We hear this all the time: comp titles are one of the scariest, most intimidating parts of sending out a manuscript. Many learn just enough to know that comping to Harry Potter is bad and you really shouldn’t do that–and then they panic. And freeze. And wonder if maybe writing isn’t for them.
Stop right there. You don’t need to know just enough to be dangerous. Hannah Robinson can help.
Comp titles (or “comps”) are one of the first things agents, editors, and booksellers use to figure out whether your book has a place in the market.
The good news? You already know how to do this, you just don’t know it yet.
And if you get it right, you control the conversation around your book from query to agent to editor to publisher.
What Are Comp Titles, and Why Do They Matter?
Comp titles–short for “comparative” or “competitive” titles–are the published books you use to position your own book in the market. They can act as your book’s elevator pitch, giving agents, editors, and readers an immediate sense of what to expect.
According to Hannah Robinson, comps matter for three main reasons:
- They quickly show your book’s place in the market. Instead of explaining your entire plot or thesis, where you’d shelve it, and who would love it, a good comp creates an image and impression in just a few words.
- They create an immediate opportunity for curiosity and connection. Rather than confusing your friends when answering “So, what’s your book about?” you’ll get a reaction like “Wow, cool! I want to read that!”
- They show a sales opportunity. Publishers use comps to forecast how your book might perform, based on how similar books have sold. Help out that future offering editor when their boss asks about sales potential.
In short, your comps let you do in a sentence what would otherwise take a full pitch –or your entire manuscript–to show with nuance.
Surprise: You Already Know How to Do This
Good news: you use this exact skill constantly in everyday conversation.
As Hannah says in this episode, think about how you’d describe an unfamiliar dish to a friend. You wouldn’t list every ingredient and cooking step and what grocery store you went to. Instead, you’d say something like, “It’s like nachos and lasagna had a love child.” Or think about explaining a new band by comparing them to one your friend already loves, or describing curling as “shuffleboard on ice.”
Hannah calls this “comp hunting,” but the truth is you’ve been comp hunting your whole life.
Publishing just adds a formula. And, yes, higher stakes.
Still nervous? Try a foolproof formula.
The Magic Madlib: A Formula for Writing Your Comp Titles
Hannah’s framework, which she calls the Magic Madlib, gives writers a simple structure to build their comps:
[Your Book Title] meets [Comp A] meets [Comp B], perfect for any reader who loves [highlight detail] of [Comp C].
Here are a few real examples pulled from published book descriptions:
- The Three Lives of Cate Kay: “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo meets The First Lie, perfect for readers who love the complicated friendships of Before We Were Innocent.”
- If Cats Disappeared From the World: “Before the Coffee Gets Cold meets We’ll Prescribe You a Cat, perfect for readers who adore the Faustian bargain of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.”
Notice that none of these are exact matches for the books they’re describing. That’s intentional–and it’s the key to understanding why comps work.
The Real Goal of a Comp Title: Triangulation
The reason the Magic Madlib works, Robinson explains, comes down to a concept called triangulation–a technique land surveyors use to find something unknown by measuring from known points.
You can also think of it as the tension between two known concepts.
Applied to comp titles, this means the goal isn’t to find a book that’s identical to yours (tempting as that may seem, that could actually work against you, making the argument that it’s already been done). It’s to use other books as known factors that help agents and editors locate your book within the market. If they already ahve an image in their minds from these books, that does a lot of the work for you.
No matter how unique your book is, there are always points of reference you can use to anchor it–or talk around it.
Hannah offers a helpful analogy: think of your book like a house you’re selling. Your home might have better light, a nicer layout, or none of your neighbor’s questionable paint choices–but if it’s still a three-bed, two-bath in the same school district, that neighboring house is a legitimate comp. It gives buyers (or in this case, agents and editors) a frame of reference, which is exactly what lets your book’s unique selling points stand out.
The 4 Basics for Strong Comp Titles
Before you get creative with your comps, Hannah recommends starting with these four fundamentals. An ideal comp would be:
- The same genre as your book
- The same format (e.g., novel to novel, memoir to memoir)
- A comparable sales track — not necessarily a runaway bestseller
- Published within the last three years
Do you have to get 4 out of 4? Of course not. If one perfect comp is a movie, go for it. If you want to use a novel to pitch a memoir because the themes are identical, please do.
But these four rules are the goal for perfection, so you can know what to aim for in your search.
How to Bend the Rules (Once You Know Them)
As you know, we’re not big on rules here. There are always exceptions.
The real power of the Magic Madlib is its flexibility. Once you understand the basics, you can start breaking them strategically:
- Using a big “category killer” comp? Balance it with a more modest, realistic comp. If your enemies-to-lovers dragon romance is genuinely comparable to Fourth Wing, pair it with a smaller, similarly-positioned title so your pitch doesn’t feel overreaching.
- Found the perfect comp, but it’s more than three years old? Use it as your third comp and explain why it fits, but anchor your pitch with two other titles that fall within the three-year window.
- Want more nuance? Try formats like “the [quality] of Comp A meets the [quality] of Comp B” instead of a straight title-to-title comparison.
- Want more distance from an obvious comp? Reference a broader body of an author’s work, or use the phrase “in the tradition of.”
- Want to widen the picture? Bring in a podcast, TV show, or other media property that captures your book’s tone or plot — what Robinson calls a “mixed media marriage.”
For the quality you choose, the most popular are world, character, conflict, romance–but you can choose anything recognizable as important to that book, as in the examples above.
Here’s an example of that flexibility in action, from the jacket copy of The Dead Husband Cookbook:
“Knives Out meets Evelyn Hugo with a pinch of Nora Ephron’s Heartburn. The Dead Husband Cookbook takes a murder mystery, rolls it in family drama, and roasts it with the heat of feminine fury.”
And from a nonfiction example, End Emotional Outsourcing:
“Melody Beattie’s classic Codependent No More gets an update in End Emotional Outsourcing–a feminist guide to ending perfectionism, people-pleasing, and reclaiming your self-worth. Perfect for fans of Ingrid Clayton and Hayley McGee.”
Notice how the second example uses a well-known “category killer” (Codependent No More) but creates distance by pairing it with more contemporary author names–a useful strategy when your most obvious comp is also your biggest one.
Again, it’s about the tension between comps.
What’s a “Category Killer” Comp?
A category killer is a book so successful and well-known that it practically defines its category–think Harry Potter, The Body Keeps the Score, or Crying in H Mart. These titles can be a useful starting point for your comp search, but Robinson cautions against relying on them alone.
Unless your platform or sales track genuinely aligns with a book of that scale, you’ll want to balance a category killer with a more midlist comp–something closer to what a reader might pick up after finishing that category-defining book.
Final Takeaway
Comp titles don’t have to be the scariest part of your publishing journey. When you shift your thinking from “finding an exact match” to “creating an image,” you give yourself room to describe your book in a way that’s accurate, compelling, clear–and that sparks curiosity.
Start with the basics, use the Magic Madlib formula, and don’t be afraid to make it your own.
This post is based on a live class taught by editor, collaborator, and author coach Hannah Robinson for Manuscript Academy. Before going independent, Hannah worked in-house at HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, and Hachette Book Group, and now specializes in practical nonfiction. Want to meet with Hannah? Head to manuscriptacademy.com/faculty-members/hannah-robinson.
Want to watch the full class on YouTube? Head to youtu.be/9xTy1RMkNSw.