One of my beta readers, Katie (who is an incredible editor), was kind enough to give me comp titles with her initial editorial letter for my story earlier this fall. That is above and beyond stuff right there, especially since I hadn’t thought about comp titles at all!
Comp titles is short for comparative titles — books that are similar to your own. This is important when pitching and selling a book as it gives everyone a frame of reference for the themes and tone in your story.
Katie named five potential comp titles for me:
- Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson
- The Inexplicable Logic of My Life by Benjamin Alire Sánez
- Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sánez
- Orbiting Jupiter by Gary Schmidt
- Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson
I’d already read both the Benjamin Alire Sánez titles and it was one of the biggest compliments of my life to be comp’d to Aristotle & Dante. But I wasn’t familiar with the others.
I finally checked the rest out from the library and took them home with me for Thanksgiving break, reading all three last week. And wow. Orbiting Jupiter reminded me so much of my main character’s voice when he was younger. And Tiffany D. Jackson’s books are masterful and go there. I’ve spent a lot of time wondering if parts of my book (okay one part) is too dark for YA. But nope, not going to worry about that anymore.
I saw Tiffany D. Jackson speak at the Texas Book Festival in October, stopping for her talk because I recognized her name from Katie’s comp titles even though I hadn’t read her books yet. She was on a panel talking about serious issues present in YA and the question came from the audience: where’s the line? when is it too much? too dark? too serious?
The consensus from the panel: there really isn’t one. Teens are experiencing real, often traumatizing issues. It’s a disservice to shield them in their literature from the realities so many are experiencing every day.
My writing last week was nearly nonexistent, just a slow drip to keep up my sentences, but I feel like I made progress in understanding my own story and how it fits into the broader landscape right now.
Here are my last sentences written from this past week:
- 11/26: I closed my eyes and listened; this way.
- 11/27: She hooked a knuckle under my chin and met my eyes.
- 11/28: You know I want you to stay.
- 11/29: We’ll leave in the morning.
- 11/30: There was a cut scabbed over stemming from the corner of her right eye and branching out in four uneven tendrils into her hairline and down her cheek.
- 12/1: In the light, imperfect; in the heat shadows, monstrous.
- 12/2: But I didn’t think any of that.
With Love,
Natalie