A question about sci fi agents

When looking into science fiction agents, have many of you found that a lot of the sci fi agents are also looking for Christian material? It seems that 1) they should say that up front so we don't waste each other's time and 2) they should list only under fantasy and NOT science fiction, given that most sites have different listing for each. sci fi/Christian is an oxymoron to me.

Just wondering. Peace, Tex

 

I think that the enmity between Christianity and science comes and goes--and that it also depends very much on which sect of Christianity you're dealing with.

That said, I also don't see that they particularly go together either, any more than, say, horror and romance would be seen to go together. For an agent to look askance at a horror novel because it lacks romance would be weird.

(I don't know when I last used the words enmity, sect, or askance. Or if I ever have. What is going on with me?)

 

And even if they do rep both Christian fiction and SF, that doesn't mean they couldn't effectively rep non-Christian SF, right?

(Although when I searched at AgentQuery I found only four agents who rep both SF and Christian fic - compared to 108 who rep SF and don't rep Christian, so... where are you looking, @texshelters?)

 

I don't think that's the case for most people, though.

Adding to @ChickenFreak's excellent point, one of my agents reps both horror and romance. What if I'd made your mistake and thought she wouldn't like my fluffy romance because she likes blood and guts? I might not have rep. She has editor contacts who like blood and guts, and ones who like fluffy romance.

Agents don't list categories they don't have contacts willing to buy.

 

OK - so first off, lots of agents rep highly divergent material. Christian fiction is a market segment that demands books, and agents sell books there. Reading Christian fiction doesn't mean you can't also read SciFi (and there is Christian spec-fic that I wouldn't call fantasy even if I wouldn't call it SciFi). There are lots of religious SciFi fans in the world (like myself), and for the most part we're pretty capable of doing both. That and I'm sure there are non-Christian agents who rep Christian material - that's called capitalism.

Second, there has been plenty of secular SciFi that acknowledges the role religion plays in society - some of it written by Christians and showing religion positively. Now, if you have actual spritual forces depicted in the book, you're into the realm of the fantastic because you're attempting to describe something entirely outside of science. However, I do think that Christian-interest SciFi is possible to write - if you were going to do that you'd have to focus hard on the Science, not show spritual forces at work, and mostly just depict religious characters and the impact their religious behavior has on the plot (so it would be a lot more morality than theology) - but I think you probably could write Christian Hard SF if you wanted to.

 

Oh, most agents looking for sci fi aren't looking for Christian material as, but I was surprise how many were. Peace, Tex

 

I am looking EVERYWHERE. That's true that you can look for both, but my themes while not anti-Christian might be off-putting to those who want Christian based material. Peace, Tex Some books and sites are better at posting the desired material agents want than others. Often, I don't realize that I have found a Christian agency until I go to their site. Peace, Tex

 

No reason whatsoever a person couldn't write a Christian science fiction story. Wouldn't be difficult. I haven't come across the listings looking for that, and it's not something I'm interested in writing, but there's no problem with the concept.

 

It would have to heavy on the fiction. Peace, Tex

 

Not at all. I don't think it's hard for writers to come up with this sort of thing. You could take almost any hard science fiction story and make it into a Christian story by playing with the themes. You wouldn't have to take out any of the science. The only limitation on having hard science fiction also work as a Christian story are the limitations within the mind of the writer, and I think most writers are pretty good about not being overly limited in that respect.

The scenario that comes to mind right away would be a first contact story, with all of the "science" aspects being written as hard science fiction. You write that story with no Christian themes, and it's a straightforward hard SF first contact story. You make the protagonist a Christian, leave all of the scientific rigor in place but have the protagonist wrestling with the implications of intelligent alien life for his religion, or with the morality around trying to bring these other sentient people into the religion, or any number of other Christian moral themes that have no bearing on the science whatsoever, and suddenly you have a Christian story. It's simple.

 

More or less what I was going to say. I believe there's a thread down in the science fiction section that sort of touches on this topic.

 

Two words: Self Publish

 

Can't say I've noticed that.

But then, of all the agents I've contacted, none of them have given me any real indication of which way they button their Sunday breeches. In fact, they've all ignored me to the point where I'm considering taking up praying again just to get a rise out of somebody.

 

I'll look for it. That's just one easy example. You could write any number of Christian stories that were also hard SF. I always find it a bit bizarre when people purport to impose such limitations on what can be done with literature. They're almost always wrong.

 

Well, it wasn't about such a scenario, but more about how a Chritian ought to go about writing a sci-fi or fantasy. And I think the consensus it reached was that weaving in Christian themes was generally the best way to do that.

 

Ah, I see. I am not sure that a Christian should feel compelled to put religious themes in everything, but if they want to do it I agree that's probably the best way to go about it.

 

I can't say I've noticed that too much, but I don't see that it would be too much of a problem. Unless it specifically says they're looking for Christian sci-fi (like some publishers look for Christian romances) it's usually "Christian or sci-fi".