A very nice rejection...alas

[clarentine]

The agent who'd requested a partial of Cavalier Attitude sent me a rejection this week. It's never fun to get those envelopes you've addressed and stamped, hoping never to have them come back, and I regretted seeing this one (not least because I really do think Cavalier is the strongest book I've written thus far). Alas. But it was a very nice, very helpful rejection letter, and I appreciate the kindness that went into its composition.

"While the tone, flow, and voice hit all the right notes for me, Cavalier runs the risk of being sub-categorized to death - a fantasy novel, a high fantasy novel, a gay novel (and more, a novel about gay love and its proscription) - which I fear would limit its audience from the start. I simply can't be confident that you'll find publication at a trade publisher; it's the sort of project that would do quite well at a small press, and it doesn't suit my time or yours to involve me in the hunt for the right place."

Good thing I got today's words in before the mail came. I have a feeling I'll be mulling over that bit about small press publication for quite a while.

Comments

[corrinalaw.livejournal.com]

No, it's definitely not a love story. Even if they were heterosexual leads, I wouldn't qualify it as a romance--the theme is not about how the relationship changes each other, for instance, but how their reactions to the plot elements change your main character.

So, not a romance.

Kristin Nelson reps Linnea Sinclair, who is writing galactic SF with romance subplots. Sinclair is in the SF section. But I've been told that Nelson does like cross-genre and 'quirky' so it might be worth a try there, too, even if you have fantasy and not SF.

[clarentine]

I think I had set aside thoughts of querying Nelson; don't know why now. Maybe she wasn't repping fantasy, or something along those lines. I'll take another look.