WHAT THE HECK IS A COMP TITLE & HOW DO I FIND ONE?

Advice from the pros on nailing comp titles & appealing to the right audience

Welcome to part two of a new series I’m calling the Agent/Author Advice series. My agent, Cathie Hedrick Armstrong from Marsal Lyon Literary Agency, and I are tackling a series of topics from both the author side and agent side and sharing them on our Substack pages (hers is here.)

Topic one was communication between your agent and what to expect. You can read that here.

Today we’re tackling COMP TITLES, or comparative titles in the traditional publishing space.

1. What the heck is a comp title?

A comp title or comparative title is, in a professional sense, a novel published within your genre and age category that can be compared to your manuscript. Something that editors or publishing professionals can look at and get a sense of where your book will sit on a shelf or in the market.

For example, for my last book, NOT READY TO MAKE NICE (a women’s fiction/romance crossover) we comped MEET ME AT THE LAKE and WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING for the dual timeline, romance storyline of MEET ME AT THE LAKE and the atmosphere and isolation storyline of WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING. When I send that to editors, they have a good idea for what readers may buy my book based on the other titles I say it’s **similar to.

**Please note I say similar, not the exact same. You can comp tropes, themes, voice, etc. You’re never going to find an exact match to your book, but look for similarities. Ex: The storyline of Meet Me at the Lake meets the isolation and atmosphere of Where the Crawdads Sing.

But wait, what about songs and movies and tv shows and plays?

2. Social uses vs professional uses

I break comp titles into two categories: the ones I use for social media and finding a reader audience, and what I send to my agent to use in my official sub packet for submission to editors.

For social media marketing purposes, pull out those movies, shows, and songs. I’ve pitched books as THE ARCHER meets THE BOLTER or FLORIDA!!! meets PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE. And this is fine on social media because you aren’t trying to make business moves here. You aren’t looking at purchases, you’re trying to find an audience. It’s the difference between sales projections and tastes.

Social media is appealing to tastes and target audiences. It’s a “hey, if you like this thing, you’d also like my thing.”

But, when it comes to submitting officially to agents and editors, you need to take off the marketing hat and put on the business hat. You’re not only appealing to their tastes in that instance, but their investment. You have to show them there is a place in their market for your books. And a book/movie/tv show budget and audience is very very different than a reader audience. Consider how many of your friends will watch a movie, but not read the book. Point made. That’s why it’s so important to have current book comparative titles to comp your book to.

Some insider professional information:

I got the opportunity to listen to an editor from Sourcebooks last summer at a writer convention for my (at the time) literary agency. It was very informative on their process and what they look for when acquiring books, and the biggest thing she impressed on us was the importance of comp titles. Specifically, that comp titles are what sell your book. And publishing is a business.

According to the source books editor, comp titles need to be books in your age range, genre, middle-range sales, and published within the last two years.

Yup, that two year timeframe hurts. But the market changes so suddenly, it makes sense. Also, it shows that you as an author are immersed in the book community and reading widely and often. They use these comps to show to the people who give them the money to buy your book. No pressure.

3. Where to look for comps and how to find them

So where the heck do you find these comp titles? Here’s a list of resources I use (as an author) when looking for my comparative titles.

• Ask friends & consult Google:

My go-to when I even come up with a pitch or an idea for a book is to ask my friends “have you read any books similar to this?” My author friends are also avid readers, and if I can’t think of a book, they almost always come through with something for me to read and check out.

I’ll also google “books with xyz trope” or “books with zyx theme” and start going through lists until I find a few that feel like they might match what I’m going for.

In order for any of this to be successful, you need to have a solid grasp on what themes, tropes, and tones are in your book. Knowing your voice is also extremely helpful, but that can be harder to detect on your own. Ask readers “what authors does my writing remind you of or sound similar to?”

• Literature Map: https://www.literature-map.com/

If I know my voice/tone is very similar to Abby Jimenez, for example, this will populate results on other authors that readers pick up after reading her books.

• Browse the shelves at my local bookstore:

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve found an incredible comp because of a little tag situated on the shelf from a bookseller raving about a book. Also, booksellers and librarians are great resources. As scary as it feels, ask them: “Hey, I wrote a book with these tropes and themes. Can you recommend something similar?”

• Amazon & Goodreads:

I look up every comp title on these websites to check who the publisher is (a self pub book isn’t a great trad-pub book because they are different markets) and when it was published. If it was more than two years ago, I have to cross it off the list. If a book is a good match, but it’s too old, I’ll search for “books like OLD TITLE” and see if I can find something newer (honestly, sometimes this leads me to reddit threads).

When I’ve done the best I can to find similar titles, I write a them onto list including why I think they match, what year they were published, and I send it to my agent, who has her own method for finding comps. Sometimes, she rejects books I suggest (maybe the genre doesn’t match right or she thinks its too popular or did poorly). A lot of the time, she finds better comps to match.

You can head to her page HERE to check out her side and advice for finding comp titles.

Good like & happy comping!
-K