magic
A character who can see Kami (spirits/deities)
Romance
A bit of action
A secret spiritual/ magical order
Monks
High school
Bullies
Cursed objects that house said Kami
So, what do you think? (I mean other than wow, I want to read that ;) What would you call it genre-wise?
Just to spice things up, if you answer, I'll send you candy! :)
Speculative fiction, maybe? Or... YA with mythical elements? Or... fantasy adventure?
ReplyDeleteWhatever you call it, it does sound interesting! :)
Hmmm... never even considered speculative fiction....
DeleteThanks :) And if you want to e-mail me your mailing address I really will send candy :)
PS: love the name, it's similar to my daughter's :)
Cross-genre.
ReplyDeleteDoes the story take place in a city? If it does, you can call it urban fantasy, if not then urban is ruled out.
ReplyDeleteHow important is the romance to the story? If the romance is a significant element then you could call it YA fantasy romance.
If not, without more information I'd go with YA contemporary fantasy.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI'm in the UK, and I think if i was looking for your book in Waterstones, it would be under YA Fantasy unless the book is set in a city, then it would be YA Urban Fantasy.
I have the same sort of issues with my novel...when asked what I write, I reply with different answers on any given day, including, dark fantasy, urban fantasy, supernatural, and sometimes I just say I write speculative fiction!
Its a maze...good luck!
I saw you comment at Agent Courtney's blog and came to say Hello. Many agents posted that it's difficult to sell Paranormal now, so don't use this word in your query. There is no genre of YA romance, so that is out also. Keep it general like "YA fiction" and if it happens now you can add "Contemporary YA fiction." Look at the list and pick the most important 5 things and weave them in your query, and ignore the rest. For example, in my YA fiction I have 2 pages about Bullies but it's not in my query because it's only tiny part of the storyline. So check if Bullies is a big part of your storyline or just one event. Give my candy to one of your kids or to your husband. Best wishes.
ReplyDeleteUpon reading my comment, I made a mistake. I meant to say: Keep it general like "YA Fantasy" or "Contemporary YA Fantasy".
ReplyDeleteI agree with Giora, 'Contemporary Fantasy' shows what it is while keeping is separate from Hard-core fantasy.
ReplyDelete