Comp titles

Comp titles (comparable titles) are the recently published books a writer names to show where their own book sits in the market: who already buys this kind of story, and which shelf it belongs on.

The convention is two or three of them, published recently, in the same category as your book, and successful without being enormous.

THE LIGHTKEEPER'S DAUGHTER is a 90,000-word YA fantasy that will appeal to readers of [recent book A] and [recent book B].

That sentence sits in the details paragraph of a query letter, after the pitch.

How to choose comp titles

• Same category and audience. An adult thriller comped against a middle grade adventure tells the agent you do not know who your reader is.
• Recent. Within the last few years, so the comp says something about today's market.
• Successful, but not a phenomenon. Solid sellers, not the book everyone has heard of.
• Similar in feel, not just plot. Tone, voice and the reader's experience count more than a matching premise.
• Read them. An agent may know the book well. A comp you picked from a blurb can be wrong in ways you will not see.

The mistake writers make most

Comping The Hunger Games or Harry Potter reads as inexperience, partly because those numbers are not a plan anyone can repeat, and partly because such famous books tell an agent nothing specific. A comp that is doing its job says: the people who bought this, in this quantity, would buy mine.

It helps to remember that a comp is an argument about audience, not a claim about quality and not a list of your influences. Naming Faulkner says something about your ambitions and nothing about who will buy the book.

The X meets Y formula works when both halves are clear to someone who has not read either, and when the combination suggests a story. Screenwriters use it constantly alongside a logline, with films and series as the comps.

Comps as a revision tool

If you genuinely cannot find any comps, the book may be sitting between two categories, too dark for one shelf and too young for the next. That is much better to discover now than after fifty rejections, and it is the kind of market question a manuscript assessment is meant to raise.

Frequently asked questions

What is a comp title?

A comp title, short for comparable title, is a published book similar enough to yours in genre, audience and feel that its readers would likely buy yours too. Writers name them in query letters to show where their book fits.

What is a comp list?

A comp list is simply a set of comp titles. In a query letter it is usually two or three books. Inside publishing houses, editors and sales teams use longer comp lists to estimate how a new book might sell.

Can I use a film or TV show as a comp?

For a novel, one screen comp alongside a book comp is usually fine, but not screen comps alone, because agents sell to book buyers. For a screenplay, film and TV comps are the norm.

How recent should comp titles be?

Recent, generally within the last few years, because an agent wants to know what readers are buying now. A classic tells them about your influences, not your market.