 Having comp (comparison) titles is an essential step when you are planning to query agents with your manuscript, but their use doesn’t stop there. Keep reading to see how to use them as an indie author. Common querying advice tells you to limit these to new(ish) successful books, letting agents know what your book is about and who your target readers may be. Finding books that are similar to yours is not easy. This is yet another reason why pursuing traditional publishing can be off-putting to new writers.
However... Here’s the thing: comps are a GREAT thing to have for indies too! Instead of showing an agent who your audience is...take it straight to them! AND, when you are targeting the reader, not an agent, the potential comp pool opens up—TV shows, movies, older popular books, books/shows/etc. with a cult following. The list is endless. Don’t forget to add those comp titles (I find two to be best) to your book description. It will tell potential readers right off if your book is for them, plus it is an automatic source of precious keywords for you. I did #pitchwars over on twitter, with my comp line being most of the pitch. This netted me several potential readers. Yes, new readers based almost solely off that comp line. Knowing your target audience, and SHOWING them you know them, is huge. Have fun with it! Comps need not be totally literal. They don’t have to be comparable to your plot or characters; it can be vibe, style...anything. That book I mentioned? My comp line is: The Girl Who Met Tom Gordon meets YOU. TGWMTG is an older book, far too old for agents to be impressed, but the paranoia vibe and the forest setting hit perfectly. YOU (both the show and the series) features a charismatic stalker, Joe. He and my stalker Jared could be besties, so I knew from the get-go that YOU had to be on my comp list. Between the two it paints a vivid picture of what my book may be like, and can also show how it’s different from each. I choose comps that may feel worlds apart. This will highlight that my book is not trying to be the same as either of them; it is something all its own. Still, readers who enjoy either story are left intrigued—wondering where the combination may go—hopefully, enough to pick up the book!
0 Comments
 I’ve recently seen some comments about editors upset that writers have used their reworked suggestions in the finished stories, and if I was reading one of those “Am I The A-hole” pages it would be an Everyone Sucks Here answer. I’m going to go at it from both a developmental editor and receiver of line editing standpoint.
1- As an editor I am very careful about offering direct suggested rewrites, NOT because I think ‘OmG sOmEoNe iS gOiNg To StEaL mY wOrDs’ but because I don’t want to force my words on a writer. When I’m working with new writers, I will (almost) never offer any kind of rewrite. My voice is not theirs, is not their characters, is not their style, etc. I will offer plenty of ideas and directions to go in, but I don’t want to trample on their style, especially when they may be just finding it. With writers who have a distinct style, I may add rewrites with the note “but better, or but in your voice (etc)” to remind them to make it theirs, or at least make sure it fits. If it works for their story, I don’t care one bit if they take it as-is. It’s my job to help, they are paying for it, those words are part of the deal. 2- As a writer getting edits, I get those suggestions. I interact with them much as I do as an editor. I have to turn it into my own style to fit the voice of the story. But, sometimes that rewrite is already perfect, and yes, I will totally use it. I think the issue that started the initial post I saw was that they were short stories, and it’s unclear how much input the editor gave that was taken as-is. Yes, there is room to argue that if too much was substituted in, who really wrote that story? But, I don’t think we can blame a new writer when someone they perceive as being experienced (in both writing and the editing process) comes in and says ‘write this’ and then doing so. You have to work out a relationship with your editor, it’s not just a hand-off. They are an important part of your team, and you need to understand each other. So, should you take words directly from your editor? ...maybe. If it’s a lot of words, you could verify they think it’s alright. Double check that the new line feels like it is your voice. Does it fit within your world? When working with an editor for the first time, ask questions! Pay attention and learn about the process and get all you can from it. Be a good student, be thoughtful, and be serious about your work. Don’t blow it by being an A-hole. Should an editor give direct rewrite ideas? ...maybe. Will you be upset if you see that line used as-is? Are you offering so much ‘help’ that you are bulldozing their voice, or is it just a helpful snippet? Do they know enough to know the difference? When you are editing for someone, YOU are the professional in the equation. Assume every client that you haven’t worked with before is a total newbie (but don’t be condescending). Be helpful, but also kind. Take a moment to understand where they are in their writing journey and show them what it means to be edited—every interaction they have with you is a teaching moment. Don’t blow it by being an A-hole.  I have a hard time with horror. I love it, but I want to be creeped out—not just grossed out by shock-tactics of gore or inappropriate behavior. Murder and mayhem is fine, I love a slasher film, but there has to be more to it.
The prologue for Stolen Tongues reads as one of the best horror shorts I have ever read and with just those few pages I was absolutely sold on this book. Part cabin in the woods, part supernatural haunt, this book had that creep factor for me. It’ll have you straining to hear that voice outside, that scratch at the door or tap on the window. It's not just a secluded cabin on a mountain with Native spirits book. It lingers, the ancient evil has a motive, and a life of its own beyond the desire to hurt. It manages to make open spaces claustrophobic, and the voices of loved ones terror inducing. I was beyond pleasantly surprised by this one—I had recommended it to my family before even getting past the first few chapters. I knew right away and no one I’ve given it to has been disappointed. I will re-read the prologue whenever I want a mini-haunt. Carrot the parrot is one of the best uses of an animal in horror I’ve seen (and not-really-spoiler- he lives, so no worries from an animal-love standpoint!)  Just over three months ago, I gave in and made a TikTok account. I’m a slow adapter—I barely use Twitter (even before the chaos there) and never really settled into Insta, so I had little hope for this app overrun by Gen Z.
Luckily, the Booktok side is more diverse, so I’m not the oldest one there, yay! But I was not good at it. I haplessly attempted random videos to get views and the illusive 1k followers so I could get a link in my bio. I never thought I’d see the day. But here I am, just over 60 days in and I reached that this morning, and most are readers or fellow indie authors, with only a handful being spammy randos. If I can do it, so can you. Seriously. 1- Make those silly, lip-sync videos*. Yes, really. They seem ridiculous at first, but get creative in connecting them to your genre/niche and they get fun fast. I’m not great at them, but they are a great way to connect with people. Just do it. Also, make one of those (literally) begging for follows ones, pin it and wait. That one video got me 150 follows. (*note, you can do these without being on camera, you just get creative about it) 2- Be consistent. I don’t think you have to be consistent in video type. I mix up the fun ones with page-flip ones to keep my books out in front of people. But you need to POST consistently. I do 2 videos a day, one fun, one flip. Shoot a bunch of fun ones all at once, you don’t have to make a video every day. 3- Interact! Posting and running will get you nowhere. Spend a bit of time each day watching/hearting/commenting on videos in your top hashtags. This is your community. Find them, make friends, and have fun. Indie publishing is not being at war with other indies; team up, make connections, and work together. I know my whole 1k followers aren’t much, and I’m still working my way out of the 200-300 view trenches, but it is the start. I can link my books on my bio now, making it easier to convert sales. Am I an expert, far from it—I am a TT beginner and I got there. These are really simple, even bare-minimum, tips that anyone can do. Go forth and get those followers!  Editors are a lot—of money, of work to find, of time to work with, of emotional effort. So it’s tempting to look at something like ProWritingAid or Grammarly and think “Thank god! This is it! No human interaction!” But it’s not the same, and I doubt it ever will be. I’m not saying don’t use them at all, I’m saying, don’t only use them.
I know, handing over your book baby to a total stranger and waiting on pins and needles for them to point out what’s wrong is no fun. Whether you’re in the developmental editing stage or line editing, you’re going to get comments, lots of them. Until now, you are the only one to have read your book, and maybe a friend or family member who has told you how wonderful it is and what a genius you are. Now you are looking at your options: run it through an AI program and get ‘private’ feedback to fix and move forward, maybe even straight to publishing or, research, hire and work with a real life human editor. A person who will take a professional look at your work and objectively point out areas that need work, someone who might (will) not tell you it’s perfect and you are going to be a bestseller tomorrow. Someone who will see your work for how it fits in the publishing industry and share that insight with you, whatever that reality may be. No one likes to be told their story needs work, but if we want to improve we all have to hear that. No story is perfect (or even great) from the get-go and we cannot make it better on our own. We need other, real, live people to help us on the journey from draft to publication. We must suck up the anxiety, fear, whatever, and put the manuscript in front of those who can help us. When a local, in-person, writing group offered free first page critiques, I stood in line waiting my turn in full-on panic mode. That page was NOT ready for an editor, but I’m glad I put it out there for the professional critique. For me, that was a milestone. I told myself, If I can manage to do this in person, I sure as heck can work with someone online when I (and my story) are better prepared. These days, I love seeing my story pop up with a bunch of comment notifications from my editors—I trust them and know they want the best for my work. All stories need this. It can take time to find the right people, and some ups and downs, but you have to put yourself and your work out there or it will never get better. You can still use those AI programs, but think of them as a preliminary tool, not a final step.  This was an odd one for me. And, I suppose, it is meant to be. There are a lot of love-it or hate-it reviews, but I am very in the middle. I don’t think I can even consider a star rating. Did I read along, eager to figure out WTF was going on? Absolutely. Did I ever figure that out? Did anyone? Were we meant to? Ehhh. I don’t know.
For a short book, this one has a lot of layers and tons of moving parts, yet almost none of them are actually resolved. I like an open end, but I’m not really sure there was even an end at all? I don’t know. The writing is good; the mystery is there and left me wanting to know so many things. On the level of what David was up to with the animals, what Carla was up to with Nina, and what the heck David was trying to get Amanda to realize/tell him in her story. I just don’t know. Would I recommend it? You guessed it—I don’t know. It would depend totally on what you like to read. If you are there for an experience this one’s for you. If you are there for a tied up story, you won’t find that in these pages. I know I didn’t say much about what this book is actually about, and that is because I don’t even know what might be considered a spoiler here. The story is told by Amanda. She is relaying it to David, the young son of her friend Carla. Odd things happen in their town, children become ill and desperate parents bring them to the woman in the greenhouse. Amanda and her own daughter Nina are with Carla one day when something happens, something important, and David urges Amanda to recollect the day and the moment in great detail. She tries, he presses more and more as time is running out. I won’t say more than that, as I’m not even sure how much more than that I understood fully. Reading this book was certainly an experience, and if that is something you are after, give it a go.  We write for readers, and it is important not to forget that. If we don’t work to give readers what they want (the FEELS - in all possible iterations) they will not connect to our work. A scene that may play out exactly as you envision in your mind may not be the right payoff for a reader. It’s easy to miss as you write. Especially when that payoff is part of a sub-plot. You get so caught up in the main arc that when those pieces fall into place, everything surrounding it gets fuzzy. But when not paid off, those moments are the ones that might make your reader throw your book at the wall.
When you develop a plot (or sub-plot) you are making a promise to the reader: This will go somewhere, you will get a payoff for sticking around. And you HAVE to keep that promise. No if’s and’s or but’s. I’ve recently finished working through Cassia’s novel that must not (yet) be named, and it has shown so much improvement. I’m proud on her behalf for the quality she has added. That said, I might have swapped from professional-dev-editor to friend-reading-the-book and left a comment with some expletives in it when the sub-plot came to a head only to linger on the edge without pushing over. Her character was going to make a deathbed decoration... did make a deathbed declaration... but we didn’t get to know what he said! Total book-throw moment for me, and thank goodness Cass is a good sport, because my comment that followed was not exactly friendly. ( Her reply: “I love that you got so worked up… I like your unfiltered sentiment”, so all is not lost, she’s not running and hiding from me today.) I kept reading, and those words of his kept getting teased, but never delivered. Finally she saw the comment and replied... “don’t you just want to imagine them?” As a writer to a writer, that might make sense. Often, what we make up in our head is better than what we can put into words. But—huge BUT—our readers are not writers. They need us to put what we want them to know on the page. And they deserve it. I went on and marked places where she could use this no-show technique to build tension and purposefully irritate readers just enough so that when we get a final reveal of the words (the pinnacle of this sub-plot), it’s a huge moment. I finally got those words pulled out of Cassia and they are everything I’d hoped for. I am so excited to see how this book continues to be reshaped into something amazing.  I've been ranting on Facebook since According to Plan came out about how much I love hearing from and talking to readers. This book has delivered that in spades as readers reach out and tell me exactly what they think of Jared (and of Laura to a lesser degree, but J is my guy for getting big reactions it seems). And I love it more than can be imagined.
The feedback on him is pretty diverse too, which is super cool to me. I had so much fun writing him and figuring out how his mind works that despite his terrible actions I could see hints of good in him. Now I have people saying they love him, and isn't that the best thing a writer can hope for on a villain? You've made them so well rounded the line of good and bad blurs? "Jared's voice as he went on his long, entitled, deranged diatribes was so powerful, creepy, and, for many women, way too familiar." ~ Shayna Lambert "I personally loved Jared, yes, I know I'm calling my therapist after I get done posting this. . . There are so many points that make it difficult to just utterly hate Jared. Yes, I know! I should hate him...Jared's a complex character and I enjoyed him so much." ~ Rachael Kaup "Jared was a terrifying character. Like most mediocre men, he has an inflated ego and feels better and more intelligent than everyone else." ~ KKEC Reads I'd love to hear your thoughts on him--Is he all bad? Misguided? Tragically Obsessed? Totally psychotic? Some people look at self publishing and think—good, I wrote my story, I’ll just pop it on Amazon and people will love it! No, no, they won’t. You cannot do this alone, and that is hard to hear, especially when you then look at price points on the various services you need to publish a book. Covers, website, marketing, editors, formatting... The list goes on and on and the $$$ goes up and up. Many things you CAN learn to do yourself, but not without time, effort, and often real $$ shelled out on programs to do them. Everyone had to ‘pay their dues’ (generally, I hate this phrase, because I think it breeds an environment where people get taken advantage of, but hear me out) you have to put something in (besides your self-edited draft) to get something out of the publishing industry. It’s that simple, and that something can definitely be time... lots and lots of time. The less $$ the more time it will take. But that’s fine, you are on your own schedule. Do what you have to do. I have. If you are like me, you just started out with some vague idea that you will write a book. Great, done. Nailed it. Then you are faced with making it something that people will want to read. Oomph. Here’s where I get honest and break down what I spent putting out my first romance series (3 novellas, in ebook and paperback). I’ll preface this by saying: I’m not a bestseller... yet (though I have ranked #1 in some free categories!). But my method is ever-improving and so are my results. I’m right here with you on this journey. Let’s enjoy the ride together.  Part 1 - Covers My first step was finding a cover. I (luckily) had some background using photo editing programs and doing design, so this was one place it made sense for me to study up and learn to do it myself. There are also tons of great resources and groups out there to help you with this (Indie Cover Project on FB is amazing, if you can take the sometimes harshly delivered critique). Stock photos can be free and cheap, so once you develop a good eye and the skill, you can definitely make your own covers (hint, you can also barter and make other people’s covers too!) Covers ($0) - I’m pretty decent with a variety of free editing programs (photofilter (http://www.photofiltre-studio.com/pf7-en.htm), photopea (photopea.com)) and also decent at making free stock work for me. So I did my covers myself. I made no less than 5 versions of each over literally weeks as I went round for round with feedback from various sources. I spent so much time scouring stock sites, even going out and taking my own photos for some versions (those didn’t make the cut, but I can use them in marketing images) I absolutely ‘spent’ more in time than I would have paid for a cover designer, but again... I had the time, not the cash. And each time I do a cover, it takes a little less time. Part 2 - Interior Once covers were sorted (I did all three at once so I knew they would be cohesive) the inside needed attention (let’s assume MS is ready, I’ll talk about editing in post #4) It’s not something you think a lot about, until you face choosing it for yourself. Where do you want page numbers? What about chapter subtitles? Should you spell out the numbers? What is popular for your genre?!? Are you ready for more hours staring at a computer screen? Do you love hunching over your keyboard and wondering how one keystroke sent all your formatting into the twilight zone? Buckle up buttercup, let’s get to it! Anyone can do interior formatting simply enough in MS Word with enough patience. Will it be gorgeous? Probably not, but it will be fine. My biggest writing venture was springing for Atticus to format my books (thanks to my Nana for seed money there) and now I can pretty quickly put together professional interiors—but just like cover creation, there is a learning curve. I spent (and still spend) days tweaking things to get them how I want. Eventually it will be quick, but until then, I’m still probably spending more time-value than I would $$-value if I could just hire someone. (But just like cover design, this is another service you can barter with!) Interiors ($0 ish) My original formatting was all done in MS word. It took forever and left a lot to be desired. I wanted something fun and fancy, but got... standard. It was fine, and no one complained when the first editions hit the web. But I wanted better. Atticus sat on my ‘I’d love this’ list for a while, and when I got some unexpected birthday money, I jumped and bought it (cost: $147 atticus.io). It’s a great investment, formatting is smoother and comes out with much higher quality. Soon I hope to add this to a services list for future bartering. Part 3 - Website/blog Time to get your face out there! Your fans need a place to find you, and a website is the best thing for that. You can link out to all your socials, create a blog and share, share, share! It’s your homebase for links, books, stories and everything that is part of your brand. It can be as simple or as complicated as you want/are capable of. It may even begin simply as a landing page to build your mailing list and hand out freebies. A website is a big task and lucky me to have been the type of person who’s been messing around with site-building for some time. It’s another skill that takes time to develop, but there are some very user friendly hosts/builders out there (I am using GoogleSites, free hosting and you can bring a custom domain - https://sites.google.com/new). My site took me a couple of weeks to build, but I love it and it serves its purpose. I haven’t spent much (in $$$) keeping it up, and now have another skill I could barter with. Website ($10/yr) - I did all my design with and hosted on GoogleSites - for FREE - I simply purchased my domain through NameSilo (namesilo.com) for about $10/year. Design and creation was easy; drag-and-drop kind of stuff. It doesn’t have the greatest SEO offerings, but with enough messing around you can work in your keywords to your text well enough to rank decently. BUT it took me days of slogging through chatrooms to get Google to finally crawl and list the site, even though they are the ones hosting it. If I were paying myself a reasonable wage, I don’t want to think what it would have cost. Would a pro have been quicker? Would I have fewer gray hairs? Absolutely, but I only had time to invest here. If I can find the patience, you can too. Part 4 -Editing The elephant in the micro-budget publishing room is the edit. The place in writing where going it alone is no longer an option and where the costs can skyrocket. As always, knowledge is power here. Do your research, talk to other writers, and put in those hours. There are ways to get this done and stay on budget, but this is the place where you will encounter the most work since actually writing your book. No matter how much you learn, you simply cannot, and should not, do the edit on your own. Sorry. I’ve tried, for sure, but a second (or third, or fourth...) set of eyes is necessary. But.... you can find your people. Ones that may barter for something else you are good at (see previous posts in this series), ones who are looking for help on their own books... we all need something, and it’s not always $$. That is always the quick way, and if you have it, go for it and don’t get bogged down slogging through hours and hours working around your writing. Scroll around writer groups, read other people’s work, see who you connect with—it might not be who you think. But if you put yourself out there enough, and make enough connections, something/someone will work out. A note here: make sure your work as is good as it can be before you look for these people! You are more likely to make good relationships if you show up acting like a professional. That means lots of self edits; use an AI writing tool, do an audio edit, (this was a game-changer for me! Listen to your work out loud and you will catch SO MUCH more.) make your book as good as you are able. Don’t rely on people to do the heavy lifting. If you abuse them, they won’t turn up again next time you ask for help. Editing (hear me out once more - $0... sort of) My editing budget is, surprise, $0. But, I am a lucky one here—in many ways. I have found (through MUCH trial and error, many blink and you missed them beta swaps, unreciprocated reads, etc) an amazing group to work with, part of that was luck, and part of that is my newfound developmental editing skill. I had something to bring to the table, so this is my biggest barter chip. I can trade dev edits for line edits. Even before I labeled it as such I had another author I trade with (though we were both confused and called ourselves betas) to give her a dev edit for a line edit. It can be done. Figure out what you have an eye for and hone that skill, then use it for all it’s worth to get your book published. Beg, borrow and practice your way to new skills, always be open to refining what you are capable of, and ask questions. Be humble, take critique, and learn, learn, learn. Know what you can spend time on, and figure out what you can spend $$ on. Someday I hope to be at a place where I don’t have to do most of these things on my own, for now... I will because I have to. It also makes me that much more appreciative of those who do offer these services.
Was Jared inspired by a real person?
Yes and no, I am lucky enough to not have had to deal with any kind of stalking, but I do (like most women) have the experience of that guy who just doesn’t get it when you give a polite no. Fortunately, my guy was more lost puppy than bipolar stalker and after a few firmer no’s he got the hint. There are a couple lines of Jared’s that come directly from our text messages, so they helped me ground Jared’s point of view in something real. Where did the idea for the book start? The book idea didn’t actually start off with a stalker. I was looking through images (which I do all the time) and found an image of an abandoned tent in the woods. That got me thinking about who was in it, where they went and why. Laura doesn’t pack herself a tent, but that set-up turned into her little pile of items she left at the trailhead, things to make it look like she was gone for good. Then I just had to figure out what she was running from. Is Laura’s hiking spot a real place? Sort of. Lincoln is an actual town outside of Boston and there are several hiking areas nearby that could feasibly be Laura’s disappearance location. I don’t have a particular one in mind and am not sure that any are surrounded by such meandering roads as she deals with though I am familiar with many areas between Massachusetts and New Hampshire that could fit the bill, small scenic roads are easy to come by out here so I envisioned all the best parts of them for her journey. Which character did you enjoy writing more? I wrote most of Laura’s chapters first (until the timelines merge) and I expected to enjoy her most. She is a planner and analytical like I am. But when I started getting into Jared’s head, he came so easily. It was so enjoyable to let his deluded worldview paint a picture on the page. He has become my favorite character I’ve written so far. He’s an awful guy but was awful fun to write. Why use two different points of view? I like to write in 3rd person (he/she/it) and it was natural to begin that way with Laura, but when Jared came onto the scene he really took over and I felt like I needed to be as close to him as possible—he had to be 1st person. I think it is very effective to understand his delusions this way by really seeing his thought process play out. Since it’s not very common to mix the two in one book, I thought about putting Laura into 1st person as well, but it felt unnatural. She is so closed off from the world that getting in her head seemed wrong. This is where the benefit of self-publishing came in. I didn’t have to make a choice that would be safer for the market, so I stood by what felt right for the characters. |
Categories
All
|
RSS Feed
