You’ve written the book, and now it is time for the stuff most authors hate: the query letter, the synopsis, and the pitch.

I once put a whole novel on the shelf, because I couldn’t put together a decent query letter. Really, I figured if I couldn’t summarize the book within the confines of 300-400 words of a query letter, then obviously, the novel itself needed some work.

But my current WIP… I’m content with my query letter, except for one thing, the comps. I understand why the agents and then the editors want them — to gain an understanding of where your book will fit on current bookshelves, but finding those books is a whole ‘nother matter.

The books you are hoping to compare your book to need to be no older than five years, but the younger the better. Tastes and fads come and go, and they need see your book on a current playing field. And it can’t be a book that is so successful it has its own zip code. If I compared my book to Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, Charlotte’s Web and Watership Down, or The Girl on the Train and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, the Agent will roll their eyes and I’d be lucky if they kept reading. But using an unknown book is just about as pointless. You have to find a couple right in the sweet spot: not too old, and just the right amount of popular.S

So, how do we find these books? Obviously, we should be reading heavily in our preferred genre, and we might just get lucky. But that takes time, and we are busy people. I’ve heard a few different podcasts offer comp suggestions. For instance, The Sh#t No One Tells You About Writing does that about once a month. But what are some other options?

As often happens, we have a book in mind, but it is way too old or too popular. But that title makes for a great starting point for your adventures to the perfect comp. Take that title and pull it up on both Goodreads and Amazon. On Goodreads, scroll down to the “Readers Also Enjoyed section” and on Amazon go to “You might also like”. That will start you off on a rabbit trail of book summaries and reviews, but at least it is a starting point! Another great resource I recently learned about was literature-map.com. There you can put in an author’s name and it will make a grafic with other author’s names, the closest ones tend to be the most like the original author.

I didn’t say it would be easy! There is still a lot of work involved. I found one that I really liked, but then an agent pointed out that it was part of a well know series in that genre, and so it didn’t make for the best comparison. Back to the drawing board I went.

I’d love to hear how other authors have found their comps! I keep hoping for a magic wand, but until then, I’ll just be indebted to Amazon and Goodreads!