The Word Cloud

I've written a chic-lit novel aimed at a slightly different category than your typical Shopaholic/Bridget Jones. It's quite dark humour: the lead character is a late 30's slightly jaded, slightly overweight professional woman with a few secrets in her past. I like to refer to it as 'hen lit' - i.e. for the Shopaholic fan who is now 10 years older and wonders why Prince Charming is down at the pub with his mates and she's still cleaning the house for free. The lead character is also (1) an American in London and (2) a bit brassy (swears a fair bit, etc.). She has foresaken the things she feels a woman 'should' want (babies, husband, etc.) for her career. Throughout the 'journey' she gradually changes as she is confronted with a lot of hard lessons, etc. I'm not describing this very well, unfortunately. But overall she's a bit of a Woody Allen type heroine rather than a warm & fuzzy Shopaholic type character.

I really feel there should be a market for his in the genre, but I'm struggling to make the reader 'warm' to her in the opening chapters. I had one agent say that it was a problem that she was American rather than British; and another (not agent, but a published author) say that she was too prickly and swore too much. In contrast, amateurs in my writing group (mostly men) who have been with her since the beginning, like the fact that she is balsy and different than the average Cinderella chic-lit character.

So I'm not quite sure what to do. I've sent this to about 8 agents in the UK. Seven rejections and one who wanted to read the whole thing (but never got back to me after 5 months).
I guess options include: (1) 'soften' her at the risk of turning her into plain vanilla; (2) try some agents in the American market where I think the humour might fit better; (3) keep her 'as is' and try to get this published as a second novel rather than the first (I've got another chic-lit book I'm nearly done with that has a 'warm & fuzzy' main character); (4) try some more agents in the UK market and try to find a 'fit'.

Anyway, any thoughts would be appreciated.

Your anti-heroine sounds exactly like a friend of mine!

She is definitely vulnerable and cynical about things like her weight, etc. (sometimes she might moan too much and is definitely a bit neurotic - I'm still trying to strike a balance).

Maybe I somehow need to make it clear in the covering letter to agents that this is not traditional chic-lit, but something else??? Dark humour or something. I'm just unsure of a direct comparison in the genre - she's sort of a female Holden Caufield in Catcher in the Rye (that was the original inspiration). I'm sure there are a lot of similar characters, but I haven't read enough 'chic-lit' to be able to draw the kind of comparison to 'the works of X' that might be helpful. My worry is that agents would begin reading thinking it is one thing (or trying to fit it nicely into a specific box), when it is really another.

In that case then, yes, maybe you should explain your character and the genre you're writing for in the covering letter.

I'll drink to that.

Another thought on this message, even though I am terribly late to join this topic! I really loved the outline of your character, she sounds really funny and quite realistic. I think the problem with chick lit is that the market or readers want someone who is the best version of themselves or a bit of escapism. When I wrote the opening chapters of my novel and sent them to my friend she told me that my character sounded bitter and that I needed to make the reader like her. So I totally redrafted and now have a different character altogether, which, for the moment, I am happy with.
I was thinking about your situation and thinking that maybe the best friend or secondary character to the heroine could be the soft and fuzzy one, that reflects all the qualities she lacks but then at times they reach common ground to illustrate that your heroine can be soft too. Just a thought...