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About this tool
Agents ask for two or three comparable titles so they can see which readers already buy this kind of book. Jane Friedman and working agents tell writers to stay inside the last few years — three is the usual target, five is the outside — and to match the reader’s experience, not a plot clone. Skip mega-bestsellers everyone already knows, skip films, and skip a title you are not sure exists. This finder asks for recent novels, then looks each one up on Open Library. A match is labeled verified. A miss is labeled unverified. The year is Open Library’s first record, which is sometimes earlier than the edition you mean, so confirm it before you write “readers of this book.” Pick two. Leave unverified titles out of the query.
What you can do
- Suggestions aimed at novels from the last five years, in your genre
- Each title checked against Open Library before it is called real
- Verified-recent, verified-older, and unverified are separate labels
- A link to the Open Library record when one exists
- One sentence on the shared reader promise, not a fake plot summary
- Your own title is excluded so the tool does not comp the book to itself
Planning tools and long-form structure
Novels fail when structure is improvised scene by scene. Beat sheets, chapter planners, and blurb builders help you decide pacing and reader promises before you spend tokens on prose. Pair these tools with an outline in Entangled Text so generation follows a spine.
AI book outline generator · AI novel writing workflow · Write a book with AI
How to use it
- Enter your working title so it can be excluded.
- Set genre and audience (adult, YA, middle grade).
- Paste a premise or a short excerpt that shows the reader promise.
- Generate. Keep titles marked verified and recent.
- Open the library link and confirm you would actually say “readers of this also want mine.” Then read the book if you have not.
Tips for fiction authors
- Two solid comps beat five shaky ones. Most query guides want two or three.
- A comp from 1998 can still be true and still be the wrong line in a 2026 query. Prefer the recent badge.
- “Verfied on Open Library” means the title and author match a record. It does not mean the book is the right comp. You still have to mean the comparison.
- Do not comp to a film or a billion-copy classic unless an agent specifically asked. It does not tell them where the book sits in this year’s market.
- If every suggestion is unverified, do not smooth them into a sentence. Search a bookstore’s new-release shelf in your genre instead.
Related guides
Common questions
What is a comp title in a query letter?
A comparable title is a published book whose readers are the readers you want. Agents use it to place your novel: genre, tone, and audience. The usual line is “[Your book] will appeal to readers of [Title] by [Author] and [Title] by [Author].” Those books need to be real.
How recent should comp titles be?
Aim for the last three years. Five years is the usual outside limit, and an older book is stronger when you pair it with a newer one. This tool marks last-three-years, three-to-five-years, and older-than-five as different labels. The year comes from Open Library’s first record, so a 2024 US edition can show an earlier year. Open the link and confirm the edition before you name it in a query.
How many comp titles go in a query letter?
Two or three. One is thin. More than three starts to look like you are unsure which readers you want. The tool may show up to six verified candidates so you can choose. The query line is still “readers of A and B.”
How does this check that a book is real?
After the model suggests titles, each one is looked up on Open Library by title and author. A matching record is labeled verified and linked. If Open Library has no match, or the lookup fails, the title is labeled unverified. Unverified does not mean “probably real.” It means “do not use this until you confirm it yourself.”
Why not just ask a chatbot for comps?
Chatbots invent plausible titles, and they default to famous old books because those are what they have seen most. A query that cites a book that does not exist is an easy rejection. The lookup step is the point of this tool.
Can I comp my book to a movie or a classic?
You can, and agents usually treat it as a stall. “Gone Girl meets The Great Gatsby” does not say who is buying books like yours this year. Use a novel in your category from the last few years.
What if the verified book is the wrong comp?
Drop it. Verification only checks that the book exists and who wrote it. The “why” line is a suggestion. If you would be embarrassed to say your book sits next to it, it is not your comp.
Does this replace reading the comps?
No. You should have read, or at least skimmed, any book you name in a query. The tool gets you to a short list that is real. You decide the fit.
Is the comp title finder free?
Yes. Suggestions use Entangled Text’s included AI. The existence check uses the public Open Library search API. You do not need an API key.
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