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Romantic Historical Fiction as a label?

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Margaret
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Post by Margaret » Sat September 17th, 2011, 1:15 am

a VERY powerful agent recently, who basically said my histfic is tricky precisely because the definition of "historical fiction" these days, in publishing, is taken to mean romance for the most part.
What!!? The Man Booker Prize shortlist is about half historical fiction this year. I think this agent is behind the times. Lots of very literary historical fiction is being published, not to mention historical fiction in non-romance genre categories like mystery and warfare. Perhaps it's just that publishers don't necessarily label it all "historical fiction" even though it's set in the past.
Browse over 5000 historical novel listings (probably well over 5000 by now, but I haven't re-counted lately) and over 700 reviews at www.HistoricalNovels.info

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DianeL
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Post by DianeL » Mon September 19th, 2011, 1:22 am

Margaret, I think you're putting your finger on it. I also think the guy was testing how I would respond, too - several people who read his rather long letter in response to my query said they thought so too - so I made some points when I sent the full, to note the markets (and also demonstrate my resiliency in the face of critique).

This guy is successful enough, and reps some pretty impressive hitters in the genre, that I'm still shaking a little bit over getting a response at all. Easily my DREAM agent.

All this said, in the process of researching AGENTS (as opposed to the market), the percentage of them who definitely appear to define historical fiction as romance is seriously huge.
"To be the queen, she agreed to be the widow!"

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The pre-modern world was willing to attribute charisma to women well before it was willing to attribute sustained rationality to them.
---Medieval Kingship, Henry A. Myers

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Alisha Marie Klapheke
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Post by Alisha Marie Klapheke » Thu September 22nd, 2011, 12:54 pm

Thanks for sharing what you're going through, DianeL. I've struggled with labeling my hist fic and pinpointing who I might query in the future. I wish you luck with Dream Agent!

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DianeL
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Post by DianeL » Thu September 22nd, 2011, 10:55 pm

Alisha, you make me wish I had kept my master lists now! I usually find some source or other where agents who manage histfic are collected, and go through them one by one - mostly eliminating - and just delete, delete, delete away until I find one to query - then I log the ones I do query. THAT list I probably wouldn't share with anyone! One, because it was so hard to come to, but two because really what I write may not be relevant to anybody else - so the only way to end up with that list is to do the research. And lord it can be a dispiriting pain.

Dream Agent struck me HARD in the gut, because: the agency's website was so well WRITTEN. Which, as amazing as it seems, is rare (if not entirely unique; I can't remember a single other agency site which engaged me with at all the same way its own copy!). I actually flat out said this in my query, acknowledging I might be writing my own rejection risking outright flattery. But I got a response, so thank goodness. And that was even better written than the site; the request, once it came, was a closing caveat to an interesting, discursive, and pragmatic missive I was half pantingly in love with after one reading (and I gave it about 30 readings, it must be said!). Anyway, he responded very specifically to this post, which - unlike most of what I am thread-jacking to say here - actually relates to the romance/historical marketing dynamic.

Sorry for the digression, y'all!
"To be the queen, she agreed to be the widow!"

***

The pre-modern world was willing to attribute charisma to women well before it was willing to attribute sustained rationality to them.
---Medieval Kingship, Henry A. Myers

***

http://dianelmajor.blogspot.com/
I'm a Twit: @DianeLMajor

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