Comments on: Following the Rules: Book Proposals

By: Kimberley Payne

Kimberley Payne — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 15:53:04 +0000

Great tips! I owned a small business as a personal trainer for over 10 years, and worked on many business plans. I agree that a book proposal is very much like a business plan.

By: nutrition sportive

nutrition sportive — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:26:54 +0000

Hello
I am also a new writer and I am just similar like you.I am also reading many articles,books etc.Thank you very much for giving such good knowledge and information about book proposal.

By: Julie Surface Johnson

Julie Surface Johnson — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:39:45 +0000

Thanks, Wendy, for this post. I’m going to print it out (along with the comments) and keep it handy. I love this common sense approach far better than keeping a long list of do’s and don’ts, some of which vary with the agent/editor. (Speaking of agents and editors, thanks for the reminder to check websites for their particular guidelines.)

By: D. Ann Graham

D. Ann Graham — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:37:52 +0000

You have to sell it. Right out of the gate. Too many of us expect the professionals in the industry to only see the potential for professionalism in our work instead of realizing they expect us to deliver it to them right then and there. Professional means a perfect pitch ninety percent of the time, and it takes a lot of time and effort to achieve that kind of percentage. A selling proposal doesn’t always mean the cleanest copy, the best hook, or nailing the perfect formula, because even these often miss the mark. The purpose of a selling proposal is to sell something.

I have found the secret of selling — whether to an agent, or publisher, or reader — to mean practicing and refining until I can successfully communicate the human factor. The proposal is the time when I must find and bring to the front that one, distinctly distilled premise of my story that can cause a person — any person — not just to merely see possibilities in it, but to recognize something there which makes them stop what they’re doing and say, “this is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh” and “we are all made this way.”

I believe the human factor is the selling factor, and that’s what we have to get better at proposing. It is the true heart of storytelling, and any proposal — at the very least — must bare the heart. Maybe proposals that fail ninety percent of the time are not being taken seriously enough by their authors to begin with. Proposals are serious business. They are the one moment when you must be at your most convincing, because you might only get that one moment.

You have to sell it.

By: Lyla

Lyla — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:26:07 +0000

Thank you for this post! I am such a rule-follower myself… the proposals and queries are where I get bogged down for months on end, trying to fine-tune all the details. Sally, I also enjoyed the “desperate girl” comment!

By: Carla Gade

Carla Gade — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:42:41 +0000

Thank you, Wendy. This is one of my greatest fears in life, manuscript submission. I’ll probably end up published posthumously by someone who finds all of my finished novels that I have yet to send in. If I wait any longer, that just may become a reality!

By: Wendy Lawton

Wendy Lawton — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:44:47 +0000

Teri, Don’t worry about making the synopsis shine. Just tell the story in a clear, concise way. No one judges your writing from the synopsis.

Someone once told me they bought a magazine in the grocery store– I think Soap Opera Digest– that does synopses of the soap operas for people who work and want to keep up with their soaps. (I guess before the days of DVR.) They learned to write synopses from that.

By: Wendy Lawton

Wendy Lawton — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:39:36 +0000

Great advice, Sally. We all need to relax a little. An overwrought proposal does not sell the book.

By: sally apokedak

sally apokedak — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:53:12 +0000

I have never sold a book and I’m not agented so my answer isn’t worth much, maybe (but then I haven’t really tried to sell very hard…I’ve not submitted much because I haven’t been ready). But I can tell you what’s made me happy about the proposal process that I’m getting into now whereas I used to think it was a chore.

I have always been a rule follower, and I would drive myself crazy thinking I had to read all the rules, and apply them all to every proposal.

One day I jotted off a quick note to an editor at Highlights without thinking about any rules, and she bought my story. I also got very good responses from other magazine editors when I wrote conversationally and with a bit of humor. I realized that when I didn’t try so hard, I was more attractive.

Someone, I can’t remember who, said at an SCBWI conference that no one wants to date the desperate girl. I loved that line. It says it all.

The rules I follow now are, be professional, be conversational, be yourself, and write a darned interesting story that grabs them at the throat on page one and doesn’t let go until it’s over.

Easy as pie. I’m thinking someone is going to snap me up any day now! heh heh

By: Teri D. Smith

Teri D. Smith — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:39:43 +0000

I struggle most with that dreaded synopsis. I find it hard to make it sound as vibrant as the book itself. I probably just need to spend more time on it.