In my last blog post, we looked at what a book proposal is, why you might need one and how to get started. In this blog post, we will be continuing to look at book proposals, now focusing on a more detailed structure and what you should include in it. Obviously, this may vary slightly according to your book and anything the publisher stated must be included, but the basics that have to be included remain the same. We will start by quickly reviewing what a book proposal is, then move on to consider what you should put in it.
Book proposals are only used for nonfiction books and are essentially marketing documents. You are marketing your idea to publishers by showing them how they could effectively sell your book to make a profit. This is your chance to convince the publisher to take on your book and have a business plan ready to sway them. This means that your business plan often ends up being more important than the content of your book, as the eventual sales and profit figures are what is most important to them as a business. Unfortunately, the result of this is that no matter how good your book is, you will also need an excellent book proposal ready.
Title Analysis
The first thing your book proposal will need is a title analysis, sometimes called a competitive title analysis. This looks at other titles that already exist in the niche you are writing for and explains why yours is still needed or different from these. You should expect to include a minimum of five other titles, but occasionally fewer will be acceptable where your niche is particularly small. To do a title analysis, you will need to start by including details such as author, publisher, price and format.
Next, write a paragraph about each of the titles you have chosen, explaining the material they cover and style of writing to make it clear why your book is still needed. Don’t dismiss these books as bad – instead, write about their strengths, but still highlight the areas they don’t cover. This way, you can show how your book is valuable for the new areas it will be focusing on.
Identify Your Target Audience
To be able to sell your book, you need to have a very clear idea of who is in your target audience. Your book definitely won’t appeal to everyone, so it is vital that you work out who you intend to market to and plan accordingly. The more specific you are, the more likely publishers are to be interested, as they will be reassured that you have done your research and understand the realities of publishing and marketing. If you write that your book will appeal to everyone in a broad category, publishers will be concerned that you have not researched properly and lack focus. You want to demonstrate that you know your audience and how to market to them.
Along these lines, ask yourself questions about your audience. What sort of age range are they? Where do they live? What sort of lifestyle do they lead? What other books would you expect them to have already read or be interested in? If your book focuses on a specific hobby or skill, what level are they at in this? You will also need some market research ready to present. Rather than simply knowing that they would be interested in the book topic, you need to know if they are prepared to spend money on it and how much. You can also research what they want to see in the book, such as new techniques or the latest information.
Create a Marketing Plan
Following on from this, you need to have a clear idea of how you will target your book to this audience. You also need evidence of what you have already achieved, rather than just ideas. For example, instead of saying that you plan to speak at conferences, list the ones you have already spoken at and the number of enquiries this has generated. The more you are implementing your ideas, the greater your reach for marketing, as publishers can see that you are already established in your niche.
Chapter Outline
You will also need to include some sort of chapter outline, but what this is can be flexible depending on your book. If it is more like a textbook, just a table of contents to show the general direction you will be taking is sufficient. However, for narrative or particularly detailed works, a bit more information might be needed. Write short summaries of what you expect to include in each chapter to act as a guide to your book.
Overview
Your overview should go right at the start of your proposal, but it is also the bit you will want to spend the most time on. It should summarise everything else you have covered in your book proposal, making it clear why publishers should hire you to write the book. The overview is the first thing that publishers will read, so it needs to be strong enough that they will keep reading.
Wrapping Up
I hope that this blog post has helped you to get started on your book proposal. The more time you can invest in it, the better it will be, so don’t rush it. Remember that you will almost certainly need to submit it to multiple publishers before it is accepted, so don’t be downhearted after a few attempts. Good luck!
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