by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Even though I’m nowhere near finishing the third draft of this novel, I find myself mulling one element of the querying process — comping. You’re supposed to compare or “comp” your novel to an existing novel so agents will know what type of novel to expect.
My heroine looks like Corrie Yee in my mind as I write her.
Given that I don’t like, uhhh, really read fiction other than my own, this is kind of a sticky wicket. The best approximation I’ve come up with using AI is Gillian Flynn’s “Sharp Objects.” But my vision for this novel is sufficiently complex and nuanced that I don’t know how accurate comparing it to Sharp Objects is.
The two novels are…similar…but are they comparable?
My novel is really unique — like me — and I’m going to have to take a deep breath and really go outside my comfort zone to figure out how I’m going to successfully query it.
Of course, I could just self-publish. But that’s just not my vision for this novel. I would rather fail in some spectacular manner after years of hard work than limit myself by self-publishing — not that I have anything against self-publishing.
That’s just not my vision for this novel.
