Last week here, I spelled out the reasons why a comparative title analysis is so important to a book proposal. Today, the “how to” complete your research on the competition in the marketplace of ideas will be presented. This step-by-step process involves research, reading, and a critical market assessment. 1. Identify the genre, even the sub-genre, of books you will be searching for in your analysis. If you are writing a self-help book, you won’t start searching in fiction or memoir. Non-fiction is the genre and more specifically the sub-genre is “self-help.” 2. Make a list of the subject headings you would assign to your book to help you narrow your search. These terms will be important in your online search for relevant books. 3. Generate a short list of the key words you associate with the contents of your manuscript. These are powerful search terms to identify titles that may compete for your audience. 4. Visit bookstores and libraries and identify the books you think would fit next to yours on the shelf. Pull the books off the shelves and investigate further. Who are the publishers of these titles? In the acknowledgements, does the author mention the name of their agent or the editor with whom they worked at the publisher? Add the names of agents, editors, and publishers to your list of search terms. 5. Ask friends, family, and associates about the last book they read about this subject. Ask them for book recommendations. Take their suggestions and…

Front Matter is one of the last sections of a book manuscript for an author to complete. But it’s the first thing a reader sees. Before page 1, there are several items that appear in the front pages of any book. Some pages are mandatory: title, copyright, and table of contents. Others are optional, upon the discretion of the author and publisher. Every page before the first one in Chapter 1 is paginated using lower case roman numerals beginning with the Title Page is i. Except for the Copyright Page, all sections of the front matter begin on a recto page. Verso pages are those on the left hand side of an open book; recto pages are on the right. In the body of the book manuscript, every new chapter begins on a recto page. This means if your chapter ends on an odd-numbered page, you will have one blank page between the end of the chapter and the start of the next one. Because printed books are bound together in signatures – 32 pages constitutes a signature – the total number of book pages is always divisible by eight. This is why you often find blank pages or additional front matter at the beginning or end of a book. Title Page – [required] The title and author’s name and appears centered on the page. This is always the first printed page. Copyright Page – [required] This page contains copyright information (title, subtitle, author, publisher, date of publication, subject headings, Library…

Front Matter is one of the last sections of a book manuscript for an author to complete. But it’s the first thing a reader sees. Before page 1, there are several items that appear in the front pages of any book. Some pages are mandatory: title, copyright, and table of contents. Others are optional. Every page before the first one in Chapter 1 is paginated using lower case roman numerals beginning with the Title Page is i. Except for the Copyright Page, all sections of the front matter begin on a recto page. Verso pages are those on the left hand side of an open book; recto pages are on the right. In the body of the book manuscript, every new chapter begins on a recto page. This means if your chapter ends on an odd-numbered page, you will have one blank page between the end of the chapter and the start of the next one. Because printed books are bound together in signatures – 32 pages constitutes a signature – the total number of book pages is always divisible by eight. This is why you often find blank pages or additional front matter at the beginning or end of a book. Title Page – [required] The title and author’s name appear centered on the page. This is always the first printed page. Copyright Page – [required] This page contains copyright information (title, subtitle, author, publisher, date of publication, subject headings, Library of Congress and/or Dewey decimal designation, ISBN number, and Library…