Blogger: Wendy Lawton
Last week we had a review of queries. Today— book proposals. (Because you just can’t get enough of this stuff, right?)
Confession: All my life I’ve been a rule-follower. I obey all posted signs. I follow the letter of the law. I feel most comfortable with clear, unambiguous rules. I’m neither a maverick nor a risk-taker. There. In the interest of full disclosure, I’m glad that’s out.
When I was a new writer, I studied book after book, article after article about book proposals. I took at least a dozen different workshops on proposal writing —fiction, nonfiction, children’s. And you know what? The more I learned, the more confused I became. When they say “table of content” in a proposal do they refer to the table of content of the book or of the proposal? (Hint: you’ll see both.)
Long before I became an agent, I cried “uncle” when it came to the rules of a good book proposal. For every carved-in-stone rule you’ll find, you’ll find an agent or an editor who’ll contradict that rule.
So what’s a writer to do?
Here are my common sense generic rules for creating a book proposal:
–If you are preparing a proposal for your agent, use the agency style sheet. If you are doing the proposal for a specific house, see if they have a sample proposal on their website to use as a guideline.
–Strip away all the voodoo that surrounds the proposal mystique. You are simply writing a business plan for the book. You’ll want to present the book in the best light and answer any potential question about the book or the author in advance.
–Don’t be annoying or cute. Be professional.
–Be distinctive. (This doesn’t mean fancy fonts or decoration.)
–Summarize the book succinctly. I like to see both a two or three sentence hook and a back-cover-copy-sized summary.
Understand that the proposal for a novel and a nonfiction book will be different. The novel will need a synopsis while the nonfiction book gets an annotated table of contents, chapter by chapter.
The generic fiction proposal needs:
–Short Summary (Promo pitch—a couple of sentences)
–Longer Summary (Like back cover copy)
–Info about the book, including: Genre, Audience, Manuscript length
–Market Comparison
–Author Bio
–Synopsis (Not too long, a few pages—just enough to tell the story in detail.)
–Promotion Plans (This is a welcome addition in CBA, not so much in ABA)
–Three sample chapters
The generic nonfiction proposal needs:
–Short Summary (Promo pitch—a couple of sentences)
–Longer Summary (Like back cover copy)
–Info about the book, including: Catgory, Audience, Manuscript length
–Market Comparison
–Affinity Groups (Any markets or groups which will especially connect with the book?)
–Author Bio (including platform, if any)
–Annotated Table of Content, chapter by chapter
–Promotion Plans (Again this is a welcome addition in CBA, not so much in ABA)
–Three sample chapters
As for all the formatting rules—do the best you can to craft a clear, clean proposal. Most experts will tell you that the business part of the proposal is single spaced while the sample chapters are double-spaced in regular manuscript format (You can’t go wrong with Times New Roman 12 pt.).
Just remember, your goal is to give a clear picture of the book, the reason the bookstore will eventually want to purchase the book, who the buyer will be, who the author is and what the author can do to partner with the publisher to make the book a success. Just like a business plan, the book proposal process will help you develop the book and keep you focused.
Now it’s your turn: What advice would you give to someone just starting their first book proposal? (I’m at Mount Hermon Writer’s Conference so I’ll not be able to join in the conversation but I’ll catch up on it later.)
Prompts and Writing
I’ve found writing proposals to be helpful, even a draft one at the beginning of writing my novel. Stripping ideas down to bare bones and see the skeleton on the pages gives me that outline format to flesh out. Sometimes too much color, colors the water, so it’s nice to see clarity.
Me too! I work on my query and proposal when I’m stuck on the story. It helps me write.
I’m like you, attached to the rules. Of course, it stands to reason that when I can’t figure out what the rules really are, I feel crazy and insecure. Thanks for this commonsense post about what’s actually needed in a book proposal after all the mystique and confusion have been stripped away.
I love having rules to guide me, especially when I’m trying something new. Maybe it’s the oldest child syndrome that makes me feel comfortable following rules, I don’t know. 🙂
As for proposals. I’ll be writing my first in a month or two, so this is really helpful. I knew to look at agency guidelines, but I hadn’t thought to look at publisher guidelines.
Thanks for sharing your insights, Wendy! I look forward to reading what others share as well. 🙂
Thank you for this post, Wendy. I will certainly keep it all in mind when it comes time to work on the proposal for my current work-in-progress.
As far as giving advice, I don’t have much from personal experience yet, but I think common sense would say, “Stress shows; breathe deep and remain calm.” At least that’s what I tell myself when it comes to anything concerning the writing life. 🙂
Oh, how I love it when an agency has a link to an example proposal! Then I can just follow the example and hope my words will speak for themselves. Writing contests have helped relieve proposal angst too. Trying to follow the guidelines for the contest and then working with the contest coordinator if you make a mistake is a valuable tool for learning the jargon of what they mean when a professional is talking about formatting.
Kristen, I know what you mean about contest coordinators. I made some big snafus when I entered my first contest. The coordinator was gracious and brought clarity to my confusion.
Such great tips here, Wendy, and in the midst of your absence from the blog. Thank you! I am definitely a rule-follower as well as a total plotter. So, like the Jaime and Kristen, I write a summary and a synopsis at the beginning. This usually makes a proposal easier because I’m not starting from a blank page.
I’m also like you, Wendy…Follow those rules to a T. 🙂
Thanks for these tips! I always love practical information like this.
This comes at a perfect time. Thank you, Wendy.
I try to follow rules, too. 🙂 What I was wondering, Wendy … if someone is blessed to partner with an agent, do they then start working at making connections with publishers? Re-working a proposal for a publisher? Or are the connections with publishers solely made through the agent?
Thanks, Ms. Lawton. Your article on proposal writing is so informative, and I learned lessons I know will help me in the future. J.P.
Rules a great simplifiers in life. Thank you for the clarity. I hope you’re having a wonderfully productive time at Mt. Hermon.
Hi Wendy,
You’re right. Everywhere I looked, I found different criteria for a proposal. No two are just alike. Thanks for this post. You’ve helped lessen my stress!
Wendy, this is the best summary of this topic I have seen. It slices through the veil of confusian and lets writers know they are justified in feeling perplexed about all the contradictary info out there.
My one bit of advice: Find a copy of one clean-looking propasal for a book that sold, then adapt its format to your own project. When I found the original proposal for Oxygen online, I liked its easy-to-read layout, so I adopted it as my blueprint. My book sold and is now in production.
Argh. Please excuse the typos. I really should not comment with my iPhone!
thanks..
Is this ideas practical?