A single word might be holding me back. No new numbers this time around. The reason why shall be clear in this post.
I have the newsletter up, and I have been designing what will be the newsletter soon. I plan to write the newsletter less frequently than the blogs. I’m not putting out a sign up quite yet because in the next week I will be doing a redesign of my website. I want to clean it up and put some more writing on it. Once I do. I will have the newsletter up and running with it. Then I can roll out the whole redesign all at once.
Recently, I had a long sit down chat with a friend of mine who generously took the time to read the start to the book I am shopping. The Worth of a Stone.
I wrote this as a cozy fantasy using my understanding of the genre. I think Miyazaki is very cozy. My story starts with some violence and the characters try to heal their trauma (which is extensive and terrible). I thought this was cozy.
My friend disagreed. While the story was cozy and comfortable, it wasn’t in the genre called cozy. Cozy fantasy the genre is about forty thousand words less than my manuscript. Its chapters are short and snappy and the conflict is small.
I think my book fits in the themes but not the style. So it could be that in calling my book a cozy fantasy in my query letter, and giving my more typical fantasy intro chapters, might be causing a disconnect with agents.
There are two solutions. One, form the first two chapters into a single one and change them around, dropping most the detail and saving it for a flashback.
Second, stop calling it a cozy fantasy for agents. Call it a more traditional fantasy and just let it be a nice, comfortable ride. I would still need to trim up the first chapters, but the hack job would have less.
I think I’ll probably do the second one. I’ll try querying as a more typical fantasy. I think that will work better for agent’s sensibilities.
Thanks for reading,
Michael
Michael Frutig 