You’re finally ready to develop a proposal for your nonfiction book, and one of the sections in the proposal template you found online is labeled “comp titles.” What does this mean?
Comp stands for competitive, comparable, and/or comparison. Therefore, comp titles are books (titles) currently on the market that are similar to yours.
Agents and publishers review comp titles to judge the sales potential of your book. They are looking for both similarities (familiarity) and differences (distinctiveness) and want to see that:
- There is a market for your book and its subject,
- You know how your book fits into the market strategically, and
- You are adding something distinctive to the conversation, whether a new hypothesis or a fresh perspective on a familiar topic.
Comps are required for traditional publishing book proposals, but they can also be useful if you plan to maintain your independence via self-publishing. In this article, we’ll first cover the basics of comps for use in a standard nonfiction book proposal, and then we’ll look at how you can benefit from using comps outside a proposal.
What Makes a Good Comp Title
As you choose comp titles for a proposal, look for traditionally published books released in the past two to three years by authors who have a similar marketing platform to yours and who are trying to reach a similar audience.
Traditionally published
Traditionally published books are used because, fair or not, they still tend to be regarded more positively than self-published books. But more importantly, sales data on self-published books can be hard to uncover for anyone but the author. Literary agents and publishers have much better access to data on traditionally published books.
Circana BookScan, a major source of information, is estimated to capture about 85 percent of US print sales. Circana can provide point-of-sale history and performance by title, author, category, and various other characteristics. A full individual subscription starts around $3,000 per year.
Publishers Marketplace provides information on book deals, with a number of optional add-on services, including some limited access to Circana data. A basic subscription starts around $30 per month. (To be clear, I do not have a subscription to either, so I am sharing the info I can find online.)
While authors are generally not expected to know as much about sales numbers as agents (who have better access to more information), you might explore Publishers Marketplace if you’re trying to find data to shore up your proposal.
Recently published
Recently published books make better comps than older books. Publishing is a slow business, so if you find a comp that was published three years ago, by the time your book hits the shelf, your comp could be five years old. If you don’t use recent books, the comparisons can be less meaningful. In some tricky niches, you may be able to use older books, but whenever possible, you’ll be safest sticking to those from the past couple years.
Reasonable author comparison
Chances are you do not want to choose bestselling books or authors to compare your book with unless you are already a well-known author yourself. So no Mel Robbins or James Clear. (If you’ve got their phone numbers in your mobile, have at it.)
Rather, choose comp titles that are aligned with your subject and the platform and marketing reach you legitimately have. This can feel tricky, but look for authors who:
- Are subject matter experts but not household names.
- Have a similar online and offline profile to yours (e.g., website, online courses, articles, podcasts, speaking gigs, credentials).
- Have a social media following and engagement comparable to yours.
Additionally, while reviews are not always a reliable proxy for sales, there’s at least a loose correlation. I’d probably avoid books with extraordinarily high numbers of reviews, as those books would likely not set reasonable expectations as comparisons.
Correct audience
Two books can address the same subject and yet have distinct audiences. Choose comp titles that reflect your audience.
For instance, I’ve worked on personal finance books for:
- Young people new to managing their money,
- People new to investing, and
- People with substantial assets who are looking for more fulfillment in life.
If I were writing a practical book about personal finances in retirement, probably none of those audiences would indicate a good comp. I’d want to look for books written for people in or near retirement.
Finding Comp Titles
To find comp titles, my starting places are online searching, the library, and the local bookshop. Browse the relevant categories (e.g., personal finance, diet and nutrition). While I sometimes have trouble finding the most recently published books at my local library, the search often leads to authors to explore.
I’d suggest identifying at least six comps. The latest guidance I’ve received is that three or four is plenty for a proposal. But finding more titles will give you flexibility and help you see the market better. If you have a literary agent, they will almost certainly give you feedback on your proposal before it goes to publishers and can guide you on how many and which comps to use.
Common question: Do you actually have to read the comp titles? At minimum, I suggest skimming them. The point is to differentiate your book, and if you don’t know what a comp’s argument or positioning is, how can you make a relevant comparison?
Using Comp Titles in Your Book Proposal
In the comp title section of your book proposal, I find it helps to tee up why you chose the comps you did. Then you list the books chosen, including some standard elements:
- Basic book data: title, author, publisher, year, format, page count, price, and ISBN.
- A summary of the book to show similarities and demonstrate there is a market.
- A comment on how your book differs, to demonstrate that it offers something to fill a gap in the market.
For instance, in a proposal for a diet/nutrition book, the setup and one of the comp titles might look something like this (note the publication date is more than two to three years ago because this example came from an old proposal):
These comp titles include two relatively traditional diet books and two that focus on longevity and health span. In both categories, robust scientific evidence—an important element of Author X’s book—is provided to support the eating plans.
The DASH Diet Mediterranean Solution: The Best Eating Plan to Control Your Weight and Improve Your Health for Life by Marla Heller, MS, RD; Grand Central Life & Style (Hachette), 2018, hardback, 264 pages, $26.00, 978‑1‑5387‑1525‑3.
This book combines the DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension), which is often considered bland, with the Mediterranean diet, which offers more flavor, for “Med-DASH.” Med-DASH is positioned as “not a diet” but “relearning how to eat.” The plan’s philosophy is to focus on adding the right foods rather than restricting less-good foods, with an emphasis on understanding serving size and tracking what you eat.
Author X’s Fabulous Nutrition Plan and Med-DASH are both lifetime eating plans rather than weight-loss-focused diets. However, whereas Med-DASH provides numerous foods to eat, Fabulous Nutrition Plan simplifies by focusing on a few items to substitute. Neither requires calorie tracking, but Med-DASH tracks portions of food eaten each day by category; Fabulous Nutrition Plan requires no tracking.
Using Comp Titles as a Strategic Positioning and Writing Tool
As mentioned earlier, comp titles have uses beyond traditional book proposals. And note that some of the “rules” (such as comps needing to be traditionally published) can be discarded when you are using them for your own purposes.
Here are some of the ways I’ve used comps:
Getting marketing and positioning ideas
For any book project, it’s useful to know how your book fits in the market. I often take authors through a mini book-proposal thinking process to clarify the angle they want to use on their topic, who their audience is, how they want to reach that audience, and any other relevant factors that shape our approach to the book.
With respect to marketing, I use comp titles specifically to help with cover design. What are the current trends in the genre? What cliches do we want to avoid?
While as part of my work I don’t spend a lot of time on researching marketing tactics, looking at what comparable authors are doing is a prime source of ideas. This is one place you may want to seek out self-published authors. With book sales dependent on their own marketing efforts, these authors can sometimes be extraordinarily knowledgeable, strategic, and creative.
Understanding genre conventions
I also find comps useful in the writing process. If you are working in a popular genre, there’s a good chance you will find some consistency in book structure.
For instance, a few years back I was looking for diet/nutrition book comps (see prior example) and realized most followed this structure:
- The big idea, supporting science, why the reader should follow the plan, and a preview of the plan.
- The details of the eating plan.
- Variations of the plan for specific audiences (e.g., children, vegetarians), FAQs, tips, and similar items.
- Menus and recipes that support the eating plan.
Would your diet book have to follow this structure exactly? No. Every book will have its own flavor (pun intended), however, I’d be surprised if you didn’t come up with something similar, because this is a logical progression of information.
Additionally, readers of diet/nutrition books tend to read a lot of them, so they are familiar with this structure. Because it fits their expectations, cognitive friction is reduced. In a standardized genre, if you give readers something nonstandard without a good reason for it, I would anticipate confusion and pushback.
Finding structure and style inspiration
Other genres may not follow a standard structure; seeing how authors have approached their books can spark ideas for you.
For instance, there is a category of memoir that deals with what I’ll loosely call medical issues—an illness, a disease, an accident—and how the author dealt with their situation. In reading comps for a book in this genre, I found numerous approaches:
- Straight memoir that entailed more storytelling and limited explanation.
- Chapters that alternated between story and science/medicine. My client Caitlin Massone used this approach in her memoir, Running from Perfection. She told the story of living with eating disorders and used her expertise as a neurologist to explain what was happening in the body related to the eating behavior.
- A focus on the medical issue supplemented with stories. In one comp I read, the author wrote in depth about OCD. He happened to have OCD, so he occasionally interspersed his own experience along with stories from others living with it.
Many genres have numerous creative possibilities for structure and style, so seeing the different ways authors shape their books can help open up your thinking.
Get reading…
Whether you’re preparing a book proposal or planning to self-publish, spending some time with comp titles can be a worthwhile investment. You’ll come away with a better understanding of your market, your readers’ expectations, and the opportunities you have to help your book stand out.
Have you used comp titles for something other than what I suggested here? I’d love to hear about it. Get in touch at karin@clearsightbooks.com.