Do You Know Your Competition?

Many writers overlook a critical section in their book proposals: the competition section. After reading thousands of book proposals and manuscripts from authors, I’ve often read a statement like: “There is no competition for this book. It is a unique idea.”

If you have this statement in your proposal, then I encourage you to remove it. Editors and agents will roll their eyes and maybe send you a rejection letter. Why? With over 4,500 new books entering the market every day, as King Solomon said, “There is nothing new under the sun.” Every book will compete and your task as an author is to understand this fact and dig into finding your competitive titles.

When I acquired fiction for Howard Books, a Simon and Schuster imprint, we could not fill out our internal paperwork without listing the competitive titles. Yes it is that critical in the publishing process.

Need an example?

The Appendices section of my Book Proposals That $ell, 21 Secrets To Speed Your Success includes an example of one of my proposals which received a six-figure advance. In my proposal, I also used a similar statement touting the unique idea in the competition section. In the many years since I wrote this book, I’ve learned every book will compete in the marketplace. It is naïve to assume your book is unique.

The writer is responsible to include the competitive titles in your proposal. While agents and editors specialize in different areas of the book market, we can’t know everything about every book—but we are certain your book is not unique and will have competition.

How to find competitive titles

Here’s some tips on how to handle this important part of a book proposal or pitch:

1. Go to the bookstore and imagine your book as a completed project. Which section will have your book? Go to that area and look at the top books. Visualize your book completed and on the shelf. Make note of these bestselling titles because they are your competition.

2. In your proposal, make a record of these competitive titles including the complete title, author, publisher, and publication date. Use the Internet to research and locate any sales information about these books.

3. Summarize the contents of the competitive title in a sentence or two, and then explain how your book is distinct from that title. Maybe your book will go deeper or in a different direction.

Finally, outside of your work on the proposal, I encourage you to reach out to these “competitors.” Instead of seeing them as competitors (i.e. enemies), consider them colleagues. Ask if you can help them such as review their books or write magazine articles about them. If you have built these relationships, there will come a time when they return the favor but only if you have built such goodwill bridges.

Your proposal can stand out from the others under consideration because you understand your competition and don’t contend your idea is unique.

W. Terry Whalin, a writer and acquisitions editor lives in Colorado. A former magazine editor and former literary agent, Terry is an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing. He has written more than 60 nonfiction books including Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams and Billy Graham. Get Terry’s newest book, 10 Publishing Myths for only $10, free shipping and bonuses worth over $200. To help writers catch the attention of editors and agents, Terry wrote his bestselling Book Proposals That $ell, 21 Secrets To Speed Your Success. The revised and updated edition released October 5^th. You can get a free book proposal checklist. Check out his free Ebook, Platform Building Ideas for Every Author. His website is located at: www.terrywhalin.com. Connect with Terry on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.