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Comp title woes
Oct. 25th, 2016 05:25 pmSo my new line of speculation is that I received a near-instant rejection yesterday because I failed to include comp titles in my query to that agent (when the agency website did specify that comp titles be included).
Admittedly, that was a research failure on my part; I hadn't come across anything before that said comp titles could be necessary in a query, and I thought it was just an optional convenient shorthand.
The problem (and why I didn't throw in comp titles just to be safe) is that I really can't think of any comp titles for Project E. I've seen some online posts that deride the idea of not being able to come up with comp titles because "nothing is original." Well, that is true—but there's a difference between "everything must be influenced by something" and "comp titles for marketability purposes."
I really have not read any books that I would say are similar to Project E. The closest things I can think of are (1) a novella I read that was published by a tiny niche publisher (so, useless for comp title purposes), and (2) comic book influences, especially the Winter Soldier arc in the Captain America comics—also useless for comp title purposes, especially because it's more like Project E kind of shares an aesthetic with darker comic books and comic book movies, but it isn't actually about superheroes.
Project E is a book about queer characters of color, featuring action and mystery and romance, but also dealing with mental illness, trauma, grief, and identity. It's not a coming of age story (since the characters are in their 20s), but it still feels "youthful" due to the "who am I?" question at the center; it's a romantic story but doesn't exactly follow the template of genre romance; it's heavily psychological but not really a psychological thriller (I think? I've always been fuzzy about what exactly that genre means); it's sci-fi "lite" that leverages the "lite" for social commentary/a dystopian-esque feel.
I wrote Project E the way I did precisely because I was tired of sci-fi/fantasy novels that didn't explore psychological ramifications/healing from trauma. If someone knows what the subgenre is for genre fiction that deals with mental illness, trauma, and in fanfic terms, "hurt/comfort," PLEASE let me know, because I seriously don't know of any published genre fiction like that. (Yes, there's contemporary fiction about mental illness, but I don't really think the overlap is enough, since contemporary fiction about trauma and mental illness is usually solely about the trauma/mental illness...and Project E, as a science fiction novel, deals with that on top of the action/mystery/romance stuff. It doesn't feel that comparable.)
I've also seen people say that "if you can't come up with comp titles for your book, that means you don't read enough." Okay, maybe I don't read enough—because 90% of published fiction is either poorly written or not to my taste, and I'm not the kind of reader who would plow through a book if I dislike the first few pages. Is that really so objectionable? Rather, to fill the void, I draw storytelling inspiration from other media—TV shows, movies, comics, fanfiction, possibly even video games.
I am not, at all, trying to claim Project E is "wholly original." It's just that I don't know what well-known published novels Project E resembles, because I wrote it as the book I've always wanted to read but was unable to find. I don't think that's as weird or arrogant to say as some people seem to think.
Admittedly, that was a research failure on my part; I hadn't come across anything before that said comp titles could be necessary in a query, and I thought it was just an optional convenient shorthand.
The problem (and why I didn't throw in comp titles just to be safe) is that I really can't think of any comp titles for Project E. I've seen some online posts that deride the idea of not being able to come up with comp titles because "nothing is original." Well, that is true—but there's a difference between "everything must be influenced by something" and "comp titles for marketability purposes."
I really have not read any books that I would say are similar to Project E. The closest things I can think of are (1) a novella I read that was published by a tiny niche publisher (so, useless for comp title purposes), and (2) comic book influences, especially the Winter Soldier arc in the Captain America comics—also useless for comp title purposes, especially because it's more like Project E kind of shares an aesthetic with darker comic books and comic book movies, but it isn't actually about superheroes.
Project E is a book about queer characters of color, featuring action and mystery and romance, but also dealing with mental illness, trauma, grief, and identity. It's not a coming of age story (since the characters are in their 20s), but it still feels "youthful" due to the "who am I?" question at the center; it's a romantic story but doesn't exactly follow the template of genre romance; it's heavily psychological but not really a psychological thriller (I think? I've always been fuzzy about what exactly that genre means); it's sci-fi "lite" that leverages the "lite" for social commentary/a dystopian-esque feel.
I wrote Project E the way I did precisely because I was tired of sci-fi/fantasy novels that didn't explore psychological ramifications/healing from trauma. If someone knows what the subgenre is for genre fiction that deals with mental illness, trauma, and in fanfic terms, "hurt/comfort," PLEASE let me know, because I seriously don't know of any published genre fiction like that. (Yes, there's contemporary fiction about mental illness, but I don't really think the overlap is enough, since contemporary fiction about trauma and mental illness is usually solely about the trauma/mental illness...and Project E, as a science fiction novel, deals with that on top of the action/mystery/romance stuff. It doesn't feel that comparable.)
I've also seen people say that "if you can't come up with comp titles for your book, that means you don't read enough." Okay, maybe I don't read enough—because 90% of published fiction is either poorly written or not to my taste, and I'm not the kind of reader who would plow through a book if I dislike the first few pages. Is that really so objectionable? Rather, to fill the void, I draw storytelling inspiration from other media—TV shows, movies, comics, fanfiction, possibly even video games.
I am not, at all, trying to claim Project E is "wholly original." It's just that I don't know what well-known published novels Project E resembles, because I wrote it as the book I've always wanted to read but was unable to find. I don't think that's as weird or arrogant to say as some people seem to think.
