I never understood why writers would refer to their own work as literary or literature.
Should I sign with an agent who has mostly sold YA or commercial fiction if that's the offer I get? It was discussed elsewhere on this site that most agents put down literary fiction as a genre they rep but end up repping solely commercial, YA, non-fiction etc. if you consult their client lists. How likely are these agents to have relationships with lit fiction imprints?
Anyone who has written lit fiction and is frustrated with the lower request rate for the genre is also welcome to commiserate. =) I've browsed many boards and blogs and have found virtually no online community of people who write in this genre, so I started this thread to find like-minded folks. Thanks!
Literary fiction as a genre has a lower request rate, as you put it, because literary fiction as a genre has a lower sales rate.
If it's hard for you to pitch it like a movie trailer, it's going to be hard for your agent to turn around and pitch it that way too.
Representing literary fiction is harder -- and less frequently rewarding. That's just reality.
Yes, this is true. And I'm glad that you recognize that this is the basis of my complaint in the query process. I might delete my post as I'm tired of hearing from people who don't understand literary fiction is a genre and not a self-important descriptor, and that it is a genre that inherently is difficult to query unless the novel is also, say, a thriller.
There are agents who pick up literary fiction, knowing it has a low chance of selling for very much money, but they do it for the love of the form. The problem is that most agents put "literary fiction" down as a category, so it can be difficult to use Agent Query to sift through agents, as most of these people are not actually requesting much, if any, literary fiction for the reasons you stated.
There's another thread in this section in which someone posts that a lit fic author mainly has to be in NYC networking in the right crowds to get in with those agents who do actually seek out these kinds of books, and there's definitely truth to that.
There are agents who pick up literary fiction, knowing it has a low chance of selling for very much money, but they do it for the love of the form. The problem is that most agents put "literary fiction" down as a category, so it can be difficult to use Agent Query to sift through agents, as most of these people are not actually requesting much, if any, literary fiction for the reasons you stated.
There's another thread in this section in which someone posts that a lit fic author mainly has to be in NYC networking in the right crowds to get in with those agents who do actually seek out these kinds of books, and there's definitely truth to that.
Oh, thanks for clearing that up. It's going to be disappointing for any non-US writers out there - but hey! better to know the rules early...
ETA: (Just for us hapless non-US writers - it's not true. Cheer up. There are entire Other Countries out there, and they have writers who write lit fic. And even get published. Your country might just be one of them.)
I never understood why writers would refer to their own work as literary or literature.
Literary fiction as a genre has a lower request rate, as you put it, because literary fiction as a genre has a lower sales rate.
If it's hard for you to pitch it like a movie trailer, it's going to be hard for your agent to turn around and pitch it that way too.
Representing literary fiction is harder -- and less frequently rewarding. That's just reality.