Aliens--fantasy or science fiction?

[smokeandtears]

This has been bothering me a lot lately. I have a manuscript that I consider firmly YA urban fantasy. Whenever I describe the manuscript, people say, "This is not fantasy. This has aliens in it. It is science fiction

Comments

[nesert]

Aliens equals sci-fi. Sorry, them's the rules. The only way to change it to fantasy is if they were from another dimension that existed on Earth instead of another planet. :)

Or you could say it's sci-fi with elements of fantasy. Though the fun thing about aliens is that everything can be explained away with superscience instead of magic. Throw in some made up tech terms and you're golden.