Following on...

...from yesterday's post. I took part in a chat with agents yesterday, and Amy Boggs suggested that if you're not sure where your book fits, think about where it would be shelved in a bookstore. I thought about it long and hard, and have to come to the conclusion that it would be in the YA section. There is nowhere else it would go.

So I will continue on the path I'm on for the time being, with that one, and just hope I find an agent or publisher who loves the book enough to get it on the shelf in the place it deserves to be.

But now the questions have been planted, I can't help thinking about my other books and where they might fit. Holding It Together has just been through major surgery and probably won't be ready to send out for another 3-6 months, but when it is ready, where with it fit? Once again, one of my protagonists is older, at 19. This book is kind of a companion piece to Assignment 9 in that they share some common characters. So if A9 sells as YA, will that help pave the way for HIT?

And then there's Prayer and Prey, my western. Where will that one sit? It's a western, but set in Australia. It's a romance, but it doesn't follow the formula for a romance novel. At around 55K, it's currently too short to be seriously considered as an adult novel, but despite having some important teenaged characters, this one is definitely not YA. I guess I'm going to need to try and expand this one by around 20k, something I'm not entirely sure I can do.

I think I have my work cut out for me, not only in polishing and honing these books, but also trying to categorize them so I approach the right person for the book.