Hello all, I wanted to let you know that I am (excitedly!) doing a live guest spot on my editor Jessica Hatch’s Stubstack podcast, Comp Title Book Club, this Saturday, January 13th, 2024 at 2pm EST! Jessica is veteran editor and author with experience in both traditional and indie publishing, and she is using all of those hats through CTBC to bring together a diverse group of fellow authors and industry professionals to talk about their books and the things that inspire them creatively.

In publishing lingo, a comparative (“comp”) title is another book or piece of media that authors can use to pitch and contextualize their own stories to potential agents, publishers, or even readers. A comp title can be a reference to another artist’s subject matter, style, or simply their overall vibe. For example, because of its focus on feuding royal families and its touches of fantasy/mythology, Jessica herself compares my God’s Wife books to Game of Thrones. For CTBC, Jessica uses the idea of comp titles as a jumping off point with a new author every episode to discuss a piece of art that influenced them, as well as their own work, and writing and publishing in general.

This Saturday, she and I will be talking about Hilary Mantel’s Tudor historical novel, Wolf Hall, winner of the 2009 Booker Prize, as well as my next book, The Gourd and the Stars, and whatever else comes up along the way. If this piques your interest (or you just want to find out what my voice sounds like), click here to register. And if you can’t make it to the live videocast, I’ll have a link for the recorded audio in the near future. Hope to have you with us!