How do I find comps for my book?
2026-05-20 · 4 min read
Short answer. To find comps (comparable titles) for your book, look for recently published books, ideally the last two to four years, in your genre and at roughly your level, that share your book's tone, theme, or readership. Good places to look: books you've actually read in your genre, Amazon "customers also bought" lists, Goodreads "readers also enjoyed" and Listopia, and the subcategories your book would sit in on retailers. The goal isn't to name bestsellers you admire; it's to tell an agent or reader exactly where your book sits on the shelf. AI comp curation can shortcut the research, and WriteLoom's comp tools do this inside your project.
What a comp actually is
A comp is a positioning statement disguised as a book title. When you say your book is "The Night Circus meets Piranesi," you're telling someone the genre, the tone, the likely reader, and the shelf, in five words. That's why comps matter for both querying agents and writing your book's description: they set expectations precisely and quickly.
The rules of a good comp set
| Rule | Why |
|---|---|
| Recent (last 2–4 years) | Shows you know the current market, not the market of a decade ago |
| Genre-appropriate | A comp from the wrong genre confuses the pitch |
| Honest about level | Comping a debut to a #1 bestseller reads as naïve |
| Specific, not obvious | "It's like Harry Potter" tells an agent nothing useful |
| Something you've read | You'll get caught if you comp a book you only know by reputation |
The mega-bestseller trap is the most common mistake. Comping your book to the biggest title in your genre signals that you don't understand how comps work, agents read it as "I want to sell as well as this," which everyone wants. Aim instead for solid, well-regarded books at a realistic level, the kind an agent could actually use to sell yours.
Where to look
Your own shelf first. The best comps are books you've read and can speak to. Start by listing recent reads in your genre that share something real with your book, a structure, a tone, a kind of reader.
Amazon also-boughts. Find a book close to yours and scroll to "Customers who bought this item also bought." This is a live map of what your potential readers are reading.
Goodreads. The "Readers also enjoyed" sidebar and genre-specific Listopia lists surface adjacency you might miss. Goodreads reflects reader taste rather than publisher marketing, which is useful.
Retailer categories. Look at the subcategories your book would be filed under and see what's selling there recently. Tools like Publisher Rocket go deep on Amazon categories specifically.
Recent deals and new releases. Publishers Marketplace deal announcements and new-release lists in your genre show you what's selling right now, which is exactly what comps are supposed to demonstrate.
How AI speeds this up
The slow part of comp research is reading widely enough to find non-obvious matches, and then articulating why each one fits. AI comp curation helps by suggesting candidate titles based on your book's actual themes and tone and explaining the fit, so you're not trawling also-bought lists by hand for an afternoon. WriteLoom's comp curation runs inside your project, so the comps you settle on flow straight into your query and your book description without retyping. (We wrote a longer craft piece on picking five good comps.)
The caveat: AI can suggest a comp you haven't read, and you should never put a book in your comp set on the strength of an AI summary alone. Use the suggestion as a lead, then confirm it's a real fit, ideally by reading at least part of the book.
A simple process
- List five to ten recent books in your genre you've actually read.
- For each, write one sentence on what it shares with your book.
- Cross off anything too big, too old, or too tangential.
- Use also-boughts, Goodreads, or AI curation to fill gaps with non-obvious matches.
- Settle on three to five that, together, draw an accurate picture of your book.
Done well, your comp set is the most efficient pitch you'll write, a whole positioning argument made in a handful of titles.