How Do Literary Agents View Comp Titles
- By: BookEnds | Date: Nov 03 2021
Writers often face enormous frustration when trying to find the best comp titles. It doesn’t have to feel like a chore, though. In fact, you can have fun with them. Jessica and James talk through the agent perspective on comp titles so that you can feel more comfortable in choosing the best ones.
Enjoy!
My problem is that I write what I write specifically because it’s what I’d love to read, but I CAN’T find it in bookstores! I’ve been trying to find it for many years, now.
I would love for someone to prove me wrong about this. I really would love to discover an author of contemporary gothic fiction, written for adults, with intelligent adult protagonists and real ghosts but NOT soaked in gore and human misery from beginning to end. Whenever I ask the nice staff at the bookstore to recommend something fitting this description, though, they go: oh, honey, here, let me show you to the children’s section…
So I decided to write it myself. Since nobody else is writing it, I have no comps, so I guess I’m doomed to keep self-publishing forever. But at least by doing so I’m discovering I’m not the only person in the world who’s been craving this kind of story to read.
You can say it’s like Such and Such but with less gore.
Hmm, that’s actually a good idea. Thanks!
Helpful. Thank you.