Query Question about Genre

I feel like you would put one or the other. It's also a good idea to look at agents' query guidelines; frequently they want the query letter and the first five pages, or a query and a synopsis and X amount of pages, etc. It should be on the agency websites, and frequently repeated on the agent's blog, if they have one.

Also, once you've got 50 posts, you can put your query up in the Query Letter Hell section of AW and get critiques on it. Critters here work absolute magic!

leftyfelix2 said:

When I send out a query letter, because the genre is magic realism, should I put that AND fantasy? Or should I have it like this:

"My fantasy fiction novel THE MAGIC SUITCASE, complete at 81, 000 words, will appeal to adult readers who enjoy unique stories of mystery and romance beneath an acutely riveting magic realism genre. May I send you an excerpt or the full manuscript?"

Struggling here. Thanks

Click to expand...

Woops, wrong subforum. I think you want "Ask the agent" or "Query Letter Hell," not sure which.

ETA: Woops, I see it got moved. But I'm still glad to have seen the Pop Tart Kitty earlier this year.

IMO, query it as fantasy and allow the publisher to determine if it should sell as magic realism. Selling it as fantasy opens up the pool you can fish from. MR is one of those really focused sub-genres that I find are better when they are applied to a story after publication, not before.

Definitely post your whole query in Query Letter Hell; you're making some mistakes in your sample that we can help you with. (IE, never write "fantasy fiction novel")

Osulagh said:

IMO, query it as fantasy and allow the publisher to determine if it should sell as magic realism. Selling it as fantasy opens up the pool you can fish from. MR is one of those really focused sub-genres that I find are better when they are applied to a story after publication, not before.

Click to expand...

I'll be contrary (because I'm like that...) and say I'd query it as magical realism IF you're sure that's what it is. It's generally popular at the moment and might stretch beyond genre agents. But, mostly, be clear. Fantasy fiction appealing to adult magical realism lovers is a bit woolly imho.

If it truly is magical realism, I'd query it as magical realism. You don't want to make the agent think it's regular fantasy when it isn't.

Also, you might want to get some critiques on your query first. That little section has some problems.

Since magic realism often gets shelved in the general literature sections, I agree that querying it as magic realism would probably be better. But this comes from someone whose main experience with publishing comes from working in a bookstore (hence a slight obsession about where books get shelved!).