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Writewords Forums » Getting Published » Agents who like Historical Fiction
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  Agents who like Historical Fiction  Murphy at 17:34 on 25 July 2010
 

I browsed around the site and found a list of publishers but would welcome any suggestions for agents I could submit to.

The novel is about Witchfinding and set in the 1640's against the back-drop of the civil war. Robert Hale have had a look at the full and thought it a little long - it's 90k - I think they have a fairly rigid format for their publications, though.

Cheers
Murphy
  Re: Agents who like Historical Fiction  SB at 17:56 on 25 July 2010
 

Hello, Murphy - first of all length. 90,000 sounds about right - the average length of a novel is 80,000-120,000 and often a serious historical novel can be longer...it's also becoming more fashionable these days to print slightly 'bigger' books again, so I wouldn't worry too much about your wordcount.

If you buy the Writers and Artists yearbook, or use their online facility, you'll find specific agents who will look at historical fiction - but often you need to read through the whole list beneath each agency to see what individual agents are after.

But don't restrict yourself. If an agent falls in love with your book/voice etc and feels they can sell your book, then they will want to take you on

http://www.writersandartists.co.uk/
  Re: Agents who like Historical Fiction  EmmaD at 18:01 on 25 July 2010
 

Hello Murphy

I wouldn't say that 90K was a problem at all, generally speaking: bang in the middle of the range and if anything, hist fic readers seem to be happy with the longer end of the 'normal' range of length, perhaps because they're particularly aware that they're buying a whole world... Robert Hale are very good at selling into specific markets, but as you say, may therefore have a clear idea of what they're looking for.

An awful lot of agents represent historical fiction if it's the kind of fiction they like in other ways - as Sarah says, if it grabs them... So I'd be inclined to think as much of in terms of where it is, roughly, on the literary-commercial spectrum, and go looking for agents who represent that kind of work.

Emma