Young Adult or Fantasy

[Warren_Paul]

Hey guys, quick question. I'm looking into agents to submit my manuscript to and was wondering, when it comes to YA Fantasy, should I be querying all agents that represent Young Adult, or only agents that represent both Young Adult and Fantasy?

 

[Hex]

I'm going for Young Adult agents, WP (which is to say: I will be going for YA agents).

One of the advantages of writing YA is you don't need to stick within genre boundaries and can query any agent who lists it.

 

[Anne Lyle]

What Hex says. Also, start with agents who rep authors you love, and work your way down from there. I got my best and quickest response from John Berlyne (now my agent), whose agency reps Tim Powers, one of my all-time favourite fantasy authors.

 

[Hex]

But Zeno are still closed for submissions *sob*.

The agent who represents several of my favourite YA authors is in the US... I can't decide whether to start there or not.

 

[David Evil Overlord]

Warren - I've looked at the shelves of YA in the bricks-and-mortar bookstores that are still open Down Under, and although I haven't done any calculations, I'd say 90% of YA seems to fit under some form of fantasy (urban fantasy, vampires, werewolves, mermaids, high fantasy, lowbrow fantasy, weirdly unclassifiable fantasy - it's all there under YA). So I'd suggest you send it to YA publishers, since so much YA seems to also be Fantasy. My two cents worth.

Hex - a friend of mine is American, and she said the British agents were usually polite enough to say no. Most of the US agents she queried didn't even respond. She finally has an agent. A Canadian agent...

 

[Warren_Paul]

Thanks for the answers everyone, now to work on the query letter. *shudder*

 

[Dozmonic]

YA vastly outsells fantasy. If it is YA, pitch to YA.