Comps and Blurbs for Moonrising
How reading strategically in my genre set me up for success
When I started getting serious about traditionally publishing Moonrising, one of the first things I learned about was comps. Comps are recently published (think 2-3 years old) successful (but not too successful—no comping the Hunger Games) books in your genre. They show to an agent where your book fits in the market and demonstrate your understanding of the industry.
My problem? I’m a big re-reader. And the books I’ve loved since I was a teenager couldn’t be comps. I also had the—mistaken—idea that if I read too much recently published sci-fi, my own writing would be derivative.
So while Moonrising might accurately be pitched as The Martian meets A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, I couldn’t say this because 1.) the books are too old (first published in 2011 and 2014, respectively), 2.) The Martian was too successful, 3.) A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet was originally self-published via a Kickstarter.
So I needed to get reading! It took me a long time to land on the right books, but the more I read, the stronger my comps got. The Publishers Marketplace deal announcement pitched Moonrising as Sea of Tranquility meets Winter’s Orbit.
Sea of Tranquility, by Emily St. John Mandel, the author of Station Eleven, is literary sci-fi with big ideas that partially takes place on a Moon colony. Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell is a feel good queer sci-fi romance. Moonrising falls somewhere in the middle of those styles. And I knew I’d made a good decision when I saw this tweet:
Yesterday, my editor gave me a list of the authors she’s planning to reach out to to get blurbs for Moonrising. Our goal is to get one blurb on the front cover and two on the back. She asked me to write “love letters” to each of the authors, and I had so much fun doing those yesterday. Because I’ve made a serious effort to read recently published sci-fi, writing a few sentences gushing to these authors was easy! I’d read at least one of their books and have already thought carefully about what elements in their own writing connected to mine.
Fingers crossed that a few of these incredible authors say yes! In the meantime, I’ll keep reading.
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The "WINTERS ORBIT COMB" tweet is hilarious. It looks like you already have fans and the book isn't even out yet