The Shepherd website (as in a book shepherd) asked me (and many other authors) to create a list of three favorite reads of the year. Shepherd describes their goal this way: “to create an experience like wandering around your favorite bookstore but reimagined for the online world.” In their model, authors’ lists and informal chats about books they love stand in for the all-important, trusted bookstore staff who can point you to just the right book in your local indie bookstore. I do love my live bookstore and the staff therein, but Shepherd’s online version is a lot of fun.
Three Favorite Reads of Historical Fantasy
As my “favorites,” I chose three particularly excellent recent books of historical fantasy. I hope you’ll want to explore what I had to say about them. Here’s the Shepherd Judith Starkston’s 3 favorite reads in 2023 .
Choosing favorite books is, of course, ridiculous on some level. I read way more than 3 superb books this past year. The process is right up there with favorite children or some other impossible decision. However, I narrowed my thinking down in a particular way. Each of my choices have some indirect commonalities with my own fiction beyond all of them being historical fantasy. The idea, I hope, is that those who might enjoy the three recommendations would also enjoy Priestess of Ishana, which is included on the page with a blurb and cover. No fair to readers to leave a confusing trail to a book they wouldn’t like.
Comparative Titles
Why “indirect commonalities” rather than something exactly similar? Simply put, I always struggle to identify anything precisely like my fiction. The publishing world calls similar books “comparative titles” or “comps.” Accurately identifying “comps” is incredibly useful for a number of reasons. Mentioning them can give a shortcut for browsers to id what your book is like. That identification gives the reader comfort that encourages them to select your own book, also.
And then there are comps for the complicated project of online book ads. (Which I will confess I do not enjoy but every author has to give it a go.) “Comps” are even more essential for the success of ads.
So I’d love to have a tidy list of accurate comps. However, I write genre blending fiction set in an admittedly obscure historical period. I call my genre “historical fantasy” as the best describer, but my blend of historical fiction and epic fantasy also includes other subtypes of fantasy and elements of mystery, romance, and political thriller. And then there are those Hittites. Not exactly the hot period everyone chooses to read (or write). So there are a dearth of precision comps.
Tracking Down Comps
I remember a conversation with a dear writer friend, Anna Castle, who has sadly passed away. I miss her expertise in virtually everything writing related. On this particular occasion at a hotel cafe at some conference or other, I bemoaned my difficulties with ad comps. She poo-pooed this and whipped up screens on various sites to show me my comps. An hour or so later, she allowed as I had a challenge. We had a good laugh, but I did not solve my problem. So the list of 3 favorite reads is a sort of comp list, but possibly not the way the publishing world understands it. Maybe it will make sense to you–and readers are the only ones who matter.
Something occurs to me. You, my blog readers, are probably a great source on this subject. Please, if any come to mind, put in the comments below titles that strike you as comparative to my novels. I’ll enjoy all your ideas, and you might help me build an ad that actually sells books–what a concept!
In the meantime, back to my primary purpose this week–to introduce you to my “3 Favorite Reads” list on Shepherd’s. It’s a good list whether they are my comps or not.
For Further Reading
My previous list on Shepherd’s was for Best Books Set in the Trojan War.
Shepherd’s has compiled the many authors’ choices and created a 100 Best Books of 2023, which you may enjoy exploring and comparing it to your personal favorites, as well as finding the must-read title that escaped you.