“You can’t judge a book by its cover but you can sure sell a bunch of books if you have a good one.”
You’ve conjured up your next great idea for a book. What’s next? If the end goal is to have your story stacking the shelves at every respected bookstore, you’re going to need to write a book proposal. For many writers, book proposals are the difference between having their work published, and having it fall by the wayside. Join us today at What We Reading as we explore what these important parts of the publishing industry are, and how to write a book proposal that every publisher will fall in love with!
What Is A Book Proposal?
Before we get into how to write a book proposal, it’s worth sparing a few lines explaining what a book proposal is.
A book proposal is a document created to convince publishing companies to print a book. Book proposals don’t contain any entire story, but they do present a summary of the plot, key themes, characters and a marketing plan for its release. Like with fiction books, nonfiction book proposals are delivered with persuasive plans to publishing houses to subsidise and publish their work.
Book proposals differ to query letters, which are designed to catch the attention of literary agents.
What Should A Book Proposal Include?
You can find countless book proposal templates online that provide a good outline of what should be included when sending an idea to a publisher. Different publishing houses have different submission guidelines when it comes to book proposals, so make sure you adhere to them when you’re submitting your pitch. With that being said, these are some of the most frequently-used features in book proposals:
Book Proposal Outline
- Overview: Your book proposal should provide a summary of your book, explaining the content and aims. An overview should be viewed as their ‘hook’, grabbing a publisher’s attention and convincing them your book has appeal.
- Author Bio: It’s important to include an author bio when writing a book proposal. As well as a photograph, an overview of you as an individual, previously published work and other relevant experience.
- Table Of Contents And Chapter Summaries: Include an outline of your chapters with summaries of what these chapters will include.
- Sample Chapter: Book proposals typically feature a full chapter. This gives a publisher a good idea of your writing style and skill and showcases the story’s potential.
- Competitor Title Analysis: Demonstrate your credibility by including 5-10 previously published books that are similar to yours. Compare your book to theirs with a summary, showing the differences from others in the market and why your idea is unique. This list should also feature the full title, author, publish year, publisher, price, page count and ISBN.
- Target Audience: Who is your book aimed at? This section of your book proposal shows your understanding of your book and the audience you’re aiming to target.
- Marketing Plan: Your marketing plan in a book proposal is your opportunity to shout about any connections you have in the literary world. New authors can tout their social media presence, the amount of visitors their website attracts or the amount of members on their newsletter – anything that shows that will increase the chances of your book succeeding.
- Additional Information: If you have any other details for your book proposal, you can include them at the end. Examples include your expected word count, data and stats relevant to your book and sales from previously published competitors.
Tips For Writing A Book Proposal
Writing a book proposal can seem daunting, especially for new authors. But, whilst it is important to strike the balance between entertaining, convincing and informative, here are some quick tips for writing a book proposal:
- Don’t Be Modest: Like every good job interview, a book proposal is your time to sell yourself, your skills and your creativity. Your end goal is to convince a publisher that they should finance your idea so demonstrating you have full confidence in it (backed up with figures, expertise and previous accomplishments) is a must.
- Be Realistic: Following on from the previous point, it’s important to not let your confidence drift into delusion. Be realistic about your book’s prospects. Publishers are more likely to take your proposal more seriously if you present a grounded approach to your book, rather than touting about being the next J.R.R. Tolkien.
- Build An Audience: A great way to boost your credibility with a publisher is by demonstrating your ability to connect with others in the industry. If you think you lack experience in the publishing industry, take some time to build an audience by collaborating with bloggers, influencers and other creatives. After a while, who knows who may end up approaching you?
- Be Specific: You are the only person capable of writing your book. And your book proposal should reflect that specificity. Make sure that anyone reading your proposal knows exactly what your book is about, what makes it unique and why you’re the only person who can deliver it.
Wrap Up
In summary, book proposals are documents that are designed to convince publishers to publish a book. To sell them that your idea is the one to take a chance on, it’s important to summarise exactly what your story is about, why it is unique and will garner attention and why you’re the best person to write it.
We’ve given you a brief outline of what should be included in your book proposal template and some quick tips on getting started but, ultimately, the best tip we can offer up is to not give up! It can be disheartening being rejected, but perseverance goes a long way, consider each one an opportunity to reflect and learn from and the right opportunity will undoubtedly come along!
Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
