: What constitutes historical fantasy? I'm writing a trilogy set 80% in Italy and 20% in other European countries. Each novel incorporates real historical characters and fantasy elements (a magical

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There is no standard definition. And not just for historical fantasy. Give me a definition, and I will show you a best selling book that doesn't follow it.

If your book has both historical and fantasy elements, you can market it as historical fantasy. If you think this will hurt your chances, feel free to emphasise either the historical part or the fantasy part, when talking to editors who are interested in one, but not the other.

Have you read any blog by DWSmith, or his wife Kris Rusch? When editors or agents want to reject books for business or other reasons, they will often try to "help" the author by giving them suggestions, of the type you got. ("Add romance to your book, and it may sell"). So never pay much attention to rejection reasons, as they might not be the truth at all.

Editors may want you to change your work a little, to make the story tighter, to remove unnecessary sub-plots etc. But in your case, it seems they want to change your book completely, to what suits them at this time(at least that is what it looks to me. I maybe wrong). My advice is, continue shopping your manuscript, you may find an editor who loves your book as it is, without adding the latest fad( vampire-zombie-romance) to it.

And if you can't sell it after a year or two, seriously consider self publishing.

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I would say Mercedes Lackey's Shadow of the Lion and Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell would both qualify as "historical fantasy." The latter has relationships, but I wouldn't call them "romance."

Actually, Lackey's entire Elemental Masters series could be historical fantasy. Again, there are pairings, but whether you'd call them "romances" is up to the marketing department. I wouldn't.

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