New York City that particular August gave me the feeling of walking in a sauna. My hair tripled in size and my face “glowed” without a drop of highlighter.

Those quotes I placed around “glowed?” Totally intentional. That glow was 100% sweat. And it was stubborn. It took several hours of sitting in air conditioning to look quasi-normal again.

Right in time for Pitch Slam, thankfully. But that’s another post for another day. The day before Pitch Slam, we had a query prep crash course that emphasized the important of comp titles.

Turned out, these comparison titles were a crucial part of your pitch, and I hadn’t given them nearly enough thought. While I never planned to say this (thankfully), I also learned that “there’s nothing quite like my book on the market” is the kiss of death.

Creativity is, no doubt, celebrated in writing; but when you’ve got your heart set on being traditionally published, you’ve got to demonstrate an understanding of the market. Namely where your book fits in, not only genre-wise but in terms of authors who’ve already made their way to store shelves.

And when you select your comps, you’ve got to keep a few things in mind. They should be fairly recent. It helps if they’re not an obscure title that sold thirty-three copies. Lastly, the titles should reflect the spirit of your book.

Which is why my agent absolutely nailed it when he submitted The Honorary Italians with far better comps than I chose for myself. I was familiar with Ashley Poston’s work but hadn’t read The Seven Year Slip until recently. Ditto for Sonali Dev’s Recipe for Persuasion.

But after reading both, I absolutely understood why these were the right comps for me. It’s yet another instance where I was reminded how much of this process is truly collaborative. Because as you probably suspected, there’s so much to think about when you’re trying to sell a novel. Many think after you write the darn thing and edit and edit and edit some more, the hardest part is over.

Then you go to a Writer’s Digest conference where you’re reminded that, yes, without a completed novel, the rest doesn’t matter. But it’s really only the beginning…and it certainly helps if you’ve got the right comps.

Ok, fellow writers, I’d love to hear from you. How did you figure out which comps to use?