Hi All,
I have written a YA fantasy which has a religious element interwoven into the storyline. Though there are many novels out there which are about religion (Dan Brown books for one), I was wondering whether publishers are wary of this and more likely to turn away manuscripts for this reason?
Thanks for comments in advance!
Rebecca
Depends on whether the religion is inherent in plot or character, or obvious proselytising. There is a huge amount of religion with a small 'r' in sci-fi, for instance, which isn't seen as Religion but as the spiritual element of a quest or battle. If you have overt Christianity or other mainstream religion in your novel, then it becomes something that may only appeal to certain publishers.
Phillip Pullman's Dark Materials spring to mind...
I too have written a fantasy that has a religion in it. I had it copy-edited and the lady who did it suggested I remove the actual word 'religion', thus a mode of address of 'Sister-in-religion' should become something else. This was the only comment she made on this subject. Words like 'monk' 'meditation' 'pray' etc were apparently OK.
I assume that the religion you wrote is not one as actually practiced in the real world – at a guess something that's close to reality might be a bit of a put-off.