If you want to be a traditionally published book author, you need to accept that writing the book itself is only half of the equation – the other half is getting a convincing a publisher to print and distribute your book to the market. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as just writing a really good draft and waiting for agents and publishing companies to come knocking on your door. You have to write a book proposal and convince them that your book is marketable. If you want your proposal to be compelling and convincing, here are 5 tips to keep in mind:
1. Acknowledge the Publisher’s Goals Over Your Own
If this is going to be your first book deal, chances are money is not your first priority. Maybe you just want to get your name out there, or you want to feel what it’s like to have your words on paper and on bookshelves. What you need to remember is that most publishers don’t care about the same things. Do not be surprised, but the majority of publishers only care about your book’s marketability. This is what needs to show up on your proposal – don’t waste text trying to convince them of how publishing your book furthers your goals.
You need to convince them that publishing your work will help further theirs. In fact, there are cases where companies will publish a book even if it’s poor in quality, simply because they were convinced that it’s going to sell well (a cursory look at the local bookstore’s shelves will prove this).
2. Brevity is Key
A book proposal needs to include an outline of your plot, but don’t be too verbose. Keep it brief by limiting it to a loose outline containing the key characters, the problems they face, and the point of conflict. There is no need to write a full synopsis. The less time it takes to read and digest the details of your proposal, the better your chances of having a publisher actually read it.
3. Explain Your Qualifications
In this day and age, where social media accounts now play into job seekers’ chances of getting hired, it is vital to explain why you are qualified to write the book even if this is your first one. If you have some semblance of popularity on the Internet (for example, a well-trafficked website or social networking profile), you can include it in your proposal, as it will help convince a publisher that people will be interested in buying your book.
4. Explain Why Your Book Stands Out From the Competition
Acknowledge that the industry is full of people who are writing books on the same topic as yours and that a publishing company can only accept so much at any given time. So assess your competition and explain why your book will be different, but take care not to come off as disparaging or unnecessarily hostile towards competition. You’ll have better chances getting accepted if your proposal is professional instead of petty and antagonistic.
5. Proofread
Ask a knowledgeable friend to objectively pore through your proposal, and proofread it as many times as you need, just to make sure that no mistakes have gotten through. There are worse things that could happen to your proposal, but allowing grammar and spelling mistakes through tells the publisher a lot of things, none of them good.
Image credit: Lindsey Turner on flickr and reproduced under Creative Commons 2.0[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]https://writingtipsoasis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/hv1.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]Hiten Vyas is the Founder and Managing Editor of eBooks India. He is also a prolific eBook writer with over 25 titles to his name.[/author_info] [/author]