"The things that you love about your book are the same things that readers love AFTER they've read the book, not the thing that drives them to try it"
Differentiation Is Key
It's not a secret that the indie book space is very saturated right now. With the barriers to entry getting lowered all the time, publishing numbers are only increasing, with thousands of new Indie books being published each day.
Combine this with the fact that you're competing for attention with blockbusters, no matter what genre you're in, and it can feel impossible to stand out in the ever-growing sea of books that readers have to choose from.
But, there are ways to stand out from the crowd, and some of them even make use of those very same books that you're competing with.
"And/But" Positioning
This is the foundation of what I like to think of as "Familiar but Different". It can be separated into two distinct categories.
"And" Positioning
This is the easier of the two to wrap your head around, and for most authors it's the best way to start thinking about how to give readers some common touch-point to compare their book to, while standing out.
The simplest way to think about this is to imagine that your book is a combination of two already existing popular books. Which ones would you choose?
The easiest example is Fourth Wing, which you could easily pitch as "ACOTAR meets Eragon". It's romantasy, but with dragons.
Now if you've read ACOTAR, you probably know that it's not really that much like Fourth Wing. Honestly, neither is Eragon.
That's the difference between this and what we traditionally think of as a "comp", like you would include in a query letter.
Is it the most accurate possible comparison? No it isn't. That isn't the goal. The goal is to use one or two popular series to illustrate the general vibe or concept that your book is going for. You shouldn't be asking whether there is a more accurate comparison, but whether a reader would feel betrayed if they read your book based on it, and whether you've picked two pieces of media that are familiar enough to give them a familiar touch-point to the kinds of stories your work has been inspired by.
"But" Positioning
This is the more powerful version of "And", but it's also more difficult to get right, and it can require more trial and error to understand what is going to resonate with your audience.
"But" positioning (besides sounding funny when read out loud), is another way to do the same thing, and give potential readers a familiar touch-point, while illustrating the concept of your story.
We'll continue with Fourth Wing as an example here. You could pitch it as "Eragon but it's an adult enemies to lovers romance" to a fantasy audience or "Vampire Academy, but with dragons" to a romance audience.
This is much harder to get right, because you do have to adjust your touchpoint to match who you are pitching to, but it still has to be a recognizable series, and it has to be an interesting combination.
This can be a much stronger way to pitch your book, especially because the reader only has to be familiar with one series instead of two, but as mentioned it's much harder to get right.
Finding Your Differentiator
But, for either of those to work, you really have to understand what makes your book special. Most authors, in my experience, think they know what makes their book stand out, but they're usually not right about it.
It can be really difficult to have a good objective view of your work, because often the things that you love about your book are the same things that readers love AFTER they've read the book, not the thing that drives them to try it in the first place.
Because of this, I've created a worksheet you can use yourself, completely for free, that you're seeing before anyone else, at the link below. Download it and try it. Just make sure if anyone asks you where you got it that you tell them about this newsletter!
Get The Worksheet Here
If you try the worksheet, I'd love if you could reply letting me know if it helped you, and if not how it could be better!
If you've received this email it means that you're entered for a chance to win a free strategy call as well!
Thanks and happy writing!
Seth
