Tuesday, December 4, 2012

The Agent Answers: Paranormal

You have questions? Do you constantly miss #askagent sessions on Twitter? Is it impossible, despite a hundred Google searches, to find an answer to your question? Then you've come to the right place. Ask a question either on any "Agent Answers" post or on Twitter, and I'll answer as many as I can. My answers will be subjective and should not be considered applicable to every agent (though I do like to assume my opinions are the majority).

Question: We always hear that paranormal romance in YA is dead, no one is buying it. Do you think it'd be wiser for paranormal authors to hold back querying a paranormal project?

Answer: No way! Go ahead and query. Sure, I'll probably reject it. But there's a chance an agent will fall in love with it and ask to see something else, or keep you in the back of their mind for when editors are suddenly hungry for paranormal again (back off, a girl can dream, right?). Besides, some editors are still buying paranormal and some agents are still having luck with it. As I like to tell writers, "Good writing will "always" sell." (You may ask why I put bunny ears around the always. Good question. It means, nothing in this business is absolute. Good writing can get passed over on occasion.)

That said, if you don't feel your project can stand on its own, either because of the writing or content, you have bigger problems than the market. Like, are you actually ready to be querying?

Happy writing!

2 comments:

Charlie N. Holmberg said...

Let's cross our fingers that this also applies to dystopian... ;)

PattiBuff said...

Quick question:

My WIP is technically paranormal but instead of creatures it has reincarnating soldiers from the crusades. To keep agents from rolling their eyes when they read my query, should I label it paranormal or fantasy?