Silly Question: Querying Men or Women?

Polenth · Sep 30, 2014

slhuang said:
Hmm. This may be off topic, but like rwm it just occurred to me -- does anyone know if there's a commonly accepted title for addressing a genderqueer person? I don't know of any genderqueer agents, but there are several genderqueer authors and editors I follow on Twitter. (eta: I found a list here but I don't know which if any tend to be favored.)

My preferred neutral title (as in the one I'd like people to use for me) is Mx. Which is common enough that a non-binary person is likely to recognise it, though how they'd react to it if it isn't their preferred title... don't ask me. I don't use titles unless an agent's guidelines list a title. I use whatever name they use on their guidelines, with or without title as stated.

That said, I'm not aware of any non-binary gendered agents, let alone ones who specifically identify as androgynes. Which would make sticking to my own gender a little sad at querying time.

quianaa2001 · Oct 1, 2014

Okay some of you are being a bit harsh but oh well to each their own.

Emmet Cameron said:
If you think gender is a factor in how comfortable you are working with an agent, I think it's fine to have that on your list of considerations.

I queried mostly women just because, um, most agents (particularly repping YA) are women. But the one man who seemed like a good fit to me did end up requesting the full manuscript, and if he had offered, I would have seriously considered him alongside the two female agents who offered, because I felt we had compatible interests in storytelling, and (based on our interactions through the query process) like we could communicate well.

But in all honesty, if the playing field for my category were 50% or more male, I still probably would have queried more women (maybe not a 19:1 split though). My first book is about girls, and so are most of the projects I've got cooking on the back burner, and it's not so surprising that most of the people who are jumping up and down to represent diverse, complex girl stories are former girls.

Emmet is kinda hitting on what I was asking which seem to have went over most head's. I have no qualms about working with a Male or Female agent, it's about who can do my book justice.
But I was saying and what Emmet pointed too, is that more women agents lean towards 'woman's fiction' or stories about girls than males, i.e. maybe because as a woman & former girl they would connect and understand these novels more.

Jamesaritchie · Oct 2, 2014

I think the best way to think of it is this. All agents and editors are gender neutral. You query not according to who or what the agent is, but by what the agent has or hasn't sold to mainstream publishers, and by other writers the agent already represents.

Vimes · Oct 6, 2014

What Blacbird said! An agent's gender is only relevant insofar as it relates to their preferred genres/markets - the vast majority of agents who rep women's fiction/romance/'chicklit' are female and lots of male agents specifically say they don't rep those stories. Search for an agent who reps your genre, regardless of gender.

...Although of course you may just have a general preference for a male/female - you may feel you can relate more to one gender than another and that's absolutely fine to feel that way - you want to have a comfortable writer-agent relationship so go with what works best for you.

Silly Question: Querying Men or Women?

Polenth

Mushroom

quianaa2001

Jamesaritchie

Vimes