How Do You Write A Book Proposal – One of my Facebook friends recently put out a newsletter to send her copies of successful book proposals to help her create one for her next project. She should have asked for something else instead—the email addresses of acquiring editors at publishers they knew. That would be much more useful.
I’ve written about how to get a book accepted at a press before, both in articles and in my book for qualitative researchers. The secret is simple—publishing is a socially-driven activity and your ability to engage with the gatekeepers significantly affects your ability to publish. So, that list of publishers and their contact information is really where you want to start.
How Do You Write A Book Proposal
But striking up a conversation with an acquisitions editor about the book you’re trying to write is pretty intimidating. Better if you have an intermediary. You may have one – someone who has published with that press, someone you know in their editorial office, someone who has reviewed for them. These contacts can also tell you if working with the press was a good experience, what was problematic, and what questions to ask when contacting the editor directly. If this process sounds like field work, you’re not wrong. That’s your first step. And you should be good at field work.
How To Write A Successful Book Proposal
If you’re bold enough or don’t have an intermediary, email the editor directly and ask for an appointment at your next conference. Not so bold, editors attend these conferences with the specific purpose of checking in with current authors and finding the next round of authors to publish. That could be you.
Why do you want to have this conversation before you start writing the book proposal? Not every publisher is looking for the same things to publish. The more you know about their interests and profile, the better idea you’ll have of what to put in the book proposal. In most cases, the interested editor will even help you shape the proposal to best meet their needs. After all, the editor usually has to convince someone else in the organization that investing $40,000 in your book is a good idea. The more your proposal matches the proposal she has to make to her editorial director or publication committee, the easier it is for her to approve the proposal.
Or, after your conversation, you may discover that this was the wrong publisher after all. They are not interested in your work. But editors keep a close eye on their competition, and she might be able to suggest a press that’s a better fit, saving you a lot of research. You may also discover that the editor you met is a jerk. Trust me, you really don’t want to have her as your primary press contact for the many years it will take to write, produce, and market your book. Scratch that pressure off the list and look elsewhere.
What do you say to the editor when you have a conversation? What are you asking? First, you need to be able to talk about the project you are working on and suggest the direction you envision for a book from it. As an elevator pitch, you need a 20-second, 2-minute, and 10-minute version of this summary. If the editor shows interest after 20 seconds, you can expand on your ideas. It also gives the editor a starting point for suggesting directions that would be most beneficial to her and her press. When you come to a mutually agreeable shape for a book, you’re prepared and know the editor is on board, too. If not, you may have at least come up with ideas for other publications of your project and perhaps other publishers to send your book idea to.
The Book Proposal Masterclass: How To Write A Dealwinning Non Fiction Book Proposal
With the information gleaned from direct conversation, you can now write a proposal that you know is likely to be of interest to the party you are sending it to. You can even send her a draft with “Is this what you had in mind?” attached and for the editor to help you adjust it so that it best suits the interests of the press as well as your own.
The content of the proposal is generally simple. The press wants to know what the book is about, who will buy it, how qualified you are to write it, a list of comparable books, and the practical details of length and schedule. Each publisher’s website has a set of guidelines to help you produce this information and they almost all look the same. See those from California, Sage and Routledge for examples. Follow the outline of the press you are interested in. Sometimes there will be a specific form to fill out online. Stupid & bureaucratic, but do it their way. Some publishers don’t allow electronic submissions, also silly if they plan to send it to peer reviewers, but follow the program.
Keep the proposal short, no more than 5 or 6 pages. That should cover all the basics. If they ask for your 26-page CV, write a one-paragraph summary to include in the proposal and attach the longer document. As with any other long material they ask for: include a brief summary in the main proposal and attach the details in a separate file. Some readers may never get to your attachments, so you want the highlights in the main offer.
What is important for you to know is that the proposal will have several audiences. This is also the hardest thing about writing a book proposal.
Start Here: How To Get Your Book Published
The first audience will be the editor and her colleagues. You have to convince her that the enchanting description of your project over coffee in the convention center in Chicago is compatible with good writing and organized thinking. And that editor (BS, mechanical engineering, Cal Poly Pomona, or maybe BA, Italian literature, Occidental College) probably had no background in your field before she was assigned to get books in it. That was certainly my experience: an archaeologist who spent the first half of his career signing books on sociology, criminology.
Ology, family studies, gerontology and research methods. She will show the proposal to other non-specialists, perhaps her marketing director (hypothetically BA, marketing, U Southern California) and editorial director (MA, organizational behavior, University of Phoenix). Since these non-specialists will ultimately decide whether to publish your book, make sure your writing provides enough context and is non-technical enough to appeal to them.
The editor is also likely to send it for peer review to people who are in your field and who will be willing to pick apart every detail of your work. So while the proposal must be put down for a non-specialist, it must also be informative enough for the specialist that they will understand your project and its place in the literature in your field.
That is the ultimate test of a good writer, writing for both specialist and non-specialist audiences. But if you want to write a book, you should be able to do this.
How To Write A Book Proposal: A Checklist For Writers — Heidi Fiedler
How do you approach the various sections of the book proposal? That will be the subject of the next blog. How to Write a Book Proposal (and why you should read this whether you write or not)
Sooner or later, you may face the challenge of how to write a book proposal. If you’re writing nonfiction, it’s mandatory—book proposals are the documents used to sell nonfiction, whether you’ve finished the book or not. (This includes a memoir; at a recent conference, I shared the stage with dozens of other agents, and more than half of us raised our hands when asked if we’d used book pitches to sell a memoir.) For help with your nonfiction book pitch, get started here.
If you write fiction, you might be asked to write a book proposal—for an anthology of short stories, a chapbook, even a series.
Even if you never plan to write a book proposal, you should know what’s here, because it reveals the kind of data that publishers analyze when deciding whether or not to publish a book.
Writing Resources For Authors — Inkdrop Lit
This is the pitch for the book, the jacket copy if you will. You will need a few paragraphs, about 200 to 300 words. The first paragraph should communicate what the book is about, why it is different and the promise it makes to readers. Successful paragraphs should explain the first: organizational principle, tips and techniques, your writing credentials and credits, etc.
Here you identify the reasons why your project will succeed in the marketplace, starting with the Unique Selling Proposition (USP). The USP is what differentiates your project from the competition, the reason readers will buy your book rather than similar titles.
This is where you list six to ten successful books similar to yours, preferably published in the past three to five years, like this:
Here you say in 50 to 100 words how this title is similar to yours, and how your project is better/different.
Book Proposal: How To Write It And When To Use It
You must provide the first chapter of the book, along with at least one