The Parts of an Irresistible Proposal
The Parts of a Proposal Updated from How to Write a Book Proposal by Michael Larsen Most proposals range from thirty to fifty pages. Your proposal will have three parts in a logical sequence: "The Overview," "The Outline," and usually one "Sample Chapter." Each part has to impress agents and editors enough to convince them to keep reading. The following sections provide an overview of the three parts of a proposal. The Overview Your overview must prove that you have a marketable, practical idea and that you are the right person to write and promote the book. It gives you the chance to provide as much ammunition about you and your book as you can muster. * Your Proposal on a Page To get agents and editors to finish your proposal, make the first page of your overview The Proposal on a Page by using the most powerful information in your overview to sell the family jewels: Provide up to 13 hooks in 13 sentences guaranteed to make agents and editors eager to read your proposal. If you’re writing your first book, you probably won’t have all of these hooks to seduce readers. And depending on the kind of book you’re writing, you may not need seven of them. The ultimate question that your proposal has to answer is “What will excite agents and editors who have seen thousands of proposals?” You’re not just selling your book; you’re selling yourself. So every hook must answer one of these questions: "Why the book?" or "Why you?" Why the Book? 1. Your Subject Hook: a sentence with the most compelling fact, quote, trend, idea, event, or statistic that will convince agents and editors to keep reading. An irresistible opening paragraph in a narrative book that should read like a novel will work. 2. Your Book Hook: three sentences: * The title (and subtitle if you have one) of your book and your selling handle: 15 words or less explaining why people will buy the book * (Optional) A list of up to three of your book’s benefits * The estimated length of your manuscript, including back matter, as a word count or in 250-word manuscript pages, that you find by guesstimating the length of your chapters and back matter. Also include the number of illustrations if you are using them and how many months after receiving the advance you will deliver the manuscript. 3. Your Model Hook: a sentence tying your book to the model(s)—book(s) and/or author(s) that inspired it. It’s like a Hollywood pitch and captures the essence of a book in a compelling way by comparing it to one or two books, movies, authors or television shows: “It’s The Tipping Point meets Dreams from My Father.” 4. Your Market Hook: three sentences with lists of: * Round numbers for the largest groups of people who will buy your book and how fast they’re growing, if the rate of growth is impressive * (Optional) The largest commercial and institutional channels, such as gift stores or schools, through which your book can be sold * (Optional) The largest potential subsidiary-rights markets for your book such as film or foreign rights (Optional) 5. Your Nichecraft Hook: a sentence with the titles of up to three books in order of their commercial appeal, if your book will start a series (Optional) 6. Your Foreword Hook: the name and, if necessary, identification of someone who will help give your book salablility and credibility in 50 states two years from now who will write a blurb or foreword. Why You? (Optional) 7. Your Credibility Hook: a sentence proving you can write your book because of your track record, credentials, years of research, or experience in your field 8. Your Craft Hook: a sentence about the number of readers who have given you feedback on your proposal before you submitted it, including how many of them have had articles or books published, and if they were published on your subject (Optional) 9. Your Platform Hook: a sentence about what you have done and are doing to give your work and yourself continuing national visibility, online and off, with your audience online. Editors won’t expect authors of quote books to have a platform; business authors must. (Optional) 10. Your Test-Marketing Hook: a sentence with the most powerful ways you will test-market your book that are not in your platform 11. Your Promotion Hook: a sentence with the most impressive two-to-four ways that you will promote your book (Optional) 12. Your Mission Hook: a sentence about your sense of mission or commitment to writing and promoting your book (Optional) 13. Your Career Hook: a sentence that begins “The author’s goal is to be the x in [your field],” for example, Dr. Spock in the child-care field. Your proposal must prove that this is possible because of your nichecraft, your writing, your platform, and your proven ability to speak and promote your books. You don’t need to give the names of the hooks; just provide the information so it flows smoothly. The Rest of the Overview Provide complete versions of the information you use the best of for your hooks. * (Optional) Special features: anecdotes, humor, the tone and style of your book, checklists, sidebars, exercises, summaries, boxed copy, anything else you will do to give your book visual appeal, and back matter * (Optional) A foreword by a well-known authority: If getting a foreword isn't possible, write: “The author will contact [names of potential authorities and if needed, their credentials] for a foreword.” The Marketing Section * Markets for the Book * (Optional) A Mission Statement: one first-person paragraph about your passion or commitment to write and promote your book * (Optional) The Author’s Platform * (Optional) Test-Marketing: a list of the ways you will test-market your book online and off that aren’t in your platform—a blog, podcast, a Print-on-Demand version, other ways such as a website, and how many talks and articles you will do * Promotion: For most books, a promotion plan will be more important than content in determining the editor, publisher, and deal authors get. Your plan is only one thing: a list in descending order of importance of what you will do to promote your book during its crucial three-month launch window and after. The golden rules of writing a plan: Exaggerate nothing and be specific about the things you will do and how many of them. If you don’t want to be published by a big or midsize house, just list what you will do and you’re done. But if you’re writing a book for a wide national audience, and the promotion for it must be author-driven, and you want your book to be published by a big or midsize house, you will need as long and strong a plan as you can devise. Here are suggestions for beginning it: If you are one of the tiny percentage of writers who can afford to spend money on promotion, here are two ways to state your commitment: Under the subhead Promotion, begin your plan by writing: • “The author will, at his/her expense:…” Then, starting with verbs, list in descending order of impressiveness what you will do and how many of them. Or you may begin your plan by writing: • “To promote the book, the author will:” and begin your list: • "Match the publisher's out-of-pocket, consumer promotion budget up to $X on signing" If you will hire a publicist, mention who and write: • “Hire X to set up a media tour to the following X major markets and their metropolitan areas, and give talks [that you or your freelance publicist arranges], and do signings the publisher arranges:" Get ballpark costs for your plan. If you won’t have a budget, but you can give yourself a tour, write: • "Give talks in the following X major markets and their metropolitan areas and do signings and media appearances that the publisher arranges:" Then, if it makes sense for your book and justifies your time and expenses, write: • “Continue to give X talks to X people a year” (Must be a believable extension of your platform: the list that precedes the plan in your proposal of what you’re already doing to give yourself and your work continuing national visibility with the readers for your book.) • “Sell X books a year,” if you’re a speaker, assuming one out of four listeners buys a book * List online promotion in order of its ability to sell books * Convince one or more promotional partners to help you. * List whatever else you will do that will excite agents and editors. Few first-time authors can create a plan like this. If you can’t, consider trying small or midsize houses outside of New York or self-publishing the book to test-market it and build its value before selling it. Do whatever works best for you, your book, and the career you want to create as an author. ________________________________________________________________________ * (Optional) Competing Books: a list with basic bibliographic information and two phrases, each starting with a verb about what each book does and its weaknesses. Aim for the half-dozen strongest competitors, listing them in order of importance. * Complementary Books: up to ten books on your subject or similar to yours proving interest in the subject or kind of book you’re writing * (Optional) Resources Needed to Complete Your Book List out-of-pocket expenses such as travel, illustrations, permissions, and editorial or legal help that you will need to write the book, without including the costs for them. * About the Author Up to a page about yourself that’s not in in your platform, in descending order of importance The Outline From a paragraph to a page of prose about every chapter with the length of each chapter. Aim for one present-tense line of outline for every page of manuscript you envision, for example, 19 lines of outline for a 19-page chapter. Give the page count for each chapter. A Sample Chapter One or more representative chapters totaling about 25 pages--about 10 percent of the text--that will most excite agents and editors by proving that you will make the your book as enjoyable to read as it is enlightening. The list is the what, not the how. It’s intended to be used with the third edition of the book. Writer’s Digest will publish the fourth edition in fall 2010. Michael Larsen-Elizabeth Pomada Literary Agents
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