The term “comp title” is short for “comparison title.” If you’ve heard about comp titles before, you’ve probably tried to write a query letter at some point.
A query letter is like a cover letter for your book. You submit it to agents so they can get some quick information and decide if they want to take a closer look at your project. Query letters are extremely important for writers hoping to sign with an agent, but you can’t think about your query letter as a whole without first getting a handle on one of the most important things you’ll put in it: comp titles.
What’s a Comp/Comparison Title?
Simply put, a comp title is a book that is similar to yours in a fundamental way. It’s not just any book—assuming that you are using a query letter in the pursuit of traditional publishing, it should be a traditionally published book that came out in the last two years. Some people will say that a three- to five-year-old comp title is new enough, but really, the more recent, the better. And it’s best practice to have at least two comp titles.
Why does it need to be a recent title? Because the purpose of a comp title is to demonstrate where your book fits into the current market. Not the market from three trends ago, not the market that produced the big bestsellers that inspired you to write the book in the first place—the market that will exist at the time your agent is pitching your book to publishing houses.
It’s all well and good if your book will appeal to fans of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. That book was a big bestseller, right? They even made a movie out of it. But put yourself in the position of a reader browsing at a bookstore. Which book are you going to reach for first? The one that is like a book you may or may not have actually read when it was a big deal a long time ago? Or the one that’s being compared to the buzzy new book you just finished yesterday?
You also can’t use a classic of the genre as a comp title. Sure, The Lord of the Rings is timeless, but it’s such a pillar of the fantasy genre that it’s not all that specific. There are so many fantasy stories inspired by or similar to The Lord of the Rings that it doesn’t tell a reader much of anything about your book compared to all the other fantasy books out there.
How Do You Pick Your Comp Titles?
If you aren’t allowed to use anything that’s even a few years old, and you aren’t allowed to use timeless classics that everyone loves, then what are you allowed to use?
Once you’ve eliminated classics and older titles, look for books that are similar to yours. Of course, no two books are going to be just alike. But there are plenty of books that feature an enemies to lovers plot. Or stories about a young, small-town kid who moves to the big city. The similarities also don’t have to even be about your characters. Is your book an alternate fantasy world inspired by the history and mythology of a non-European culture? Is it historical fiction set in the 1970s? Does it explore themes of intergenerational relationships among women in one family by going back in time?
There are lots of story elements you can use in your comp titles to give a potential agent a good idea of what your book is like. It’s a very good idea to pick comp titles that have different threads in common with your book, so you can paint a deeper picture of why your book will be so appealing to readers. You don’t need to tell agents that your mystery stars a baking amateur sleuth more than once.
I Can’t Find Any Good Matches!
Aspiring authors love to complain about comp titles. “If a book like mine already existed, I wouldn’t have had to write it! I hate doing marketing work! The two-year limit is too restrictive!”
But here’s a hard truth: if you want to pursue publishing your book professionally, you have to understand where it exists in the market. And that means knowing how to find some comp titles. Even if you’re a self-published author, comp titles will still help you reach those precious readers.
We’ve already covered how to look at strong story elements instead of trying to find a book that is exactly like yours, because, of course, there is no book exactly like yours. But if you’re really struggling to find anything at all, ask yourself the question that is usually key to improving each and every aspect of your writing: am I reading enough?
When it comes to comp titles, maybe you need to focus on reading new releases for a while. Head to your local bookstore and browse the table with brand-new titles. Look through trade review magazine websites and filter for recently published titles.
If you go back to the bookshelf and look a little more closely, you’ll easily find at least two books that fit nicely with yours, ones that you can use to show agents and readers how your own book will fit in with their favorites.
Chelsea Ennen is a writer living in Brooklyn with her husband and her dog. When not writing or reading, she is a fiber and textile artist who sews, knits, crochets, weaves, and spins.
