I didn't know what genre The War Queen was about. I knew it was a New Adult because my main characters are 29 and 35 and I knew it was a fantasy because it was my own fictional world.
So I started pitching it as such. After 40 rejections, it took 2 beta readers to tell me "what a great romance!" and 3 months of change of heart to accept I wrote a romance (I hate romances). But it was true. I looked up the elements for a romance and I qualified.
Crap. I didn't want to write a romance. But that's okay. Remember, you are not a writer. You are the historian for another world. You are just writing down what that world decides to show you and let you hear. And that world chose me to be their writer to write their romance story.
So I changed my pitch. “The War Queen, new adult fantasy romance at 109,000 words....” and after I realized the correct genre, I had 2 agents request the entire manuscript. I was rejected 40 times previously because, you guessed it, I was pitching the wrong agents. I needed to pitch fantasy romance agents, not fantasy agents, and it's because of the publisher I queried that publishes fantasy romances that I finally got offered a contract. Don't believe me when I say that knowing your genre matters? Read this blog.
