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.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.
Welcome to the Historical Fiction Online forums: a friendly place to discuss, review and discover historical fiction.
If this is your first visit, please be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above.
You will have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed.
To start viewing posts, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.
If this is your first visit, please be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above.
You will have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed.
To start viewing posts, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.
Romantic Historical Fiction as a label?
- Margaret
- Bibliomaniac
- Posts: 2440
- Joined: August 2008
- Interest in HF: I can't answer this in 100 characters. Sorry.
- Favourite HF book: Checkmate, the final novel in the Lymond series
- Preferred HF: Literary novels. Late medieval and Renaissance.
- Location: Catskill, New York, USA
- Contact:
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
- DianeL
- Bibliophile
- Posts: 1029
- Joined: May 2011
- Location: Midatlantic east coast, United States
- Contact:
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.
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!"
***
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
***
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
- Alisha Marie Klapheke
- Avid Reader
- Posts: 376
- Joined: November 2010
- Location: Franklin, TN
- Contact:
- DianeL
- Bibliophile
- Posts: 1029
- Joined: May 2011
- Location: Midatlantic east coast, United States
- Contact:
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!
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
***
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