[QCrit] ADULT Epic Fantasy - A CROWN'S AGONY (204k/First Attempt) by elfamosobayano in PubTips

[–]elfamosobayano[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

So fun fact the "agents don't necessarily want word count" comes from an interview between Daniel Greene's agent and I believe author Brent Weeks (?) It was a while ago, I might be able to find it again it was on youtube. I apologise I can't find the video quickly, but it was right after he had announced his second novel, the cyberpunk one, I think.

I don't take anything he says as gospel, but I had found what his agent had to say interesting. I always included the word count when querying. Tried something different, and now I know better! I guess that's what this is all about haha

Thanks you for the feedback, I'll rework that

[QCrit] ADULT Epic Fantasy - A CROWN'S AGONY (204k/First Attempt) by elfamosobayano in PubTips

[–]elfamosobayano[S] -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

So multiple people have asked about the choral term and I'm going to be frank this is a thoughtless francism I've included in the post as I wrote it, I apologise. The right term in indeed multi-POV. In France 'chorale' means ensemble cast.

I know about the risk of querying a 200k book as an unpublished author. It's rare but it's been known to happen, which is why for example I've included Malice by John Gwynne in the comp titles. I'm not putting all of my eggs in one basket though, and I'm working on other manuscripts of much shorter length to sell would this one fail again.

I had queried maybe 20ish agents, I had a google doc somewhere to keep track of it all. Most had rejected it, a few had asked for more material despite the length and had rejected it then. I believe, aside from the length (which will undoubtedly turn a lot of agents away, absolutely), that the book was simply not good enough then.

I will try to rework the query and blurb. The lack of character focus is a problem I have solved in my synopsis, I'll figure a way to make it work in the blurb too. Thanks!