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What genre is my book?
Paste or upload your manuscript. This reads your opening, a section from the middle, and your ending — then names the genre a bookseller would shelve it under and the comparable titles you could defend in a query letter.
What you get back
The genre and subgenre a bookseller would shelve the finished book under
Readership category — middle grade, young adult, or adult
The concrete evidence from your pages that decided the call
Alternative shelvings that are also defensible, where they exist
Three to five comparable published titles, each checked against Open Library
A query-letter comp paragraph you can copy straight out
Why comps decide so much
An agent reads your comp titles before they read your pages. Two titles tell them which shelf you belong on, which editors to think of, and whether you have read in your own category recently. Getting them wrong is the fastest way to be passed on by someone who would otherwise have liked the book.
The common mistakes are consistent. Comping to a runaway bestseller reads as naivety rather than ambition. Comping to a book from twenty years ago says you have not read the current market. Comping on “similar vibes” instead of a stated axis — tone, structure, premise, readership — says nothing at all.
And the newest mistake: pasting in comps an AI invented. Models are fluent at producing a plausible title next to a real author’s name, and an agent who looks it up will find nothing. Every comp here is checked against Open Library before it reaches you, and anything unfound is labelled.
Frequently asked questions
How much of my manuscript should I paste in?
As much as you have. The tool reads across the whole thing rather than only the opening — it samples your first pages, a section from the middle, and the ending, because genre usually settles in how a book resolves rather than how it starts. A finished novel works best, but three chapters will still give a usable read.
Is my manuscript stored or used for training?
No. The text is sampled in your browser, sent once for the analysis, and not written to any database. Nothing is retained after the response comes back.
Are the comparable titles real books?
Every comp is checked against Open Library before you see it, and anything that cannot be found is labelled unverified. AI models are prone to inventing plausible-sounding titles or attaching a real title to the wrong author, which is exactly the kind of error an agent will catch — so the check happens before the result reaches you rather than after.
Why does it avoid famous bestsellers as comps?
Comping your novel to Harry Potter or Gone Girl reads as inexperience to an agent. Useful comps are recent, mid-list, and share a specific axis with your book — tone, structure, premise, or readership — so the tool aims for books from roughly the last ten years and states which axis each one shares.
Do I need an account?
No. The tool is free and works signed out. There is a short rate limit to keep it available for everyone.
What if I disagree with the genre it gives me?
Read the evidence it lists under 'what decided it'. If those details are the loudest things in your book but not the ones you meant to write, that is worth knowing before an agent reads it. If the evidence is genuinely marginal, the alternative shelvings it offers are usually the better claim.
Keep going
Once you know the shelf, read up on what it expects: the fiction craft glossary covers the structures, tropes and genre labels agents use. Or work on the book itself with the character arc generator and the plot diagram maker.
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Write the next draft with the shelf in mind
Talebuddy keeps your characters, lore and continuity straight across a full manuscript, so the book you query is the book you meant to write.
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