What is A Book Proposal?
A book proposal is a statement or documented
plan to write a book by an author. The proposal is
submitted to a publishing company with the purpose that the
publishing company will accept the proposal. If the
proposal is accepted, the company will take the risk/reward of
publishing/marketing the book with its resources, and will take
on the task of developing/distributing the book with the
author’s creative genius powering the project.
Creating a successful book proposal is not an
easy task. Most authors are rejected by publishing
companies because their proposal is not well written, or they
do not come across as qualified enough to write on the subject,
when they very well may be, but just could not write a decent
enough proposal to get a publishing deal. That is why the
proposal may be the most important part of the author’s
creative process, more important than even the quality of the
book itself.
The author should understand and be very
familiar with the target market of the book. The author
should demonstrate his/her knowledge of the target market by
describing their estimated numbers, interests, preferences, age
groups, and as much information as the author can muster on the
audience. This information is valuable to the publisher
who can determine whether that target audience is large enough
for the book’s topic to get the kind of sales figures that they
are looking for. The publisher can also determine whether that
audience in the past has bought similar topics.
The author should spend most of the proposal
selling his/her qualifications for writing the book. It
is extremely important that the author presents his/herself as
being one of the leading experts in their subject field, even
if he/she is not the leading expert. It is this type of
confidence that will be attractive to the publisher.
Show every professional qualification, any
experience with the subject. The author should boast and
brag and truly sell themselves to guarantee their
acceptance.
The author should also demonstrate the USP,
or unique selling point. This is the difference between
that book and other similar books of the same topic. The
difference is what will allow the author’s book to stand out
and be a required purchase. The audience should find
material in the book that can be found nowhere else, or at
least material that is not easy to come by.
If an author follows these basic guidelines
when writing a book proposal, he/she will see dramatically
different responses from publishers than the author who does
not prepare for their book proposal.