by Ane Mulligan  @AneMulligan

When you are submitting a proposal to a publisher in hopes of a contract, one thing you need is two or three comparable books (more if possible).

It’s a daunting task; for one thing, there won’t be another book exactly like yours. But with this list, it should become easier. I compiled this from several author’s suggestions.

Step 1: Make some lists (the following are examples)

Your genre:

1. historical
2. romance
3. suspens
4. etc.

Era:

1. contemporary
2. if historical, name the era: 1930s, regency, Biblical

Main setting:

1. small town
2. rural South
3. big city
4. Thanksgiving

Plot:

1. second chance romance
2. surviving the Great Depression
3. wounded warrior finds new meaning to life
4. knitting store owner solves mystery with help of her cat.

Theme or takeaway:

1. coming home
2. forgiveness and restoration
3. trusting after betrayal
4. everyone deserves a chance

Style/tome/voice:

1. humor
2. clean romance
3. Christian
4. military

Main audience:

1. women (or men)
2. young adult
3. children
4. arts & crafts lovers
5. sports fans

List some authors you write like.

This is a tough one. I don’t try to classify myself as another Jan Caron, but my Chapel Springs series has been compared to the Mitford series (small towns, and lots of          quirky characters).

Step 2: Choose the most relevant identifiers (Examples)

1. contemporary
2. clean romance
3. humor
4. office professionals
5. abuse
6. troubled marriage

Don’t be too strict; appropriate books may have only a few of your identifiers. However, they may help you remember a book you’ve read.

Step 3: Search and make a list of 5 to 10 possible titles.

Using your keywords, try these sources:

1. Amazon
2. Fiction Finder (an ACFW website, listing books by genre or keywords)
3. Christian Book Distributors
4. Goodreads

Make sure the candidates are fairly current, have lots of reviews and heavily loaded with 3-5 stars, and have a well-known publisher, multi-published author, or strong sales if Indie published.

Step 4: Arrange your titles

From the most to least promising. During the next step, you may have the needed comparable titles before you exhaust your list.

Step 5: Look up each title on Amazon and Goodreads.

1. Read the blurbs for your listed books.
2. Read many reviews. With reviews and blurbs, you should see readers mentioning your keywords or similar words. If you don’t, put that title aside.
3. Make sure reviews with 1–3 stars don’t repeatedly mention an important flaw that you’d prefer your book not be compared to. Also, reading lots of reviews might reveal some common thread or belief  that’s something you’d rather not have in a comparable title.
4. An author with multiple books satisfying your keywords is even better.

I hope this has helped you begin your search for comparable titles. With a “map” to follow, it isn’t quite as hard as we tend to think.

Ane Mulligan lives life from a director’s chair, both in theatre and at her desk, creating novels. Entranced with story by age three, at five, she saw PETER PAN onstage and was struck with a fever from which she never recovered—stage fever. One day, her passions collided, and an award-winning, bestselling novelist emerged. She believes chocolate and coffee are two of the four major food groups and lives in Sugar Hill, GA, with her artist husband and a rascally Rottweiler. Find Ane on her website, Amazon Author page, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, The Write Conversation, and Blue Ridge Conference Blog.