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5 Steps to Find the Comparable Novels Publishers Want in Your Proposal

Sep 3, 2015 | Writing | 16 Comments

“Include books that are similar to yours in theme, tone, style and/or genre.” — Rachelle Gardner

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I’ve noticed writers, myself included, struggling to find comparable books for publishers. Many blogs explain why publishers want Comparable Titles and how to write this proposal section. But, I found little on how to find novels comparable to mine. With hindsight modifications, here’s what I did.

Step 1 – Complete this form for your book using few words (examples provided):

Genre
1. Romantic Suspense
2. Legal Thriller
3. Women’s Fiction
4. Cozy Mystery

Time period
1. Contemporary
2. 1950s
3. Regency
4. Pre-Columbian

image by Bonnybbx

3. Main setting
a. Southern Plantation
b. Lake Norman, NC
c. Rome
d. Thanksgiving

Plot
1. Solving a murder using police dogs
2. Romance between widow and widower
3. Overcoming covered wagon journey hardships
4. Foster child surviving and receiving permanent home

Theme and/or takeaway
1. Coming home
2. Rising above abuse
3. Healing a broken marriage
4. Oddball fitting in

image by kartal8167

Style/Tone/Voice
1. Humor
2. Clean romance
3. Christian
4. Military

Main Audience
1. Women
2. Young adult males
3. Arts & craft lovers
4. Sports fans

Authors You Write Like

image by Bonnybbxvitt0

Step 2 – Choose the most relevant identifiers. Perhaps these will spark a book you’ve read. Don’t be too strict; appropriate books may have only a few of your identifiers.

Example: contemporary, clean romance, humor, office professionals, overbearing father, Thanksgiving

Step 3 – Search and make a list of 5 to 10 possible titles. Using your keywords, try these sources:

image by moritz320

Search websites, such as Amazon, Christian Book Distributors, and Goodreads. Make sure candidates:
1. are fairly current
2. have lots of reviews heavily loaded toward 3-5 stars
3. have recognizable publishing clout (well-known publisher, multi-published author, or strong sales).
Send emails to reader friends and ask: Considering one or more of these keywords, what books that you enjoyed come to mind? (Unlike story summaries, relevant keywords may keep people open to more books.)
Ask your critique partners and beta readers for popular titles similar to your book.
Browse books in a bookstore, noting the ones in the section in which your book would be shelved.

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 – Starting at the top of your list, look up the title on Amazon and Goodreads.

If you haven’t already done so, read the blurbs.
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.
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.
Authors with multiple books satisfying your keywords is even better.

Use these 5 steps and find comparable titles for your fiction book proposal. Click to tweet.

What suggestions do you have for finding comparable fiction titles?

10 Awesome Quotes from Writing Experts to Stick on Your Computer

Aug 27, 2015 | Writing | 14 Comments

“The skill of a skilled writer tricks you into thinking that there is no skill.”
—Dwight V. Swain (Techniques of the Selling Writer)

Image by Kaz

I recommend the following books on the craft of writing. Here are quotes from each to inspire you to get a copy or reread the one on your shelf.

image by skeeze

On Writing by Stephen King. “Words create sentences; sentences create paragraphs; sometimes paragraphs quicken and begin to breathe. Imagine, if you like, Frankenstein’s monster on its slab. Here comes lightning, not from the sky but from a humble paragraph of English words. … You feel as Victor Frankenstein must have when the dead conglomeration of sewn-together spare parts suddenly opened its watery yellow eyes.”

Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass “What about your premise? Is it truly a fresh look at your subject, a perspective that no one else but you can bring to it? Is it the opposite of what we expect or a mix of elements such as we’ve never seen before? If not, you have some work to do.”

image by freefaithgraphics

Hooked by Les Edgerton. “A tremendous number of possibly good and even brilliant novels and short stories never get read beyond the first few paragraphs or pages by agents and editors. Why? Simple: The stories don’t begin in the right place.”

Stein on Writing by Sol Stein “We are driven through life by our needs and wants. … If your character doesn’t want anything badly enough, readers will have a hard time rooting for him to attain his goal, which is what compels readers to continue reading. The more urgent the want, the greater the reader’s interest.”

image by geralt

Goal, Motivation & Conflict by Debra Dixon. “Motivation is possibly the most important of the three elements of GMC because you can do anything in fiction. … Everything truly is possible as long as you help your reader understand why your characters do what they do. Why they land themselves in impossible situations. Why they make the choices they make.”

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King. “So when you come across an explanation of the character’s emotion, simply cut the explanation. If the emotion is still shown, then the explanation wasn’t needed. If the emotion isn’t shown, then rewrite the passage so that it is.”

Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell. “Dialogue helps to create original characters and move the plot along. If it isn’t doing either of those things, it probably should be cut.”

image by geralt

Rivet Your Readers with Deep Point of View by Jill Elizabeth Nelson. “In Deep [Point of View], we don’t want thoughts or actions told or explained by a third-party; we want to live the events inside the [Point of View Character’s] head.

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. “And the truth of your experience can only come through in your own voice. If it is wrapped in someone else’s voice, we readers will feel suspicious, as if you are dressed up in someone else’s clothes. You cannot write out of someone else’s big dark place; you can only write out of your own.”

What writing experts say to push us to write better. Click to tweet.

As a writer, what craft book has spoken to you?

Greatly Improve Your Manuscript by Reducing One Word

Aug 20, 2015 | Writing | 22 Comments

“Of is a preposition, and although not an inherently evil word, overusing it can make your writing sound passive and fussy.” — Mignon Fogarty (Grammar Girl)

image by seadog

In a recent post, I promoted the word processor Find feature to eliminate weak words and phrases. On my own manuscript, I discovered reducing one particular word greatly improved my novel in three ways:

Eliminated wordiness
Created smoother reading
Alerted me to other problems

image by meineresterampe

The word is the preposition of. This preposition usually totes unnecessary words wherever it surfaces.

Before I reduced of-use, my manuscript hosted 1.3 occurrences in every 100 words.

After reducing the preposition, every 100 words contained only .4 incidences.

And the exercise tightened and reduced my word count by 2.4%.

Examples

These 21 examples show the of-usage types I encountered and how I rewrote the phrases.

Amount and Number

1. Wordy: cleaned every trace of dirt from the ball.

Rewrite: She scrubbed the ball.

2. Wordy: stared at the ball for a couple of beats…

Rewrite: stared at the ball for a moment…

3. Wordy: I have a couple of clients in…

Rewrite: I have clients in…

4. Wordy: From all of Margie’s comments…

Rewrite: From Margie’s comments…

5. Wordy: done in plenty of time to…

Rewrite: done in time to…

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6. Wordy: A lot of gossip about the female caddy was…

Rewrite: Gossip about the female caddy was…

7. Wordy: Shoo’s percent of the winnings would buy…

Rewrite: Shoo could afford…

8. Wordy: Wouldn’t Shoo choose one of the less expensive restaurants…?

Rewrite: Wouldn’t Shoo choose a less expensive restaurant…?

Directional

9. Wordy: The ball spun out two feet past the other side of the cup.

Rewrite: The ball spun out two feet past the cup.

image by johnhain

10. Wordy: Shame started at the top of her pea brain and flowed to…

Rewrite: Shame flowed from her pea brain to…

11. Wordy: Margie nodded in the direction of the driving range.

Rewrite: Margie nodded toward the driving range.

12. Wordy: itched to trace the smile lines on either side of his mouth.

Rewrite: itched to trace the smile lines framing his mouth.

13. Wordy: stared at him from the other side of the table.

Rewrite: stared at him from across the table.

Of The

14. Wordy: They read sections of the newspaper…

Rewrite: They read newspaper sections…

15. Wordy: curb their male talk in the presence of the little lady?

Rewrite: curb their male talk in the little lady’s presence?

16. Wordy: Light emitted from the window of the weight room.

Rewrite: Light emitted from the weight-room window.

image by HebiFot

17. Wordy: The burn of the carbonation refreshed the dryness of his throat.

Rewrite: The carbonation burn refreshed his dry throat.

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