This is hard for me to do when the time comes.
I like to think that my stories are so unique that they don’t compare to any published story. Not saying that just to be cocky, but because I genuinely don’t know what stories compare to my own. Though when I decide to publish traditionally, I still don’t know which one of my stories is compared to whichever published stories.
So, I struggle with this. What about you guys? Do you have any comp titles for your own stories?
Thoughts and feelings?
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Bump.
I recommend for most writers to check if your title is shared by any songs, preferably by an artist you have never heard of.
Don’t name your book Vampress if you don’t want your readers to confuse you with the Mai Yajima album.
In addition, too many authors writing romantasy have titles eeriely reminiscent of Metallica’s greatest hits. Please don’t do this unless you are ready for the jokes at your expense.
I posted something on my blog about this last week, and I’m still looking into it. There are some interesting entries on various Substacks.
My feelings are mixed, since I can see why publishers would want to know ahead of time whether there’s a market for your book before they take it on. But by being able to compare it to recent books, they’re saying they’re only interested in publishing more of the same old same old instead of taking a chance on something new and innovative. They ought to judge a book by the quality of the work and how interesting the story is, and then market it like they do Stephen King’s books. Then it would sell no matter how unusual it was. ¯\_(ﭢ)_/¯
Sadly this is so true. It’s rather frustrating.
Somebody needs to be the next Stephen King for that to happen.
If I described my book as “Black Clover for Carry On Fans” I doubt it would sell…
I’ve heard that comp titles don’t necessarily have to match tropes or plotpoints with your story, more so similar “vibes” and be fairly recent published books (in trad pub, that is)
Could be good to practice by using movies/older books/series as comp titles too
As for mine, haven’t made comps for them yet 
That’s cool.
But I am still clueless.
Alpha/beta readers (or anyone you get feedback from) could also help pinpoint potential comps later on. Some people who read my first book compared it to Pokemon, for example 
but no need to stress about it if its still a long ways off from querying.
That makes sense.
Is your book similar to Pokemon? LOL!
Pokemon was one of the inspirations for Sapphire Wings, so Im happy to have pulled off the vibes
They are similar in that both have children going on a grand adventure and meeting new creatures along the way, but still different in other aspects
Very cool.
bump.
So I’ve been making a list of possible comp titles. So far all I have is Song of Achilles, The Prisoner of Zenda, anything by Jane Austen or Georgette Heyer, and maybe something by TJ Klune.
Okay, I’m sunk. (♯ᴖ.ლ)
But on the up side I’m not going to publish until the whole series is done anyhow, so that if I go traditional I’ll have the next book in the series already written before the deadline they give me. And if I self-publish, I can rapid release it and maybe catch the algorithm that way, I dunno.
What I definitely want to wait for is more robust copyright protections for our work so it can’t be used for training AI. So I guess that means I’ll have to wait until Trump’s out of office, along with all his evil minions, since he believes in ripping off the little people like us for the benefit of big tech. ˓(ˊᘩˋ⋆)
Btw you might want to stop posting on Wattpad if you’re concerned about that too. I only have one story up and it’s not my best, so I’m not going to bother taking it down, especially since I’m hoping to get 30k reads on it. I just hope I used lots of em dashes in it. (>‿◠)
Who me or you?
Oh, I didn’t mean you specifically, just the general you, meaning everyone. Just anyone who’s currently posting on Wattpad, if they’re worried about them letting an LLM train on their books. I suspect the AI companies are paying writing sites to train on their books, and Wattpad has never said no to money, no matter how unethical the use is. ¯\_(ﭢ)_/¯
Short answer: I don’t like comp titles.
Long answer: I do get why lit agents or publishers might want them. Especially publishers. They want to know what your book is like, but not get into what it’s actually like (my speculations). So, for trad pub, it would be used as a tool to seem appealing to them.
But from a personal standpoint, I don’t like them. As a reader or a writer. If someone tells me their book is like X meets Y, and nothing else, and I haven’t read X or Y, and never will, I would be like, nope, not interested because I haven’t read those books. I want to know what your book is about, not what books it’s like 
A pet peeve book blurb for me is those that start with “this book is X meets Y”. Even if I happen to know one of the books, or miraculously, both books, it drives me away. I don’t even care to read the blurb. I want the blurb starting on the first sentence. They can put those comp titles at the end if they want to.
That’s my thought 
You make a valid point.
I suppose that would be annoying.
And it also makes me wonder if those authors are so insecure about their story, they have to use other books in the blurb to appeal to readers And yes, it is annoying as well.
If I do recognize trending books (like Fourth Wing or ACOTAR) being used as comp titles, I think, “oh, so it’s another Fourth Wing or ACOTAR and nothing new. I want something new.” And I don’t bother reading the blurb that follows because I guess that it’s probably the same old.
But if the comp titles are only for publishers’ and lit agents’ eyes, I say it’s fine. Do what you gotta do 
And publishers like the same old because the same old sells and is less of a risk for them to invest in. (Honestly makes me wonder how new things get published at all )