Opinion needed on my world.

[AnyaKimlin]

To me they look like jeans and t-shirts. It's mostly similar to now. There are naturally differences that their cultures, places, available ores etc place on them. I don't feel a huge urge to even call it fantasy to be honest, but it is.

Calling it high-fantasy entirely came from some other feedback from an agent last year where it was suggested I needed to be more specific about the kind of fantasy it was. Up until that point it was fantasy.

[Dozmonic]

I'd be more concerned reading "an historical" rather than having jeans in fantasy :-0

[AnyaKimlin]

Originally Posted by Mouse

I'd be a wee bit careful of the BWA. I'd not heard of them before so Googled them. One of the first things I came across was http://www.writersworkshop.co.uk/blog/bwa-brit-writers-awards/
The form response seems a bit... off.

To be honest that has been my feeling this year - I am unsure how much of it is to get me to part with pennies. (I don't have any so haven't lol)

“from what you have submitted, the assessors could not refer your work to agents immediately, but they see great potential here. The issues highlighted above can be rectified easily, so before you go any further with this, we suggest that you need a consultancy to advice on your synopsis, positioning the book for an agent/publisher, highlighting USPs and ensuring that the main plots are woven into the synopsis which also needs some basic formatting.[…]
You need to find an experienced literary consultant/marketing expert that can help you with this. […] If you would like us to arrange this for you, please let me know immediately.”


I did get this as a response in my email, but some of it was clear she had read parts of it though, from other bits. A lot of the way it has been run felt a bit tin pot, and incredibly disorganised.

[Mouse]

I'm just really suspicious. I almost got had by someone (writing wise!) when I was in my teens. When somebody else told me that it was a scam I was so disappointed! So I'm always a bit cautious now.

[springs]

Can I just say, having read the article, I'd be careful how much you put up here about them; they seem very litigatious.

[AnyaKimlin]

My honest opinion at present is they are probably well intentioned, but very badly organised. The standard reply quoted is in the assessment, but there are personalised bits as well. The tech suport company when I reported the complaints were pretty good, and I haven't said anything I haven't got the emails/screen shots to back-up.

They've always complied with things they said they would, responded to emails etc but it's been slow. However because I am poor have never been able to afford to give them anything except my entry fee lol

[SJAB]

AnyaKimlin,

You don't need a third party of any sort to refer or submit your work to an agent, just polish your manuscript and your synopsis/pitch and do it yourself. You just need to research agents and find one who is rep'ing similar work to yours.

Also jeans, bras, whatever, it does not matter what you call the clothes, it is the story that counts. Yes, it is good to know where your work fits, but from what you have said I see your work as a YA fantasy, submit it to an agent that deals with YA fantasy.

The fact that they are pushing the matter of an experienced literary consultant/marketing expert that can help you and they are offering to find one for you, is to me a big red flag and means run away as fast as you can.

Never pay out any money to anyone to help you submit to an agent or publisher even just a basic fee.

[AnyaKimlin]

Thanks SJAB - I haven't got any money to give them lol so I'm safe from that point of view. I think I'll just call it YA Fantasy and leave it at that.

Thanks.

[alchemist]

The link from mouse just illustrates what a minefield the publishing world can be.

Re your story, I'd echo what others have said. When you mentioned possibly changing the whole story to fit with one person's pigeonholing of Fantasy, I thought "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" If the story is good enough, it will stand on its own.

If somebody is determined to pigeonhole you, and you really need it, maybe find an established author who your work is similar to and reference them.

[AnyaKimlin]

Thanks that had been my major concern - world, story and character are inextricable lol Not sure how serious I was - there was a little of what the hell are you on woman when I read it I'm calmer now and realise it can't really be changed.

The world was created as I wrote the story, and the character is the first person narrator. It's his coming of age story. Character is such a pampered brat he'd die in a medieval world lol

[chrispenycate]

I think the history of British monarchs would suggest that pampered brats – or, at least, royal pampered brats – are not as easy to kill off as all that.

[AnyaKimlin]

He's not a medieval pampered brat though - he's very much a modern pampered brat. They wouldn't need to kill him, because a week without central heating, hot showers, his mobile phone, music and internet -- he'd be doing it for them.

They do try killing him off and don't find it so easy. In a more modern setting they struggle, but he just wouldn't cope in a medieval setting. (His reaction to being shown a cell at the monastery where he will saying is perfectly intune with this). His brother on the other hand possibly would.

OK will be quiet about my darling ...

[springs]

That's ok, though, our characters often work in the setting they're in and to change it would change them. since I turned up here, like a (very) bad penny, I keep thinking I should change mine from sci fi, but my main character isn't going to fit easily to fantasy, and it's not where I see him. Quite frankly, I'd rather he never seen the light of day than be forced into a square hole.

So, the question is motivation; if you want to sell it and you think you need it more generic, then consider change.
If it's to write it the way you see it and believe it, and selling's secondary then keep it as you have it.

The middle ground? Not sure, still struggling with that one at this end.

[AnyaKimlin]

Not sure at this stage there is a middle ground. It either stays a modern fantasy set on another world or it gets scrapped. I made it medieval it would become a completely different character, story and setting, so it would be better to work on my other two projects.

That was my problem when I read it - I realised if she was right and the setting was too out there to be published the project could not be as she put it ''easily fixed''.

[AMB]

A few questions and a couple of thoughts.

You say your planet has an English speaker from when an 'ark' left Earth in 2010, so your planet might speak a variant of English. Were your people already on your planet then, or are they descended from the people of the ark? You say it is like 2011 Earth, but what year is it really? Could the word jeans have evolved into something else?

I take it the planet has the right plants to make the fabric, or at least some analogue? Denim is a type of twill weave and made from cotton. Might what you are calling jeans actually be something slightly different made in a similar way?

A quick read up on wikipedia, and you could probably come up with something that is essentially still jeans but called something else, possibly from some other part of their manufacture.

Or you could stick with what you have. I'm not saying you should change it, just offering potential ways you could if you wanted to say something else without having to alter everything.