10 Agents Seeking Upmarket Fiction
Where to query this week (10.09.24)
Welcome to Sub Club’s Where to query this week!
As
mentioned last week, I’m officially taking over this column. And as someone who has been in the query trenches very recently, I know this process can seem daunting. For those of you who are going through it right now, I offer a virtual hug as well as my thoughts and prayers. Just remember: you only need just one yes! You’ve got this.In this column, you can expect weekly lists of agents who are open to your queries, as well as guest collaborations with agents, writers who have recently signed with agents, and industry professionals. My goal is to use this space not only to share wisdom but also to give a behind-the-scenes look at the agent-author relationship and demystify the querying process as a whole.
You ready? Okay, let’s do this. Below, I share some of my thoughts and advice on comps and genre, as well as a list of agents that I actually queried!
» » If want to ask a question in our Query Hotline, fill out the form here with any questions you might have about querying—whether that’s around agents, indie presses, book contests, formatting, genres, or if you just need someone to tell you you’re doing just fine. (Submit your question here) « «
Upmarket vs. Literary vs. Whatever the hell
So genre and comps… I’m sorry for the jump scare!
Writing a query letter is tough enough as it is. But having to match your book to other books that already exist AND navigate the world of genre titles—why are there so many?!—is even tougher.
The process was anxiety-inducing for me as I started to query. What if I chose the wrong genre? Would it ruin my shot at an agent even reading my letter?
I signed with a literary agent on September 7 of this year (yay!). It still doesn’t feel real, but I have a document with my signature on it to prove it. Still, I learned a lot from the querying process, in particular how much genres and comps really matter.
Spoiler: One of them matters more than the other.
When I sent out my first round of query letters, I pitched my book as literary fiction. I assumed this was the category I would fall into for a few reasons:
My comps. The comparative titles I chose for my novel were Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler and Writers and Lovers by Lily King. Both are categorized as literary fiction, and I knew the importance of matching my genre to the comps I chose.
My own assumptions about plot. My greatest fear in embarking on the querying process was that I would start writing my query letter and realize my plot sucked. Nothing humbles a writer more than reducing their 80k-word novel that they’ve been revising for over three years into two plot paragraphs. I’m delighted to report I had more plot than I realized, but I still had trouble viewing my story as a plot-driven novel. To play it safe, I figured literary would be best.
Romantizing. Literary fiction just sounds cool. Most of my favorite authors, the ones I look up to, write in this genre. And it felt aspirational to desire the same genre for my book someday.
However, as I began to send out my query letters, I kept coming across agents I wanted to query who were looking for upmarket, commercial, or “women’s fiction” (whatever the hell that is). Of course, I knew I would come across these genres. But it made me pause to consider whether I should pitch my book solely as literary. Would it really matter if I just swapped out the word “literary” for “upmarket” in that opening line of my query letter?
From what I understand, upmarket fiction is the space between literary and commercial. Like literary, upmarket emphasizes really great writing, complex themes, and deep character development. But what makes it more commercial leaning is the pacing of the plot and the accessibility of the language, which leads to more broad appeal.
I knew that if I wanted to try pitching my book as upmarket, I needed my comps to match. Luckily, the ones I chose were kind of in a sweet spot.
Technically, both books are categorized as literary, but they evolved after publication. Sweetbitter became a TV series in 2018. Writers and Lovers was the selection of many book clubs, including a Read with Jenna pick. To me, that looks like mass appeal. That seems like upmarket.
Out of the 58 query letters I sent, I pitched my book as literary in 39 of those letters. I ended up trying upmarket for 16 letters and then a few random categories—one for women’s fiction, one for women’s commercial fiction, and one for book club. With those stats, it’s not a surprise that most of my full requests came from literary pitches. But there were a few upmarkets as well.
When I had “the call” with the agent that I would later sign with, I made sure to ask her where she thought my book landed. Did I pitch it correctly to her as literary?
“I think you are right on the line,” she said. She told me that while my writing was well crafted and that I had beautiful sentences throughout (hell yeah), my language and story were also accessible—a key factor in a book leaning more commercial.
I thought about this after we hung up. Despite my romanticism of being a literary fiction author, I felt very excited by this clarification. I want my work to be accessible to as many writers as it can! I realized that actually, most of what I read or enjoy the most are those kinds of books: ones where you get some banger sentences and beautiful imagery, but at the end of the day is about the characters and what they’re going through. It’s about the story. Looking at my novel, I think the upmarket label matches what I’ve created. And I’m pretty damn proud of that.
I wanted to share this today because, as you can see, I didn’t pitch my novel exactly right to the agent I went with. And I know a lot of writers worry about where their novels fit on the genre shelf.
My advice: Focus on your comps and make sure you’re choosing the best ones you can. The comparative titles you choose need to entice the agent to want to keep reading your letter and justify the genre you’ve selected.
Make sure to do your research beyond simply reading the books. Research how they have been pitched or where else they have appeared. See if they fall under multiple categories. Ask yourself whether your book also works in these genres. Could that open you up to more agents to pitch? Or could this help you cast a wider net and find the agent that will give you your yes?
If you are interested in learning how exactly I landed my agent, I wrote a full piece about my journey in my personal newsletter, In the Weeds! You can read “A Long Waited Yes” here.
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For this week’s agent list, I thought I would pull some of the upmarket-seeking agents that I actually queried! Here are ten of them straight off my Query tracking spreadsheet.
10 Literary Agents Open to Queries for Upmarket Fiction
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