Get Into the Book Proposal Mindset
Tips for success
Are you struggling to create a book proposal for your nonfiction book? Writing a book proposal requires a completely different mindset than actually writing or working on your book. It can be hard to shift into that mindset and write a successful book proposal.
At it’s heart, a book proposal is a sales pitch. It’s an argument for why an editor should buy your book (or why an agent should represent you). You have to step out of yourself and your project and look at it with analytical eyes to make this pitch.
Here are some tips for making that mindset shift:
Take a step back. Pretend this isn’t your book. Look at it as objectively as possible.
Highlight what’s unique. Think about what makes your book special and different from everything else out there. Why is it better than competitors? Emphasize that in your query letter and overview sections.
Get the numbers. A big part of the book proposal argument is that there is an audience for this book. Cite some statistics that demonstrate the size of this audience. Back it up with a link to the source. [I’ll talk in depth about your audience in another post]
Sell yourself. Many authors are uncomfortable doing this, but you have to pump yourself up by highlighting your experience, knowledge, work, and anything else that makes you THE person to write this book.
Tell what value your book brings to the reader. Describe exactly how your book is going to transform, change, or influence your reader.
Summarize what is in the book. Give specifics about the process, story, tools, information, technique, or skills the book shares. Pretend you’re explaining it to a friend you bumped into at the grocery store.
Choose a sample chapter that wows. Too many authors plop in their first chapter because it’s the first one. Instead, choose one that shows the heart of the book, the most exciting material, and the best stuff you’ve got.
It can be really helpful to talk all of this through with someone - a friend, another writer, or a book coach (like me!). I often find that my writers are able to express what’s unique and exciting about their book when they actually talk about it, as opposed to when they are writing the proposal.
In a recent meeting with one of my authors, we poked around her concept for a while and I asked her to sell me on why I should buy her book. Then she was able to concisely say why her book was unique, valuable, and important. “Copy, paste!” I said to her (my writers get a transcript and video recording of our calls so she could go into the transcript and find what she’d said and use it).
She was able to articulate it in conversation but not when writing the proposal. It’s normal to slip into your regular “writer mind” when you’re typing, but to create a successful book proposal, you need to be in a persuasive, sales-y mindset.
It takes practice to do this, and you might find you slip in and out of it as you’re working on the proposal. That’s ok. Put it aside and come back to it another with a fresh perspective.
You can create a compelling book proposal by developing this mindset.
FUN STUFF
Here’s where I catch you up on what I’m working on, reading, watching, buying, and basically doing when I’m not working on books!
In My World
I’m working on an article for Next Avenue and helping a client get his book about restaurant management formatted for Amazon.
Engrossed by…
Such a Happy Family by Aggie Blum Thompson, about a murder during a cherry festival at a rich family’s compound. Lots of family drama, wealth, and intrigue.
Paradise on Hulu, a not-what-it-initially-seems show with Sterling K. Brown about a murder, government control, and what happens in a worst-case scenario.
Good Goods
I’m trying to reduce plastics and am gradually shifting to glass food storage. However, I am a klutz and glass will break if you drop it (I can confirm…). So, I’m buying these glass food storage containers with a silicone sleeve so if I drop them they’ve got a fighting chance at survival.