Need tips on writing the proposal for my book.
@moonlitmagikchild (22181)
United States
May 26, 2008 4:55am CST
Most agents I have looked into want only 1 page sent to them that is suppose to have everything on it & then the first chapter. Well the template/example I had found to go by makes it over 10 pages since it suggest a couple of sentences about each chapter and mine has a lot of chapters. I was going to lessen the bulk by combining several chapters into bunches so there wouldn't be so many extra bullets. (i.e. 1-5) But doing this I still obviously have to limit wording for space so I can't express things as much as I would like which I am afraid will make my book appear boring and shallow. I am half way through on condensing it but I keep having a feeling that I am just using the wrong example and that I will find a shorter and easier one to go by AFTER I have spent hours on this one.
Anyone have any ideas on this and I have googled for hours just to find the example I am currently using so telling me to google it has already been there and done that unless I am blind and stupid and it was right in front of me this whole time lol
1 person likes this
2 responses
@PearlGrace (3171)
• United States
26 May 08
Hi moonlitmagikchild.
My husband writes nonfiction, professional, academic books. When he does a proposal, he includes a section that is a summary of the proposed book, a section that outlines the book by each chapter with brief explanations of each chapter, a section on who the reading audience will be, and a section on why the proposed book is unique and unlike current books covering the same topic on the market. Also, he includes a section of his prior published books and writings, at least a listing of some of them and a brief sentence about each one.
However, he has never published fiction, so if you are talking about a fiction book, this proposal style may not fit. But maybe you can modify it in some way to make it useful. I guess I should mention he's been quite successful in his writing. Anyway, you may want to check the internet by googling "writing proposals for fiction books" or something similar.
Hope this helped. Take care and much luck to you.
PearlGrace
@moonlitmagikchild (22181)
• United States
27 May 08
thats the kind of proposal i have as an outline to go by but the brief explanation of each chapter is what is making the proposal huge. hmm... i may just have to send multiple pages and hope that the agents arent too strict about their wanting 1 page
@snowy22315 (169584)
• United States
26 May 08
I can't help you because i don't know anything about this,but there are some online writing groups that could probably help you. You probably have seen them. Also is there any local writers group in your community? I'm sure there must be a way to do this.
1 person likes this
@moonlitmagikchild (22181)
• United States
27 May 08
i have no idea where the groups are since i am brand new here. where should i go?
