Comparable titles worksheet
Log the books your reader already buys, check they are recent and read, and write one honest line on how yours is different from each. Done well, this page tells you whether there is a market, where your book sits and what gap it fills.
How to use it
Find candidates first: ask readers what they have read, search the online stores using the reader's words for the problem, browse the subject category your book would sit in, and ask a librarian. Then log the five best. For each one, note the year, roughly how many ratings it has, and what its middling reviews complain about. The two- and three-star reviews are where readers say what they wanted and did not get.
Two rules of thumb from published proposal advice, both covered in our comparable titles guide:
- Recent. A guest post on Jane Friedman's site advises focusing on the last few years and pairing anything up to ten years old with a contemporary comp. A Writer's Digest guide says within the last five years.
- Read, but not ubiquitous. The same Friedman post quotes an agent saying a book that has become ubiquitous is too popular to be a comp. Look for books with a real readership, not the one everyone has heard of.
The last column, "how mine differs", is the one that matters. "Mine is better" does not count. Name a different reader, method, angle or level of detail. If you cannot, the comp may be doing your book already.
A filled-in row
Comp: a recent, plain-English retirement-income book by a financial journalist (published three years ago, a few hundred ratings).
Why similar: same reader, near retirement; same promise of a spending plan.
Middling reviews say: "Good overview but I still don't know which account to draw from first."
How mine differs: it is built around the order of withdrawals and written for couples deciding together.
An illustrative example.
Comparable titles
Common mistakes
- Only classics. A famous book from decades ago proves people once cared. Pair it with recent ones.
- Only megabestsellers. Their sales reflect the author's fame, not demand for your kind of book.
- Comps you have not opened. Read at least the contents page and the first chapter; online samples usually show both.
- Hiding a near-identical book. If one comp already does exactly what you planned for the same reader, change your angle now.
Next, enter your top three in the book idea starter; it checks the years and asks for your difference from each. Then move on to the outline worksheet.
Questions
Why does the worksheet ask for the year?
Because recency is the point. Published advice for proposals favors comps from the last few years (Jane Friedman's site) or the last five (Writer's Digest). A recent book with real readers shows the demand is current.
Where do I find the review counts?
On the book's store page. You only need a rough number. It shows whether real readers bought the book, which is what makes it a useful comp.
Sources, checked October 20, 2026: janefriedman.com; Writer's Digest; Book Industry Study Group BISAC headings; The Scribe Method, chapter 34. Published by Scribe Media. Free to print and share.