More Author Insight: Mash-up Book Pitches

The popular way to pitch books has become "it’s ____ meets ____." How would you fill in the blanks for your book?

"That is difficult. I think I might say The Stand (for the plague aspect) meets The recent Sherlock Holmes movie (for time period, and a bit of the feel of the setting--if it were post-apocalytpic) I'm pretty sure that's not right at all, but I would read that book!" - Bethany Griffin, author of Masque of the Read Death.

"This is easy, because my brilliant editor, Jordan Brown, already came up with a slew of them: Redwall meets Angry Birds; Watership Down meets Pixar; Redwall meets Ice Age. I would add Watership Down meets P.G. Wodehouse." - Barry Wolverton, author of Neversink.

"I'm really bad at these. I had to ask for help, and this is what was given to me. (She might have been joking. She might not have been. You decide!)

Graceling meets Shirley Maclaine!" - Jodi Meadows, author of Incarnate.

"The Fury series is Pretty Little Liars meets Stephen King." - Elizabeth Miles, author of Fury.

 

"Well, the one on Goodreads is Girl, Interrupted meets Beautiful Creatures. I can’t personally say whether this is true, because I’ve forced myself to stay away from those books, so that I don’t make comparisons in my own mind. I sure they’re both awesome though!" - Sarah Wilson Etienne, author of Harbinger.


 

"This is such a tough one to answer! Graceling (Cashore) meets Feed (Anderson). (I’m cringing right now. I feel so presumptuous saying that, but I think it’s the closest.)" - Veronica Rossi, author of Under the Never Sky.

 

"It’s Star Wars meets The Brothers Grimm. (I’ve been looking for an opportunity to use that!)" - Marissa Meyer, author of Cinder.

"A blogger recently called it Teen Angel meets that show Revenge on ABC.  I sort of love that description." - Jess Rothenberg, author of The Catastrophic History of You and Me.

 

"The easy way is to ask early readers what the book reminds them of.  I find that using films instead of books makes the process easier." - David Macinnis Gill, author of Invisible Sun.

 

"The Princess Diaries meets Dracula." - Beth Fantaskey, author of Jessica Rules the Dark Side.

 

"For Shattered Souls, it’s The Sixth Sense meets Anne Rice’s The Body Thief. 

For Annabel, it’s Edgar Allan Poe’s Annabel Lee meets Romeo and Juliet meets the Book of Job with some Celtic mythology thrown in the mix." - Mary Lindsey, author of Shattered Souls.


 

"Illuminate is The Picture of Dorian Gray meets The Devil Wears Prada, with a sprinkling of Angels and Demons." - Aimee Agresti, author of Illuminate.

"I know what you’re saying, but I don’t think I could pitch this book that way. It’s very low concept and slice-of-life." - Jennifer Echols, author of The One That I Want.

 

"Jane Eyre meets Chitty Chitty Bang Bang  as written by Hans Christian Anderson and directed by Tim Burton." - Suzanne Lazear, author of Innocent Darkness.

Find out Tuesday if publication would feel the same for the authors if they had no physical book to show for it. 
<< Previous