For the last few days, I forced myself to shift focus back to query writing. I am still trying to figure out comps, and thankfully stumbled across a great article yesterday that helped. The Importance (And Subjectiveness) Of Comparative Titles In Querying delves into many aspects of comparative books for queries. The part I found particularly insightful discussed moving away from finding a comp that features the same plot as your story, instead the comp should reflect a specific element that is similar. For example, honing in on comps that are reflective of your story’s family dynamics, friendships, or world building. I have been both happy and frustrated about not finding anything similar to the plot of my book, so the suggestion to navigate away from that quest was welcomed.
I generally read books from a variety of genres, but I am currently focused on newer YA dystopian books. Thankfully, there are so many to choose from, but it is difficult to parse out strictly dystopian genre books. This awareness comes from having a slight crisis of genre for my own book. I previously researched agents who were interested in YA and science fiction, since I believed dystopian fell under that category. Now, I have truly come to understand that dystopian resides within the realm of speculative fiction, although sci fi, fantasy, and many others can be set in a dystopia, making them a blend of multiple genres. Picking apart which books fit into which category has been tedious. Maybe I am too focused on this, but I feel like I need to understand the scope of dystopian work to understand where my book belongs.
Beyond my internal struggle with comps and genre, I finally put all the separate parts of the query together. The full query is currently comprised of book details, book explanation/hook, and author bio. Each part had been revised ad nauseam, but required more adjustments to work seamlessly together. I can see where the comp information needs to be applied, and I am not confident in the overall wording, but I feel like I am nearing the end of the general query writing. The finesse of words will continue, and then I will focus on a specific agent.
Has this blog become repetitive? I feel like I have been working on the same things for awhile now. Have I made real progress? Yes, but it has been very slow going. I guess, if I am being fair to myself, there has been many starts and stops. Some of these have been my doing, but many more are simply due to the nature of writing, and then there were many disruptions to life in recent months. I am finding that the stress of getting the query letter perfect is wearing on me. I would love to just put myself out there, and then focus on writing/reworking the second book.
On a completely different note, I found another animal in the neighborhood wearing a quarantine mask. It may be difficult to distinguish, but this is a metal worked vulture. I appreciate the humor/encouragement/resigned statement to the necessity of wearing masks.