I love this comment, and couldn't agree with you more.
I am a queer woman and I was an agent for three years. When I was an agent, I repped books with LGBT themes and characters. The one thing I had to keep trying to teach clients was that they needed to stop saying "This is a gay YA." or "This is a queer urban fantasy." (Or really, ghettoizing their books in any way that detracted from the actual STORY. I had a woman once get vehemently angry when I suggested she stop calling her book "a Native American novel" and just call it "a novel". Because, ya know, that's what it IS.)
In reality, books don't have a sexual orientation - they have plots. And your book isn't gay - it's a YA with LGBT themes or characters.
Believe it or not, framing your book in the right way accomplishes two things. One.) Agents and editors become much more receptive to them, and Two.) - and this one applies particularly to adult fiction - Your book is much less likely to get shelved in the dreaded "gay section" of any bookstore, where it will be segregated from the vast majority of your readers, readers who are over in the YA or fiction or mystery section looking for a good story.
In the end, it comes down to the story: is it compelling? Will it make people buy books? Will it make people love it so much they will talk about it online? Can I sell a sequel? Will I make my numbers? This is what editors are worrying about.
Thanks for contributing to the discussion. Cheers!
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Great reasoned response!
Fri, Sep. 16th, 2011 12:12 pm (UTC)I am a queer woman and I was an agent for three years. When I was an agent, I repped books with LGBT themes and characters. The one thing I had to keep trying to teach clients was that they needed to stop saying "This is a gay YA." or "This is a queer urban fantasy." (Or really, ghettoizing their books in any way that detracted from the actual STORY. I had a woman once get vehemently angry when I suggested she stop calling her book "a Native American novel" and just call it "a novel". Because, ya know, that's what it IS.)
In reality, books don't have a sexual orientation - they have plots. And your book isn't gay - it's a YA with LGBT themes or characters.
Believe it or not, framing your book in the right way accomplishes two things. One.) Agents and editors become much more receptive to them, and Two.) - and this one applies particularly to adult fiction - Your book is much less likely to get shelved in the dreaded "gay section" of any bookstore, where it will be segregated from the vast majority of your readers, readers who are over in the YA or fiction or mystery section looking for a good story.
In the end, it comes down to the story: is it compelling? Will it make people buy books? Will it make people love it so much they will talk about it online? Can I sell a sequel? Will I make my numbers? This is what editors are worrying about.
Thanks for contributing to the discussion. Cheers!
Best,
Colleen Lindsay