Super-Powered Book Proposal Secrets
Posted on 20 August 2010 by Karen Risch
Jane Friedman, of Writer’s Digest, has been laying it all out: what to include in your non-fiction book proposal, how to please (or get dismissed by) editors and agents, the three questions you must answer convincingly, what to research … you gotta read this stuff. Great coverage of a topic we know and love and have written and talked about, too, both here in this blog and in our videos, free book proposal course, and other resources.
Check it out:
Secret #1: There Is No Try. Do! In other words, don’t promise in your proposal that you intend to do something (like guest blog or set up a Web site or whatever) sometime in the future, after a publisher gives you a contract. Instead, start doing it now so that you can include in your proposal what you’ve already done. This post includes a useful handout describing what goes into a book proposal.
Secret #2: Numbers Always Need Meaning & Context. Tell the story behind your statistics; don’t just throw around meaningless numbers, which we all know from watching coverage of the BP oil spill can be made to look good for either side of the argument.
Secret #3: Always Evaluate Online Competitors. In your competitive analysis, you need to assess the online presence of competing and complementary experts in your field, not just their books, to see what kind of communities they’ve built and what kind of reach they have on the Interwebs.
I bet this series will continue. We’re on top of it and will modify this post to include all of the secrets as they come.
Nice work, Jane Friedman!
You might also like to read:
- Book Proposal Results: What Publishers Say
- Non-fiction Book Proposals: What Agents & Editors Really Want
- Write Your Nonfiction Book Proposal
- Ask for Endorsements: Here’s How
- Write a Non-fiction Book That Speaks to Your Audience
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