Formatting your “comp title” section in a book proposal
Formatting strategies for the comparative title section of a nonfiction book proposal, plus a look at how I write and format mine.
Hello and Happy Wednesday!
(Is it a happy Wednesday? Over at my house, my poor daughter has been battling a wicked case of poison ivy that’s been making it hard for her—and us—to sleep but thanks to some good old fashioned oatmeal baths [for which I cut up my old hosiery to fill with Quaker’s Oats], I think we’re turning a corner on the poison ivy front, so, yes? I think it is a happy Wednesday, or at least a happier one than last week when my kid first brushed the evil ivy plant.)
This post falls into the “Building a Book with Savanah” section. This section of my Substack is where you can watch me build out a nonfiction book proposal in real time with the rancher Savanah McCarty (@thevelvetspur on Instagram) and also learn about the shape of our collaboration. I’m a writer who loves helping people (women especially) with memoir and I’m a total horse fanatic; Savanah is a horse trainer and the founder of an equine-learning assisted nonprofit for foster children who started writing a book about her life that she can’t finish because of a traumatic brain injury she suffered last year. So we are taking the reins together and co-authoring her project, which right now looks like me building a book proposal based on her life story. If you are new here and would like more information and backstory about our collaboration, please click here!
Today, we are going to be talking about comp titles, and how to format them in your book proposals.
I am someone (and maybe the rare someone?) who thinks that comp titles are very important, and that when wielded correctly, they can help gatekeepers understand the nuances and commercial potential of whatever you’re trying to sell.
If this is your first rodeo on the comp title front, I’ve covered comparative title writing twice before on Substack:
There is a June 2022 post that offers some Comp Title-writing 101 instruction.
And an August 2023 post that shows how you can use comp titles to hone in on what it is you want to write.
That August post shows me brainstorming the list of books I imagine using in Savanah’s book proposal, and today, I’m going to show you word for word how I’ve formatted some of those titles same into the book proposal itself.
Are you ready? I am and I’m excited: we’re nearing the finish line of this book proposal, a milestone that would have been challenging to reach without your valued support. (And on that note, if you’d like to get in on that support game, the middle of this post will show you how to do that. Thank you for all and any help in advance!)
Let’s crack open the book proposal and take a look at our comps, shall we?
Formatting the “comp title” section of a book proposal
To my mind, there are three ways to format the comparative title section of a book proposal for nonfiction or memoir.