The Mystery of the Book Proposal.
The Mystery of the Book Proposal would have been a quick open/shut case that Nancy Drew would have tried to solve. She would use her personable approach of asking authors how they wrote their proposals and would get no information to no avail. She would have snuck into a publisher’s office late at night with a flashlight to rummage desks. She would probably lose sleep knowing she might not solve this pesky case. Last year, I felt much like Nancy Drew, searching high and low for answers on how the hell to write a book proposal.
For some odd reason, there isn’t a whole lot of information out there on how to write a proper book proposal. I literally scoured the web for hours + days searching on how to write and format one. Sometimes I would land on a page that would vaguely describe the process. I personally know of folks who have published books who were selling courses on how to write a proposal + to score a literary agent. Was this information so secretive and selective that only a few were privy to it? Was this information that valuable that I should pay for it? Also, if I did pay this exorbitant amount for it was I actually going to land an agent?
Instead of signing up for a year-long course, I decided to keep researching and digging. I promised that if I ever were to actually write a book proposal I’d share the process for FREE because who am I to be the gatekeeper of this information? Here goes:
PUBLISHER VS. LITERARY AGENT
So let’s start at the very beginning. You have an idea for a book + want to write it. Congratulations! That’s awesome that you want to write a book. When you have an idea for a book I learned you don’t normally tap the publisher on the shoulder saying “Hey take a look at my book! It’s AMAZING!”. Publishers don’t normally take on unsolicited book proposals or manuscripts. This is where a literary agent comes in. They are your book cheerleader + are the middleman between you and the publisher. They will advocate for your book + try to get you a good book deal.
If and when they get you that sweet deal they will take 15% of the advance. So if the publisher offers you $10,000 for your book advance you will pay your agent $1,500.
LITERARY AGENT LAND
Where the hell does one look for a literary agent? Well, that’s also another tough part to sift through. You can google literary agents that deal with your genre of book (sci-fi, adult fiction, children’s books, non-fiction, memoir...you get the idea). Some literary agents have their own websites because they work independently from literary agencies. You can alternatively google literary agencies and they will most likely have a list of their agents with their contact info + what genre they’re looking for.
You can also check out this amazing website that has a ton of literary agents looking for authors to represent. A very awesome person passed it on to me and it was super helpful in seeing what agents are looking for.
QUERY QUANDARY
Once you’ve found some literary agents that are looking for your kind of work you send them a query letter. A query letter is essentially a letter or now in most cases an email where you briefly explain who you are, what your book is about, and why yours is important for them to read. It’s a brief summarization of your book that is supposed to pique the interest of the agent.
You’ve reached out to dozens of agents, now what? You basically wait. Don’t pester an agent. They get lots of query letters daily so give them time to get to yours. Some agents will explicitly say that if you haven’t heard from them in a month you can take that as a sign that they’re not interested in reading a proposal or manuscript. If they don’t say that you can give them a little reminder maybe at like the 6 to 8-week mark since you sent your query. Politely reintroduce yourself and the work you pitched. Tell them when you sent your query and if they have any desire to move forward with reading your proposal or manuscript.
FICTION VS. NON-FICTION
An agent got back to you, now what? If you are pitching them a work of fiction they will expect a whole manuscript for that work! If it’s non-fiction then you send a proposal.
“Wait, I need to write a whole book before I’m ready for an agent?”
Yep. If you’re writing fiction they expect the whole manuscript to be done before you reach out. I’m sure there is some leeway with more established authors who write fiction where they submit an unfinished manuscript to their agents because they’ve already been published.
THE MYSTERY OF THE BOOK PROPOSAL REVEALED!
If you’re writing a non-fiction book you’re going to write a detailed proposal. If you’re writing fiction it wouldn’t hurt you to write one too just to get your thoughts on paper! Here are the steps of how I did mine:
Title Page: Exactly that. The title of your work and your name.
Table of Contents: The proposal is going to be quite lengthy + will contain many sections so you’ll be creating a table of contents with page numbers for each section.
Overview: This is where you will have a brief summary of your book. You will answer what the book is about, who it’s meant for, and why it needs to be written by you.
Promotion: This is a page where you will write all the amazing and awesome ideas you have to promote the book (publishers expect the author to do most of the promoting of the book unless you’re someone like James Patterson who has insane budgets for subway ads).
Market Analysis: This is where you describe where your book fits into the current market and if it doesn’t you can explain how you’re carving a niche with your book. In this section, you will also use other successful books that are similar to yours as a comparison. For example:
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown and Company, 2008)
Outliers was a #1 National Bestseller and a brilliant book by Gladwell who questions what makes high-achievers different. My book Other Worldz will also question what makes people successful and different. What will make my book stand out differently is the diversity of the stories and the storytelling of what makes us successful individuals.
In this section, you would provide 4-5 examples of other books that you would compare your book to. BTW my book isn’t called Other Worldz and I’m definitely not writing that kind of non-fiction.
Bio: This is where your juicy bio will go. You will describe who you are, what you’ve done, and why you’re awesome.
List of Chapters: You’ll write your list of chapters here. For example:
Introduction: May I Help You?
Chapter One: The Other Worldz
Chapter Two: Success Vs. You
Chapter Three: Success Vs. Failure
Chapter Four: Your Worldz
You would continue for as many chapters as the book is comprised of and would also include an epilogue if you have one.
Outline: This is where you’d describe each and every chapter in detail. Usually, each chapter outline is about 1 to 2 lengthy paragraphs. For example:
Introduction: May I Help You?
Cruz introduces herself and discusses what makes successful people tick. She talks about her fascination since childhood with being successful. Cruz explains the difference between perfection and success and how both do not go hand in hand. She talks about the studies she has researched on the subject and how this book will be a great guide to help those wanting to be successful. She says how people should enjoy the book and what steps they should start before diving into the work explained in her book.
Clearly, you’re going to write something that’s not as vague and way better than that paragraph to my faux book!
Sample Chapters: It’s expected to include at least two sample chapters in your proposal so that the agent or publisher can get a sense of what the book would sound like. Don’t fret here. Just write chapters that you know you can really knock out of the park with what you already have in your noggin!
This is an entire book proposal. Some folks might have different formats for theirs, but this is exactly how I did mine and it is what I sent the literary agent who requested it. It will seem exhausting and daunting, but once you’ve done it you will have a big ass document that has all your thoughts in one place. It’s a great exercise that will help you write your book. Even if you decide to self-publish your book this process will help you really think of all the pieces to tell your story.
I hope this helps anyone who is thinking of writing a book and provides the necessary transparency to get your book idea out there!