by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
The thing I’ve learned from Tik-Tok is I, personally, will never get published — that is, at least what the Tik-Tok people who talk about getting published tell me. I don’t know anything about how to actually go through the querying process and everyone in the publishing industry who has seems angry and bitter at the world.
But I still have hope and, since I don’t plan on self-publishing (at least the moment) I’m going to have to learn how to pull it off.
And one issue I’ve learned about when it comes to querying is rather a “duh” kind of situation — you need to know what to compare or “comp” your novel to when you write your query letter. There is a problem, of course, and that problem is I haven’t read the type of novel I’ve been working on in, oh, 15 years. So, I have to buckle down and find out what are some modern novels that are similar to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo that I can “comp” my novel to them.
My novel is definitely not a direct 1-to-1 with The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, but that was, at least, the novel that inspired me to write a novel in the first place. (ACTUALLY, it was that novel’s sequel, The Girl Who Played With Fire that is my “textbook,” but, lulz.)
Anyway, the point is — I have a lot of reading to do. I need to buckle down and go outside my comfort zone by reading other people’s writing instead of just re-reading my own stuff over and over and over again as I edit. I have begun to think that I probably have about a year left in the writing and post-production process before I begin to query seriously.
And, in a sense, it will be poetic if I start to query in the fall of 2024, just as the USA decides if it’s an autocracy or if it wants to blow itself up.
