All About Comps: Part II
Follow-up questions and clarifications
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Hi all! My last post was all about comps, aka comparison titles, and some of you had additional questions. I’ve combined them here to keep all the follow-up in one place. You can read the original post on comps here:
As always, send me your questions — about querying, submitting, craft, best practices, whatever might be on your mind or holding you back — and I’ll tackle them in the next newsletter. I look forward to hearing from you!
Dear Kate,
I really enjoyed your recent newsletter article “How do I find comps?!“ One lingering question I had after reading through this: when it comes to trilogies, do I use the first book or do I reference the name of the trilogy? Thank you.
- About to Query
Dear About to Query,
Glad you enjoyed the post! This is one of those fuzzy things where there’s not necessarily a right or wrong answer. As in, I don’t think an agent will have one preference in mind and then penalize you for doing the opposite, you know?
If you’re talking about a series with a number of books, I’d just put the first book so it’s not like “here’s my manuscript that will appeal to fans of this 14-book series that was published over a period of two decades.” :)
If you’re writing a trilogy, generally the best practice is to only query the agent with the first book and say it “stands alone but has series potential.” Even if you’ve already written the whole trilogy and are raring to go — from the agent’s perspective, it’s hard to think about reading and selling three books when they haven’t even read (or sold) the first one.
Based on that, I’m inclined to suggest that you use the first title in the trilogy as your comp title, to keep things focused on that first book.
However! If your manuscript really connects to the arc of the whole trilogy —for example if there’s something in the resolution, or in the weighty middle of the second book, or it just feels like the whole trilogy is the right fit (publishing = vibes!!) then go ahead and name the whole series.
I think an agent will pick up what you’re saying either way. The important part is that you’ve got some kind of comparison to show you know your audience and the market and have a sense of where your book fits.
Good luck!
Kate
p.s. A bit of nitpicky copyediting nobody asked for: TITLES are given in all caps but series titles are not. So you’d say “for fans of THE LIGHTNING THIEF” [book tittle] or “for fans of Percy Jackson and the Olympians” [series title]. An agent won’t reject you for your capitalization, though. We’re all human!
Dear Kate,
I’ve read some things where agents say to put all the metadata up front, like genre, word count, your logline, and comp titles, and then other agents say to start with the blurb and then put the metadata after. What do you recommend?
- Confused
Dear Confused,
I agree, it’s confusing! The short answer is that it doesn’t matter. As with the previous questioner, as long as you have the info the agent is looking for, you’re good. An agent may have their preferences but that doesn’t mean they’re going to reject your query because you gave the genre before the blurb or vice versa.
You’ve identified the key components of a successful query: genre and word count for sure, comp titles recommended, logline if you have it but not 100% necessary (having queried in both romance and literary fiction, I think a logline is more typical in genre fiction).
I’ve gone through my querying spreadsheet (I highly recommend a spreadsheet to help you keep track of everything!) and in my last round of querying, in 2020, I did a mix:
personalization —> metadata —> blurb
personalization —> blurb —> metadata
blurb —> metadata —> personalization
I can’t say that I see any difference in my response rates depending on how I organized the query, as long as all the info was there.
If you have a personal connection to the agent, such as a referral, they requested your work at a conference or in an online pitch session, or they’ve read your work previously and invited you to query again, MAKE THAT YOUR VERY FIRST SENTENCE. If it’s a referral or they’ve requested your work, also put that in the subject line so they know right away. (It should go without saying, but don’t say you have a referral or that an agent requested your work if they haven’t actually done so.)
Good luck!
Kate
Dear Kate,
Does a comp title have to be a book, or can I use a movie or TV show? This is for a novel. Thanks!
- Genre Fan
Dear Genre Fan,
Yes, you can use a movie or a TV show! This works especially well if you’re including two comps, and one is a book and the other is something else. If you only comp your book to non-books, it might be harder to show an agent (and eventually a publisher) that there’s a market of *readers* for your novel. But having a crossover can be a great way to showcase the flavor of your work and highlight its appeal.
You can use the same kind of language you’d use for a novel: “It will appeal to fans of TV SHOW and BOOK.” “It has the [attribute] of MOVIE and the [attribute] of BOOK.” “It’s like BOOK meets TV SHOW [and maybe with some other twist].”
The same general guidelines apply. It helps if the show is recent and if it’s clear why you’re choosing it. So many TV shows and movies are based on books, so see if the one you’re choosing was a book first and if that would make a better comp, too.
Good luck!
Kate
Stuck with an aspect of your writing? Gearing up to hit the query trenches? Let me know how I can help! Write to me here and I’ll answer your question in the next newsletter.