When I’m preparing a story to be published, I’m supposed to come up with comparable titles—books like mine that have sold well and were written in the last two or three years. They are one of the most important tools book buyers use in deciding whether or not to buy an author’s books.
It’s been hard, really hard. There isn’t much popular fantasy out there that is light, recent, and distinctly Christian. My stories are not retellings of Bible stories. They aren’t allegories or parables or cleverly disguised sermonettes.
I fall back on C. S. Lewis’s Narnia stories and Lynne Jonell’s Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat series, even though they don’t fit the time frame. I’ve included E. D. Baker’s The Frog Princess books–they’re not Christian, but they are light and fun to read. I’ve stretched things to include Andrew Peterson’s The Warden and the Wolf King and S. D. Smith’s rabbit books, because they are written by Christian authors.
The reason I’m writing this post is to ask for your help. There’s one more story coming in the Montaland series—Benk and the Ugly Princess. I’ll need comparable titles for it! If you know of any recent popular fantasies for 8-12 year olds, please share with me!