Story Magic

134 - How to find the right comp titles

• Golden May

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Today, Emily & Rachel talk about finding comp titles.

What you’ll learn from this episode:

  • What are comp titles? 
  • How to encapsulate the vibes of your book
  • Common pitfalls when choosing comp titles
  • Where to start looking to find comp titles

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Rachel: https://www.instagram.com/bookcoachrachel/

Emily: https://www.instagram.com/ebgoldenbooks/

Emily:

Hey, writers, welcome back to Story Magic, the podcast that will help you write a book you're damn proud of.

Rachel:

I'm Rachel.

Emily:

And I'm Emily.

Rachel:

And today we're talking about comp titles.

Emily:

Dun, dun, dun.

Rachel:

Let me preface this by saying we don't want to talk about this. We're doing it for you. This is not fun. It's really hard. It's really hard. So you're welcome. Welcome in advance. And we're gonna muddy through this together. I personally, I think this is a hard topic to give advice about.

Emily:

Agreed.

Rachel:

Because it's different for everybody, because everybody's book is different. But I felt like we could cover some broad structures, strokes, and maybe give you some permission and some tools so that you could go find the comp titles that work for you.

Emily:

First of all, what is a comp title? Rachel?

Rachel:

Oh, my God. A comp title is a book that is comparative to your book. A comp title. Why? Why do we need that? It's kind of like a marketing tool. I think it is more relevant in a traditional publishing conversation because what a comp title tells an agent or an editor at a publishing house is, what is your book like in a. In a very quick summation, where will it fit On a shelf? And that's. That's important. So it's almost like a marketing thing. And that can tell the agent and the editor, do they want this or not? Is it for them? Is it the vibe? So anything to add since you've done. Done that work?

Emily:

God, is so hard. It's the worst, you guys. No, I mean, that's. That's what it's for. It's to get an idea of where it's going to sit on a shelf, but also, like, the freshness of it. It's hard because people put so much weight on this. And I think. I think the trick is, or the tricky part is that if you have really good comp titles, right. That can sell your book. Right. If your comp titles are fantastic and it's like this incredibly, like, popular thing, with this incredibly popular thing, are going to have a baby and make something so new. And the second you say those two titles aloud, like, your brain can light up and see it. Exactly right?

Rachel:

Like.

Emily:

And I think that's what everybody wants when they're doing comparative titles for their novels, is they want to find that perfect pair. And personally, I don't think that that exists for probably 75% of novels, maybe more, because. And it's not necessary, right? It's not necessary to have this like, explosion, like comp title pair to sell a book, but there's the pressure to find it. And I feel like that is where people go off rails and like, drive themselves nuts because it doesn't matter. Like, it doesn't matter nearly as much as your pitch unless it's like, you know, in the like, 10th percentile of like incredible comp titles that are going to like, perfectly explain your book to an agent in a sentence.

Rachel:

Right.

Emily:

But like, you're probably not going to find that. And that's okay. You don't have to. What you have to do is just signal to the agent or the agent or editor, like generally what the vibe is and then just focus on having a freaking fantastic pitch. Right? Yeah, they just want to know, like, you know, baseline average, like for most books, like, all they're looking for is an idea of where it's going to sit on the shelf and what readers are going to be interested in it. That's it. Exactly.

Rachel:

Exactly.

Emily:

So I will kind of want to like distinguish that because I think that pressure to have that perfect comp title is just, it's debilitating, it's massive.

Rachel:

And I also, I have, in the past couple years, when I started working with, not when I started, I worked with a couple one on one clients that went the traditional publishing route. They got agents, they're in like on submission. And so we had these intense discussions about comp titles and there is so much pressure to pick the perfect comp title where it's like, this is a book that is exactly like my book, I can comp to it. And that's not the goal either. Like, the goal is not to say my book is a copy of this book because we don't want that. We want a combination of the vibes or the characters or, or the, the atmosphere or the plot or like when we, when we use a comp pair, we're encapsulating exactly what you just said, where it's going to sit, what the vibes are like and how this will sell and who's the reader for it. So you're not looking for the perfect. Right. Comparison. You're looking for a little bit of this and a little bit of that and something from this book and something from that book and how can I compare them together? So the clients that I worked with went like, the humor of Alexis hall meets the heart of this. So like, we went in this kind of vibe direction of like, even the story's message. Right. Where we're not necessarily saying like this Is the plot of this book meets the twist of this book. It was like, here is the atmosphere of this other gothic horror book meets the gritty YA protagonist of this book.

Emily:

Yeah.

Rachel:

You know, like, that's. We're taking a vibe and a vibe and putting them together. So when you're looking for comp titles, I think that, to me, that I feel like is really more compelling and more engaging to try to get an agent's attention, match with the pitch than being like, my book is a copy of this book and a copy of this book, and I have to find two books that are compted.

Emily:

Yeah.

Rachel:

And how am I ever gonna do that? Because my book is unlike anything that's ever been written before.

Emily:

That's me all the time in my brain. I'm like, this book cannot be comped. It's so unique. That's my excuse every time I think for. My editor ended up having better comp titles for behind the Crimson Curtain than I did when I submitted to her. I don't remember what they were. It was like Les Mis meets something. And I was like, les Mis is a great comp. Like, I hadn't even thought about that. But I think my original comps were like the. The Night Circus meets the Name of the Wind or something. Right. And so in that you have two titles, Right. And you can kind of get a vibe from putting the vibes of those two books together. You can also do comp titles where you have a title and an author. Right. So like, the one I'm playing with for my current book is Carissa Broadbent, author meets Yellowstone franchise. Right. So it doesn't even have to be a book.

Rachel:

Right, Exactly.

Emily:

It can be like a TV show. It can be a franchise. It can be like an entire author. Right. Like I. I think. And sometimes people will say, this book is perfect for fans of, you know, like, I think I said VE Schwab, RF Kwong and somebody else for behind the Crimson Curtain. Right. Like, you can. And so you can list out authors that are similar. That's not a comp title, but it serves the same purpose in like a query or a letter. Right. Is where on the shelf is it gonna be? So I think I said it's the. The Name of the Wind meets the Night Circus is perfect for fans of blah blah blah and blah blah, blah.

Rachel:

Yeah.

Emily:

So it's just to give. It's just to give people an idea of. Of that vibe. Not saying those were perfect comp titles for that story. It's just what's Coming to mind. I can't remember what she came up with.

Rachel:

Yeah, but I think that's a really good point, is that you're not looking for the perfect comp titles. And, like, you might go down the publishing path and think of something completely brilliant later. Like, comp those later. Like, say those things later. I mean, start with the vibe. What are you try. What's the picture you're trying to paint for the person? Because I'm. I'm reluctant to say for the reader. Because so much of the comp title discussion, I think, is in traditional publishing. I'm trying to think of common marketing examples in indie publishing where, like, this is relevant and it's. It's rare. There is a lot of times where people say for fans of author or for fans of this book. But I think in. In indie. In indie marketing, tropes are a little more popular right now. Like, I don't know that we comp a lot in indie, but it's usually these very broad strokes.

Emily:

Yeah.

Rachel:

Like, it's not. But if you're trying to sell to somebody, like an agent, an editor, these are very important things because you want to paint a picture for them. You've got 300 words to do it. Vibes of this plot of this.

Emily:

Cool.

Rachel:

Yeah, that. That, like, is the. Oh, my gosh, I love that. I want that. I want that. Like, that's the vibe that you're trying to get is I want that with a. A unique combination or something that. And the other thing too is make sure this is representative also, like, accurate. Like, you do not. You don't want to be setting the wrong.

Emily:

Yes.

Rachel:

Tone.

Emily:

So I was gonna. I was thinking about that. Cause I was thinking about traditional marketing, at least. Cause oftentimes with the. At least with the bigger traditional publishing deals, they get published in publishers marketplace, which is essentially just a pitch. And oftentimes those pitches include comp titles, which is kind of like. It kicks off the marketing for that book, right? And it kicks off the conversation about how that book's gonna be talked about. And I remember back when Bridgerton was massive, there was this huge push to, like, comp everything to Bridgerton. It was like, oh, if it has romance or sex and like any kind of Regency anything, we're gonna comp it to that. And I think, like, there were places where some books went wrong in that because they weren't spicy enough. Right. Like, you have to think about, like, what is the book I'm using called? Right. If you're saying. Or known for. Right. If you say Bridgerton, you're saying Spice Romance Regency.

Rachel:

Right? Yeah.

Emily:

And if, if the book doesn't have that. Right. And you're using this as a marketing tool, you're going to disappoint readers or agents or editors. Right. And you don't want to promise them something that they're not going to find in your pages. Because even if your pages are really good. Right. That dissonance between what they thought they were going to find and what they actually found can turn them off. Right. And so you want to. You just want to be careful that you're thinking through, like how people are going to view those comp titles when you're using them.

Rachel:

Yes. And I think the, the smart choice. I'm not going to tell you what to do, but the smart choice is, number one, don't comp giant books. So, like, stop comping fourth wing. It's not going to get you anywhere, I promise. I think. And I think the same pitfall happened with Hunger Games, where Hunger Games became synonymous with dystopian ya. And so people were constantly comping to Hunger Games, and then the market gets saturated and that's meaningless. So nowadays, if you were to comp to Hunger Games, what that portrays to an agent is that you're not well read in the common times, like, what's going on in current events. And number two, the market's saturated. But this, now I'm saying this as like a broad strokes, dystopian as a genre could be coming back because it is dystopian right now.

Emily:

It is. It for sure is.

Rachel:

Don't comp to Hunger Games. It's old. Comp to something newer. There are a bajillion dystopian books, and there are some really good ones that are current. Current to today's market. So comp those. And like, if you comp something with fourth Wing nowadays, I think what that portrays is it's going to be kind of cookie cutter. It doesn't really stand out. It's the same. So you, you also want this vibe of original, but not so original that the. That the readers won't know what it is.

Emily:

Yeah.

Rachel:

I think that's like a sweet spot with comps is that you've got to be like, ooh, this is so, so original, but also not original. And I know that people are going to love it because they love these other things.

Emily:

Yeah. Like if you're going to say fourth wing meets Sarah J. Moss, the agent's going to be like, well, already been done. Right.

Rachel:

Exactly.

Emily:

If you're going to say fourth wing in space. Right. An agent might be like, huh, Right. And so it's all about that. It. Right. It's about the. The clash of, like, the, oh, originality. Right. That, like, oh, this is what gives it a unique vibe by saying, you know, it's these two things together creates something new. Right. And like, fourth wing plus Sarah J. Moss, do not create something new. I'm sorry. They don't come at me. I guess. I don't know Sarah J. Moss with dragons. I don't. We already did that.

Rachel:

And she has dragons.

Emily:

She's done everything.

Rachel:

It's done. Exactly. It's done. So that's where. That's where the strive for the uniqueness comes in and then understanding, like, what it is you're comping to within. So, like, you know, you said Bridgerton, Regency, Spice. What else?

Emily:

Technically, it's not Regency. I almost corrected myself earlier, but you know what I mean. Don't come at me.

Rachel:

We don't stay out of our inbox. I'm just kidding. We love you. We love you. Don't criticize us. We're perfect. So whatever it is in the olden times and what. What else did you. Isn't it Victorian? Is it Edwardian?

Emily:

It's Georgian. Georgian. Georgian spice, romance.

Rachel:

You guys fight me. Georgian spice Romance. Okay, so that's Bridgerton. Then you have fourth wing, which is Dragons Academy, and probably something else. Romance spice. Dragons Academy, spice.

Emily:

Yeah.

Rachel:

Cool. That's three things. There are a billion other books that have Dragons, Academy and Spice.

Emily:

Yeah.

Rachel:

So you can pick something a little bit better than that. But if you're gonna pick, like, if you're comping to a book that has Dragons, Academy and Spice, like, you can be clear on what part you're comping to. So if you're like the. The Academy of 4th Wing, but Georgian Regency. Whoa, that's something new.

Emily:

Thring meets Bridgerton.

Rachel:

Four Wing meets Bridgerton. Now that's a comp. Right? That'll turn some heads. But then we get a sense that we're like, okay, so we have a period piece. We have spice and dragons.

Emily:

Yeah.

Rachel:

Okay, so what does that look like? So I think that's like the. That's the picture you're trying to paint. So when you're. When you're comping, you know, try to look at, like, what is the picture that this book paints? What are the things that it's talking about? Can I come to that or not?

Emily:

What is it known for? That's a good. What is it known like what are the top three things that this book or this author or this genre are known for? Right, exactly. I think that or television show or whatever it is. I think that's a really helpful way to look at it. It's like, what is it? Because I think sometimes people come at it as what's the pitch? Is the pitch the same? Right, like, like the pitch, the plot of the story has to be the same. And no, that's not what we're going for. We're going for like, what are the top three marketable pieces of like Dragon Spice Academy doesn't tell you what the plot of fourth week is. The plot doesn't matter. What matters is those, those marketability pieces. Yes.

Rachel:

Okay. The. The where I'm going to give you a little tool to like do this. This is something we do with our clients. And like when I'm asking my clients to look up con titles, we I start with Goodreads or Reddit. Hear me out. So Goodreads has really great searchable features and they have incredible lists. So like, let's say your book has dragons in it. You can go to Goodreads and search up a list and you can, you can type in Google like I think Goodreads is pretty searchable where if you type in Google what you want from Goodreads it will give you a starting point. So if you're like books with dragons and romance, Goodreads, it's going to give you a list of books with dragons and romance and you can look through that list. You will have to read books friends like you. This is another reason why being so well read in your genre is important is because it helps you comp title but then you understand what you're comping to. So if there's books on that list, go read some of them and see if they're a good comp. And you most of the time I feel like you can get a pretty good vibe within the first five to ten chapters. I mean, I'm not saying you have to go read 30 books about dragons and romance, but if you want to comp to something, I think you should know what that book's about and you should probably have read it. So go check that out. Reddit does the same thing with like these incredibly detailed lists of books where you might have like a tropes list. Here, here is like people have put together. Here's a list of my favorite books that have the trope academia. And then you can go and look through them and see, okay, do any of These feel like they might be a good comp. Are they in the same age group? Are they in the same genre? Do they have similar vibes? Are we working with similar tropes? Maybe I can go read them. Um, and then I. I think too, like, people on Reddit are very good at saying when something meets or does not meet an expectation, like, there, you get a little bit of opinion there also. So Goodreads is a great place to look to. Like, start this search, narrow down, like, a couple options, and then go check them out. Get them at a library, buy them, whatever it is, go read them for a little bit and see if it hits on what you're looking for. And then see if you can put together like, a this meets that. This. This vibe from this book meets that of this book. Or it's a comp to this and it's a comp to that, and the two of them together paints a picture of what my book is. Um, so that's where I would start, is like a good old Google search on what you're looking for. Comps to Professor Student romance trope.

Emily:

Yeah.

Rachel:

And then you'll find a list. Whatever. Whatever's going on in your book. Um, but that. That means you need to know what's going on in your book. So apologies for that. That's hard.

Emily:

Yeah. And this is not an easy process. The only comment I to that is resist the urge to get too niche. These, you know, we've told you, don't use the most popular books of all time, like, like Fourth Wing, Hunger Games, Sarah J. Moss, Harry Potter. Like, nobody gives two craps about comps that include those. Unless they are, like, Fourth Wing in space. Right. Unless they're like, something that's just, like, so unique in its combination that it blows minds. Not saying that Fourth Wing in space is a good idea, but just saying, like, it needs to be. It needs to be shocking like that.

Rachel:

If you're going to use Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Yeah, I am. I guarantee that that book was pitched with the comps. Pride and Prejudice meets Zombies, and then they just decided to call it Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Emily:

But don't. But don't comp obscure books that agents and editors aren't going to recognize.

Rachel:

You want, like, mid list.

Emily:

Don't comp classics unless you have a really good reason to do so. Like, R.F. kuang and Babel. I think she comped, like, Dickens or something. Right. So, like, be what you're looking for when you're looking through those lists for books to read Is you want the most, like, the top, most popular ones from the last five years. Yeah, like three to three, ideally, but like, the last three to five years. So that's gonna. You want it to be popular enough that agents will have heard of it even if they haven't read it, and that they know that, like, when they see that comp title that there's an audience for that book. So it needs to be somewhat popular. So don't get, like, so obsessed with finding the perfect comp title that you, like, go down to, like, these, like, yeah, super niche books that nobody's heard of. Even if you think they're the best books, Even if they are the best books you've ever read. Right. Like, that's not the purpose of a comp title. The purpose of a comp title is familiarity.

Rachel:

Exactly. To sell a book to, like, get someone to want to read it based on what you're comping. Like, that is the point. Yeah, I agree. And the look, again, the whole reason why we hate talking about this is because it's so hard. It's really difficult to do. So take some time. Shop around. Um, I mean, you can look on. Ask people. You can look on Amazon. If you get, like, a combo that you think works, pull your friends, pull your writing group. Do you, number one, do you feel like this works? Number two, would you buy it and be like, yes, no. It's interesting, but it doesn't grab my attention. What's the hook like? I think the sh. Like putting it around to the people around you to see. Do you understand what I'm saying? If I comp these two things, does that make sense? Is it representative of my book and is it interesting enough that it hooks you into wanting to read it? I think those are good, good questions to ask. And again, take your time. You don't, you know, you get something working, and then you can always change it later. Keep your eyes open, you know, write. Write ideas down. If you read a good book that you like and maybe you want to comp to it later. Just. It's a process. It's hard.

Emily:

Yeah, yeah. And it will get clearer as your draft gets clearer. You know, you can revisit this question every draft as you get clarity on the book and just get closer and closer to what you're going to use. And again, don't put that pressure on yourself to have the perfect, you know, pair of comp titles. Like, it's. It's very rare. Oftentimes I think that that happens when somebody has a book idea because of comps.

Rachel:

That's what I was. I was thinking the same thing and

Emily:

it's like, that's not your case. Yeah. If that's not your case, then you're probably gonna have like, eh, fine comp titles that like, do their job right. And that's all they need to do. They don't need to be the thing that wins your agent over. Your pitch needs to do that.

Rachel:

Exactly.

Emily:

So yeah, don't. Don't worry too much about it.

Rachel:

Cool.

Emily:

All right, good luck. You got this. If you wanna build a successful, fulfilling and sustainable writing life that works for you, you've gotta get on our email list.

Rachel:

Sign up now to get our free email course, the Magic of Character Arcs. After seven days of email magic, you'll have the power to keep your readers flipping pages all through the night.

Emily:

Link in the show notes. We'll see you there.

Rachel:

Bye.

Emily:

Bye.