Currently, my MS is a genre crossing, style blender that I am not sure how to make more marketable (if that's possible). I wrote in more of a character driven, deeper meaning, literary style, but I was told (on this forum included) that if you bring in a monster of any sorts – in this case a devil – the work will automatically be filed under horror. Is this true? I think of A Christmas Carol or Goethe's Faust and wonder if those are horror stories; after all, some of the main characters are supernatural creatures. And, like those works mentioned, my story is not scary. Maybe I'm misconstruing the definition of the horror genre altogether. I looked at King and Koontz and they were listed under Speculative Fiction. Is this an umbrella term for stories that don't really fit a mold? My problem lies in the fact that if creatures are going to pull the story away from literary style, then the story needs to be more plot driven. In my case it needs to be sped up and a lot of backstory dropped. For this to happen, my word count will drop to around 78K. Is this too short? Should I keep my story how I like it and see if an agent bites first? Am I over thinking? Could it just be a piece of Spec-Fic? Who put the bomp in the bomp, bomp, bomp?
Without having read any of it, I'd say keep it the way you like it, and see how it's received by the first round of queries. Why fix what may not be broken?
It has been 7 weeks since my first round of 10 queries I wrote to test the waters. I have received two rejection letters (one was not stock, but did not provide advice).
I have already hacked out a large chunk from my original MS after reading an interesting article about telling the reader stories you want to tell vs stories you need to tell. My problem may very well lie between my own ears. I really like my story, but I think it might be kind of boring to a lot of people...I don't know.
Have you had it critiqued (all or parts)? If not, that might be a good next step - get some objective views.
I immediately thought of some of my fave novels and they have ghosts and monsters, but are not categorized as horror (e.g. Dina's Book by Herbjorg Wassmo). Speaking of the Devil, Amazon categorizes I, Lucifer as Literature & Fiction > British > Contemporary Literature & Fiction > Literary Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Psychological Thrillers Religion & Spirituality > Fiction So... the answer is no? Or I misunderstood the question. I also second this: Beta-readers are often good at pointing out what might not fit. As long as you haven't other people's opinions I guess if I were you, I'd just keep the ms as it is.
It depends on how well you know them and their own writing, I would say. I have two betas that I have worked with for years - I trust their judgment completely. If you don't know the people that well, then I would advise getting at least 3-5 - or posting to some of the crit areas on the various writing forums, or finding some crit sites online.
Also, usually it's polite to be prepared to beta-read right back, though there're at least some fan fic-writers who also beta-read original works without making you read their fan-fic x) I remember coming across one, at least, but she wouldn't read anything potentially unpleasant. Point being, if you haven't time to return the favor, it might be more difficult to find beta-readers.Oh but there's one big, big writing forum ran by a woman with an unusual first name where users can find available beta-readers, there's a specific thread for that, but you'd probably have to establish yourself to a degree there before PMing potential readers.
