Comp titles, short for comparable or comparative titles, are published books yours would sit alongside. Graham Maw Christie give the clearest working definition, describing them as "books yours would be shelved next to".
They exist to place your book quickly: an agent reading two comps learns your genre, your register and your likely reader faster than a paragraph of description would tell them.
Who Actually Asks for Them
Comps are not folklore. Named agencies request them in writing. But they are also far from universal, which the advice rarely mentions.
Agencies that explicitly ask for comps:
- Blake Friedmann: "a couple of comparative titles"
- Madeleine Milburn: "Up to three comparable books or authors from the past ten years"
- Graham Maw Christie: "Up to five comparative titles (books yours would be shelved next to, particularly those that have been published in the last three years)"
- Felicity Bryan: "a couple of comparable books or authors"
- Watson Little: "a couple of recently published titles that are similar to yours in terms of tone or plot"
- LBA: "some comparison titles or authors"
- Chicken House: "recent comparison titles"
- Aevitas: "Comparable titles" as a required field on its submission form
Agencies that ask for none at all, at least fourteen of those checked, including Darley Anderson, Janklow & Nesbit UK, A.M. Heath, PFD, Hardman & Swainson, Marjacq, David Higham, Aitken Alexander, The Bent Agency, Writers House, InkWell, McIntosh & Otis and HG Literary.
So roughly a third of agencies want them. Two thirds do not ask. Including them unprompted is harmless; omitting them where they are requested is not.
The Recency Rule Is Invented
Here is the finding worth carrying away. You will read everywhere that comps must be from the last three to five years, stated as an industry standard.
Only two agencies publish a number, and they do not agree:
- Graham Maw Christie: "published in the last three years"
- Madeleine Milburn: "from the past ten years"
Three and ten. The "three to five years" window that circulates as a rule appears in neither, and in no other agency page checked. It is invented, or at best a blend of the two that matches neither.
What is sourced is that recency matters in a general sense. Watson Little ask for "recently published titles", and Chicken House for "recent comparison titles", without defining either. So prefer recent books, and if an agency states a window, use theirs.
Quantity is better sourced than recency. "A couple" from Blake Friedmann, Felicity Bryan and Watson Little; "up to three" from Milburn; "up to five" from Graham Maw Christie. Two to three is safe everywhere.
Choosing Them
Craft advice, since the sourced guidance stops at quantity and recency:
Comp on the reader, not the plot. The useful comparison is who enjoys your book, not which plot elements overlap. Two novels can share a premise and have nothing in common for a reader.
Pick books that sold reasonably but are not enormous. Comparing yourself to a phenomenon reads as a claim about sales rather than about the book, and the agent cannot use it. A midlist novel that did respectably tells them far more.
Comp within your own category. A literary novel comped to a thriller confuses the placement rather than clarifying it.
You may comp authors rather than titles. Blake Friedmann, Felicity Bryan and LBA all accept "books or authors".
Cross-media comps are a stylistic choice, not a standard. "Succession meets Wolf Hall" is common in pitching, and no agency asks for it. If you use one, anchor it with at least one actual book.
Read them. An agent who represents a comp title will notice if the comparison does not hold.
What Deckle Does
Comp titles are submission material rather than manuscript content, so nothing in Deckle produces them. Two things are still worth knowing.
Keep them where you will find them. The Research area holds notes and saved web pages alongside the manuscript, so comp research stays with the project rather than in a separate document you lose track of. Since about a third of agencies ask for comps and each may want a different number, having three or four ready with a line on why each fits saves rewriting them per submission.
Keep them out of the manuscript. Anything in your Draft folder exports with the book, so comp notes belong in Research or in a document excluded from compile.
For the rest of the package, see what goes in a submission package and how to write a query letter.
Common Mistakes
- Treating "three to five years" as a rule. The only published windows are three years and ten.
- Comping a bestseller. It reads as a sales claim and tells the agent nothing usable.
- Comping outside your category. It muddies the placement instead of clarifying it.
- Including comps where none were asked for and calling it a requirement. Two thirds of agencies do not ask.
- Comping a book you have not read. The agent may represent it.
- Using only film and television comps. Anchor with at least one book.
FAQ
Q: How recent do comps need to be? A: Recent, but no consensus exists. The only two published windows are three years and ten.
Q: How many should I give? A: Two or three is safe. Agencies asking for a number say "a couple", "up to three" or "up to five".
Q: Can I comp authors instead of titles? A: Yes. Several agencies explicitly say "books or authors".
Q: What if my book is genuinely unlike anything? A: It almost certainly is not, and saying so reads as a failure to know the market rather than as originality.
Q: Do I need comps at all? A: Only about a third of agencies ask. Check the specific page, and have some ready regardless.