The 7 Deadly Ins: What to Absolutely, Positively, 100% Put in Your Book Proposal ppt

Like query letters, agents and publishers themselves, much has been written – and posted, and published, and blogged – about the book proposal.. Proving that 4 million CEOs, middle manag

The 7 Deadly Ins:

What to Absolutely, Positively, 100% Put in

Your Book Proposal

A “Special Report” by Rusty Fischer,

www.requestedmaterial.blogspot.com

Let’s talk about your book proposal

Like query letters, agents and publishers themselves, much has been written – and posted, and published, and blogged –

about the book proposal And I’m quite sure you could find

dozens of books, articles and blogs better versed about proposals than myself

However, that being said, I do tend to write about 5-6 book

proposals a month on behalf of some of the most amazing people, stories and ideas you may never read about! But it’s certainly not for lack of trying!

Fact is, I’ve made quite the study out of writing proposals and take great pride in the fact that, regardless of the author, the subject matter or the genre I can typically get at least a dozen or

so agents/publishers to at least read the proposal.

And if you can get a busy agent or publisher to read your proposal these days, you’re doing pretty well Of course, that’s only half the battle; it’s getting them to sign a contract based on

the proposal that really counts.

But here’s the thing about a book proposal: no matter how many rules you think apply, or how many books on technique and theory you’ve read, what I’ve learned about proposals over the

last five or six years of steady publishing success is this: you are

in control of the words

Once you get over the hyperventilation, panic and ulcers that come with starting a book proposal, you can finally dig down deep and start to create a really well-crafted, 30-50 page

document that will knock their socks off.

In this “special report” we will discuss what I call the “7 Deadly ‘Ins’ of Book Proposals.” That is, the seven most vital things that go IN your book proposal to avoid that “deadly” pain

So get ready, we’re going to pick your proposal apart and put it back together again until you are happy, confident and satisfied that yours is the best it can possibly be!

The First Deadly In:

General Overview

A lot of folks freak out about the Overview because,

naturally, it’s the first thing people read of your book proposal But the way I calm them down is to tell them this should read like

back cover copy; brief, fat-free, to the point, get the agent

interested, get the editor nodding his or her head, not shaking it

Generally speaking, the Overview should be 5-6 pages long and answer the following 5 questions:

1.) What is the book about? Don’t get all cute and cryptic;

straight up tell people what the book is about If it’s “How

to Dress for Young Professionals,” tell them that If it’s

“How to Heel Your Dog,” tell them that Just like a query letter, consider the opening paragraph carefully If you can find a great statistic or quote or recent headline that pertains

to the topic of your book, all the better; use it!

2.) What problem does it solve? If you feel that young

professionals today dress really sloppily, and can find data

to support your belief, this is the problem you are solving

Tell them what the problem is, “According to recent data nearly 8 out of every 10 employer is dissatisfied with what their employees wear into work…” State the problem

clearly and be just as clear that, with your book, you are going to solve it

3.) Why should people read it? Just because YOU think

young professionals dress sloppily isn’t really enough of a reason to get a busy editor to care about your project – to say nothing of a busy reader/consumer This is why

statistics, quotes and headlines can be important Proving that 4 million CEOs, middle managers and HR interviewers agree with you that America is “dressing down” really tells agents and publishers why people should read your book

4.) What will they get out of it? People want results; they

want to buy your book, learn something, and walk away better informed to deal with the stated problem Don’t just state the problem and walk away; tell people what you’re going to do to help solve the problem, such as, “This book will provide readers with the walk-away tools they’ll need

to dress better for work, earn more money with more

promotions, impress their employers/clients and find career satisfaction Each chapter will feature a self-quiz, an action plan and a take-away worksheet to help readers dress better, one chapter at a time…”

5.) Why are you the person to write it? Here is a chance for

you to provide a brief, mini-bio of yourself that pertains to

why, specifically, you are the person to write this book

Always put “like with like” when you write this section In other words, your experience should lend itself to the topic

at hand Hopefully if you are writing about gardening, you work in a nursery, have a horticultural degree or, at the very least, an award-winning garden! Likewise, if you’re writing about dressing better in corporate America here would be the place to list your degrees in fashion and design and your MBA from Stanford!

So, if you answer these 5 questions – in about a page or two for each question – you WILL have a kick-butt Overview you can

be proud of

The Second Deadly In:

Author Bio

The Author Bio is pretty straightforward; write about

yourself in a way that pertains to the book Don’t just copy and

paste your resume Instead, write a 4-5 paragraph summary of your accomplishments, your unique qualities and abilities,

degrees and awards, etc

Play up what pertains to the subject you’re writing about – your degree in botany, your MBA, the number of people who read your blog – and play down or leave out what doesn’t

For instance, where you live is important – it can tell agents and editors how available you’ll be for a book tour or media placement – but adding two paragraphs about winning the

Christmas tree design award for your street for three years

running doesn’t really help your case (Unless, of course, you’re writing a book on Christmas tree design!)

If at all possible, include a recent picture with your bio Believe it or not, even busy agents and editors like to put a face with a name!

The Third Deadly In:

Platform, Publicity and Promotion

This part of the proposal comes up early because it’s

extremely important to agents and editors The Platform, Publicity

and Promotion section is just that: a list of how you can

successfully help promote this book.

In this section you might include:

• Speaking gigs you have done or plan to do

• Awards or recognition you may have earned

• Your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.com

“numbers”

• Traffic stats for any blog or website you run

• Previous publications, if any

• Any recent magazine, website or TV appearances

• Etc

Some of my clients find this portion easier than others For instance, if they have a radio show featuring 140,000 listeners every day at noon they’re obviously going to have a captive audience – and plenty of opportunity to market themselves

On the other hand, if you’re a regular civilian (like myself and a lot of my clients) with no special media recognition or

massive audience, this section can be a stretch

Mainly, be honest here; if all you can commit to doing is throwing up a blog about the book and trying to increase the

traffic every day, say that If you can speak at a few rotary

luncheons, say that

I always start this section with a paragraph or two about why the book is media-ready and my experience, if any, in this field Then I break down what I pledge to do into a bullet list (see above) with a subtitle in bold and a short paragraph in regular print

For instance:

• Prominent contacts at major local newspapers: Having

worked in local Journalism for five years, author Ed Harris has editorial contacts at 8 of the 9 local newspapers,

including the Toledo Herald and the Telegraph Gazette

The combined readership of these papers is over 120,000 paid subscribers

Do that for as many bullet points/paragraphs as you can and hold your breath If I’m sounding flip, it’s because this section is the most frequently tweaked, edited and rewritten section of every proposal I’ve ever written

Oftentimes, agents won’t even look at you until they’ve given you a list of things to do to add to this section – and you’ve actually done them So do your best, be honest and trust a good agent to help you fine tune this

The Fourth Deadly In:

Target Audience

To help convince an agent that your book is worth pitching

to publishers, you’ll have to first prove there is an audience for it

in the first place Oftentimes this section is really overstating the

obvious, but that’s why it’s important to take it seriously: tell

them something new.

For instance, if you’re writing a business book, it’s not

enough just to say, “The 4-Hour Workweek sold gobzillion copies

and so will I…” Duh! They already know that (Well, that first

part at least.) Tell them, specifically, who will read this book – and why.

If it’s for managers, explain how many managers there are in the country If it’s for gardeners, try to find how many nurseries there are If it’s for pet-lovers, get a good statistic on how many millions of people own cats, dogs, lizards

middle-or mice

You get the idea My main point is to take this section

seriously and write 2-3 solid pages about the very specific and unique audience for your book

The Fifth Deadly In:

Competitive Analysis

In the Competitive Analysis section of your book proposal your main job is to provide a list of popular, recent and well-

published titles that are similar in tone and tenor to your own

Why popular? You want to compare your book to books people actually read I mean, just because three books have

already been published on Dressing for Corporate Success doesn’t mean anybody read them!

Try to find books with a lot of reviews, with high rankings and with as much buzz as possible so that your book becomes

“guilty by association” with this popular list

Why recent? Publishers want to know that you are writing

in a field that is a.) still popular and b.) still going strong I

never list a book that hasn’t been published in the last 2-3 years because, to publishers, that signals the genre might already be old news

Why well-published? Remember, “Like with like.” Good publishers want to know that what you’re writing about is

important enough to be published by other good publishers

Where do you find these books? I confess I do all my

competitive research on www.Amazon.com It has everything I need: author name, publisher name, publisher date and great

editorial reviews

So if I’m looking up a book on gardening for young people, for instance, I would start with those keywords – gardening +

young people – and go from there Same with “business + dress”

or “pet grooming” or any other keyword you can imagine

This way I can find the title, author, publisher, year of publication and brief description – the five key ingredients to every competitive book title listing in your proposal – on one convenient website

Why go to all the trouble? Basically, in this section you are telling agents that your book is a lot like these 6-8 other

bestselling titles, but just different enough so that they can go on the shelf next to them and still stand out

The Sixth Deadly In:

Annotated Table of Contents

It’s not enough merely to list your chapter titles in a row; agents and editors want to see specifically what is contained in each chapter

Even if your chapter title is really, really obvious like “10

Signs Your Boss Doesn’t Approve of Your Mini-Skirt (Even on Casual Friday),” they still want to get a sense of what, exactly, those signs are, how you address them and if they’re interesting enough to keep readers’ attention

I typically devote 3-4 paragraphs of text to support every chapter, and I handle this one of two ways If the book is already complete, I simply find the best – or first – 3-4 paragraphs of

existing text and “excerpt” them under the chapter title

On the other hand, as is most often the case, if the book isn’t yet complete I describe the chapter as if I were writing more back cover copy

For example, “Does your boss roll his eyes whenever you get off the elevator in the morning? Does she frequently write you

up for ‘wardrobe malfunctions,’ even in the dead of winter? If any

of these sound familiar, you could be dressing improperly at work – and in danger of losing more than your wardrobe allowance! In this chapter I address the 10 biggest faux pas of young

professionals who think Casual Friday means Casual Every

Day…”

Or something like that The main point in describing your chapters is not just to fill the page and make it look like you

worked real hard on this section, but to really give agents and editors a taste for what readers will find in each chapter and, of course, your writing style.

To that end, your proposal really has two halves The first half I consider the “marketing material,” i.e your Overview, Bio, Target Audience, etc

These sections are basically designed to show agents and editors the marketability of your book and are written as such The second half contains your “sample material,” i.e your

Annotated Table of Contents and Sample Chapter(s)

This is where agents and editors really start to get a sense for how the book will actually be written, so be sure that both of these sections really represent your writing style

The Seventh Deadly In:

Sample Chapters

Finally, every proposal contains at least one – and

preferably two – sample chapters Ideally, I like to write three sample chapters: two to include with the proposal and one to hold back to a.) keep the proposal length down and b.) just in case an agent or editor is on the fence and, even after reading the

proposal, asks to see “another sample chapter.”

However, I have sold numerous book proposals on just one sample chapter alone, but more and more these days I hear agents

wanting at least two sample chapters, so it’s best not to scrimp in this area (if possible).

I typically do the Introduction and Chapter One here; most agents like to see chronological chapters because they like to see

that you’re going to engage readers and keep their interest from

page one Merely pulling the “best” chapter from the middle of

the book doesn’t show them that

Earlier I said your proposal has two halves; I meant that literally So, if you have a 50-page proposal you should really make half of that your actual sample material, i.e Table of

Contents and Sample Chapters

The key to including sample chapters is to really show

agents and editors what this book will read like, sound like, even

“feel” like

I’ve pitched proposals from movie stars, millionaires,

Playmates, CEOs, reality TV stars and the like and, no matter how famous, rich or well-connected they are if the agent or editor

doesn’t connect with the sample chapters included at the back of the book proposal, they’re still not going to commit to signing the book

So if you’re scheduling your time for the writing of the proposal, make sure that whatever time you spent writing the first half – Overview, Bio, etc – you spend two or even three times that long compiling, writing, editing, re-reading and re-writing your sample material