Book Proposal: How to Write It and When to Use It
A Publishing Starting Point: "How to Write the Perfect Book Proposal" Jeff Herman and Deborah Levine Herman
How Do You Get Your Book Published?
In 2007, I decided to write the book that had occupied space in my head for years. It was a book about motherhood. The book would be honest, helpful, pragmatic and funny – all the things that I was looking for in a book when I had my first baby. My first step was to write the darn thing. Well, at least 80% of it. My next step was to find a publisher.
The one thing that I did not want to do was to buy a book to teach me how to publish a book. However, after months of scouring the internet in order to teach myself without luck, I finally relented and purchased the book that had popped up again and again in my internet searches.
That book was titled Write the Perfect Book Proposal by Jeff Herman and Deborah Levine Herman. Buying it was one of the best decisions I ever made. I had selected the perfect book to help me in my publishing endeavor. To my surprise the book was so much more to me than a proposal writing guide.
So Little Can Yield So Much
For $16 (It is now available in a 3rd edition, $17), I got the best education on proper publishing industry procedure that money can buy. The Hermans are successful literary agents and they know what the publishing industry expects to see in a book proposal. Unexpectedly, however, I came away with a clearer picture of how I wanted to market my book. Invaluable nuggets that I could infuse into all my book marketing materials - media kit items, back cover copy, and pitches - came to me after reading each chapter and the 10 sample book proposals that were included at the end of the book. Quite the powerful how-to book, yes? Even though the book is about writing a book proposal, for me, it was an invaluable introduction to book marketing.
In an easy to understand and non-threatening way, the Hermans offer an aspiring author a way to hit the ground running on the first time out to agents and publishers. They teach the strict industry standard guidelines to give your proposal the best chance to be seen. The lessons also apply to book marketing in general and pitches to media contacts, specifically.
How Did the Hermann’s Manage to Teach Marketing in their Book Proposal Guide?
Here is an example of how I learned more about my own book and fashioned book marketing materials through reading Write the Perfect Book Proposal. In one chapter, the Hermans describe the “overview” section of a book proposal. The reader who seriously ruminates after absorbing the brief chapter will come away with invaluable knowledge of their own book, its purpose, its audience, its importance, and its uniqueness (its hook). Without paying a publicist or book marketer, the reader will start to identify key elements of their book to use in their marketing materials. Not bad progress for $16, eh?
How do the Herman’s manage all that I described above in two pages of an overview chapter? One way is to introduce questions which the author must answer for himself. Ironically, the questions may be new to the author but they are critical to the success of book marketing down the road.
Fo example, the following questions transcend a book proposal overview and are applicable to many facets of book marketing.
Who is your audience?
Why / How does your book help them?
My copy of Write the Perfect Book Proposal is full of answers jotted in the margins to the many questions proposed. I return to my notes again and again to stay focused on my audience, my message and my mission.
The Hermans also offer, in a gentle way, advice on what NOT to do which will be absolutely critical to successful book marketing. Sometimes, the advice on what not to do is more valuable than what to do. They also provide comments on what publishers and agents expect to see in the format they expect to see it - another tip that extends to pitching in your marketing efforts. Another valuable lesson which transcends the book proposal step of publishing is to maintain professionalism at all times in all of your marketing interactions.
I learned so much from each and every chapter of this book. Yes, I learned how to write a query letter and a book proposal but more importantly, I developed my own book marketing materials and so much more. If you have had a similar experience with a How-To book of any kind, be it publishing or another discipline, please share it. I would love to hear about it. In a future post, I’ll share a second, must-have book purchase to help you publish your book!
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