Taming
Book Proposal: The Basics Oh, that most maddening of documents! For so many of us eager to move forward with our nonfiction projects, it looms large like a guard at queen’s castle, blocking path to publication. Its perfection eludes us yet it stands there teasing, “Complete me, or your manuscript will never see light of day, mwahahahaha!”In truth, that’s a lie. Every author has option of self-publishing. However, there are advantages to writing a book proposal instead of a whole book.
One advantage is that it usually takes less time than writing a whole book. Two, it creates possibility of getting paid to write your book, perhaps just a few thousand dollars, perhaps tens or even hundreds of thousands. Three, it forces you to get clear about what you’re doing with your book, on a number of levels.
Even if you want to self-publish, a book proposal serves as a sort of business plan for your book. The time and energy spent on research, evaluation and comparison of your ideas at outset pays off down line many times over. After all, wouldn’t you rather find out now that someone else has said similar things more eloquently and have a chance to amend your manuscript, than publish darn thing only to read terrible—or worse—no reviews?
The process of polishing your book proposal is also an exercise in discipline and focus. It brings purpose of your book, its scope, depth and message into sharp relief. It will get your thinking muscles into best shape ever to produce most marketable book of which you are capable. However, you must dedicate necessary time and energy to educate yourself, move through multiple drafts and polish this behemoth of a document to perfection, or else hire someone who knows how to do just that.
Here are some answers to questions you may be asking right now:
What is a book proposal? A book proposal is a document intended to sell a publishing staff on publishing a particular nonfiction book. It is way most nonfiction books get published by major publishers. It reads very much like a business plan about book proposed. It can be anywhere from 10-100 double-spaced, 12-point 8 1/2 X 11 pages—most are 20-60 pages, including sample chapters. It generally uses a very specific format and specialized language to make its case.
What does book proposal do? It answers a series of typical questions that different departments of book publishing companies need answered when deciding which tiny handful of proposals, out of hundreds, to take a chance on. It acts on your and your book’s behalf to answer questions like, Why this book over all others in its class? Why now? Why this author?
Who sees my book proposal first, an agent or a publisher? It depends on whether you choose to have an agent represent you, or go directly to publishers. Many publishers will not accept unagented material, so make sure you check a given publisher’s guidelines first.
What does book proposal contain? Generally, a book proposal contains a cover sheet, table of contents, along with following sections: overview, author bio, author’s marketing plan, market analysis of buyers, comparative and/or competing books, outline, sample chapters.
The overview contains a hook, or means of enticement, draws editor in, and gives a general summary of book’s purpose. It’s sort of like an article about book. It should make you want to read whole thing!
The author bio puts any and all of your experience related to writing book, in its best light. It’s different from a resume or CV. It looks a lot like “about author” blurbs you see in back of published books, below author’s photo.
The author’s marketing plan, or “what author will do to promote book,” shows publisher that you know what it takes to sell your book, and details how you plan to do it. These days, ironically, publishers don’t put much money into publicity, unless you’re already famous. An author with a well-thought-out marketing plan will stand out from most of others who pay far less attention to this section, thinking instead that publisher will take care of it.
The complementary and competing books section identifies and describes books that both directly compete with and also that complement proposed book. The purpose of this section is to show editors what has been done before, and how your book fits in. The reason for this section is twofold: One, many editors are too busy to keep up-to-the-minute records of what’s being done in every field, and so rely on author to educate them about what else is out there. Two, just as many editors know exactly what’s out there, and want to know how your work purports to compare.
