I could write forever about comp titles. I do think there’s a lot of confusion around them, mainly because in the lifespan of a book project, there should be three different sets of comps!

Agent comps: tone and market [Tells me something about the writing style / who they think we can sell it to. Often very lofty and very trendy.]

Sales rep comps: sales projections [Any sales rep will tell you—no matter the size of the publisher—the metadata comps are for sales only. Not just content. These are unfortunately, what booksellers see first.]

Publisher comps: tone/market, but tailored to our brand [These are the ones we put on the flap copy to consumers and outward-facing metadata. THESE SHOULD BE DIFFERENT from the previous sets!]

In a perfect world, the store has an in-person rep that can do a combo of 2 and 3. Publisher comps are our chance to take the lofty dreams of the agent and contextualize them into comps based on our own sensibilities and realistic goals for the book.