How Are Your Comps?
How are your comps? Be honest—most writers struggle with coming up with great comps. If you need help, you are in the right place.
What's a great comp? Something well-known that clearly resonates with your book. Ideally your comp is from the last two years, but within five years is okay. A comp can be a book, a TV show, a movie, or a cultural trend. It can use the "X crossed with Y" formulation, or "if X wrote Y" works too. But sometimes those seem trite, or too commercial, or not commercial enough. A straightforward comparison is the strongest expression of comps.
I’m glad you’re here. I can help.
Killer Comps
Comps are not about art. They are your strongest marketing tools. An agent or editor should immediately understand how to position your book based on comps. It's publishing shorthand, and it's vital to speak publishing when you enter the query/submission trenches.
There are two types of comps, primary and secondary. The primary comps are the most important, and the ones we all stress about. A primary comp should have something major in common with your book and must have demonstrated appeal to a wide audience. You can sprinkle secondary comps throughout your proposal. They should have an instructive relationship to your book: the subject, the style, the sensibility. A primary comp is sustenance. Secondary comps are seasoning.
How do you find the strongest comps? You ask your bookish friends. You fall into a research hole and end up on Amazon or Goodreads. You go to your local bookstore and say you liked book X, could they suggest something similar? You hope it's lying in wait on your bookshelves. Or you contact me.