Finding an Agent

So, in the past few weeks, I’ve been doing a lot of research on literary agents.  I have a list going of whom I want to query, but to be honest, the whole process is intimidating and a little confusing.  Not the writing a letter part, but trying to decide whom to query.  The problem isn’t the agencies.  They are all very helpful and resourceful and specific about what kind of literature they want to represent.  

My problem is I’m not sure what my genre my book is.  

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a big fan of Meg Cabot and Nicholas Sparks.  I like to think my book and my writing style are a bit of a combination of the two.  I’m not as quirky or girly as Meg Cabot and I’m not as steamy or mushy as Nicholas Sparks, but my story has several similar elements to both authors. 

Off the bat, I’m tempted to say the closest fit I can figure for my manuscript would be Paranormal/Romance, because there are ghosts and there is a little romance.  The problem is that whenever I hear the words “Paranormal/Romance,” I think of Twilight and all the other supernatural love stories it’s spawned inspired over the years.  You know, the ones with really dramatic titles, pink and purple and dark blue covers mixed with black and silver, and a ridiculously attractive person staring down at the ground and looking pensive.  That is not my story at all.  Yeah, my story has paranormal elements (ghosts), but there are no fallen angels, vampires, witchcraft schools, half-humans, or anything of the sort and the romance is light, fluffy, and clean (I try to keep my work PG-13).  There are also elements of suspense (because hello, we need a plot), character development, revelations along the way, and, if you want to read it in such a way, a touch of Christianity and spirituality mixed in.  All in all, however, it is a general work of fiction with a few ghosts thrown in.   

For the record, this is the most I’ve ever written about my book online.  It has been copyrighted, but I’m still not ready to post too much more information, such as title, characters, etc…  Don’t want to give it all away!  I’m just hoping that I might figure out what to do as far as pitching/query goes.  Or maybe, if I’m lucky, someone might see this post and offer me some guidance!

A girl can hope! 

Anyway, thanks for reading and if you have any advice or input, I’d be glad to receive it.