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Writing Advice & Discussion
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Comps
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You're looking for similar tone, setting / ambience, plot structures, specific plot elements, POVs, narrative distance, themes, writing styles, etc. Not for books that are "similar" to yours. Or you may find one, but you really don't want to point out there's *another book* just like yours. You're looking for titles that share attributes of your book, and use those to say something about your book. Or you can take the whole approach of going to a new (sorry, but used book stores carry much older books, and comps should be recently pubbed) book store and finding where on the shelf you'd like your book to be shelved, and then jotting down the titles on either side. Good luck!
Comps are very important to a good query. They tell your agent not just that you are up to date in the genre, but also that you have invested time to research and accurately represent your novel. Remember, you're sending a business proposal to the agent and they want to know they're getting into business with someone who knows their stuff and takes the time to research and grow independently.It's worth checking out Query Shark for information on comps (if you haven't already), but a TLDR of the main advice is:
- Comps show the agent/publisher where your book will sit on a shelf, what will be next to and potentially bought with it.
- Comps should be books published within the last 3–5 years. Any old than that makes them irrelevant for the purpose of querying.
- Comps must be within your genre (this includes target age), so querying a YA book and using an adult or MG comp is inadvisable (adult + MG also doesn't average out to YA, like I've seen some authors try on queries!).
- Always include the author's name on the comp (ie. "Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens").
- Never use a series as a comp; use the first novel from that series (if it came out within the last 5 years).
To find good comps, check out your local library and scan the shelves you think your book would sit on. Check out blurbs and read some of the prose, then pick up a handful of books and give them a read. If something in the book (prose, tone, setting, theme, etc.) is comparable to your novel and fulfills the criteria for a good comp, give it a read and jot down the book and author name. Keep doing this until you have a few to choose from. It may take a while, but finding good comps is very worth the time.
If you ask at the counter, your library will have a subscription to Publisher's Weekly. Look in there for reviews of books in your genre for an extra source of potential comps.
Your library will also be able to order in books for you if you ask, so any book that you think may be a good comp, ask your library to order it in (it's free for you!).
You can also check out the lists books you like/think might be decent comps are on online (Goodreads can be great for this), or ask other readers what books they'd recommend you read based on books you have enjoyed. You can then buy the books (it's generally cheaper to buy an ebook) or source them in a second hand store or request them through your library.
Hope this helps!
I know they say that listing comps is a way to prove to agents that you're keeping in touch with recent books in your genre. I am, but a lot of what I read are old/tried and true books recommended to me by others. See, I'm not made of money and I can't afford to always be buying books, so I do a lot of shopping in the used-book section of my local bookstore.
So...any thoughts about comps, how to get/find/read more relevant ones for your novel? Exactly how important are they, anyway??
PS I recently listed WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING as my comp because, well, I did read that, it did have a lot of similarities, but it's not exactly in my genre and truth be told, I did not like the book...