A Fiction Book Proposal.
Hal on Mar 1st 2007
More difficult than bleeding upon the page and birthing your novel is the book proposal.
Well, maybe if it’s your first time writing one, as in my case. But I think that for most writers of an artistic bent this part of the bug infested journey through dark jungles on lost continents to store bookshelves is probably always a struggle.
For me it is because of the analytical side of it. And the need to boil down into a powerful concentration the characters, plot, and story.
Not to mention the ugly creature lurking in that black lagoon, the “Marketing Section.”
That’s where I am at the moment. Working on the marketing section of the proposal. Not that the other sections are stellar. They are not. They need honing too. But I’m in the marketing section.
I want to share a couple of resource I’ve been using. Please feel free to share any sources or suggestions you have too.
For writing a fiction proposal I’ve been using as a guide Karen Wiesner’s article Preparing a Killer Fiction Proposal.
Also a good resource for understanding the process of publication and developing a proposal is Terry Whalin’s book, Book Proposals That Sell. The only thing with this book is that it is geared mostly toward non-fiction, but the info is helpful and instructive.
Filed in Writing/Tools/Resources | 4 responses so far
I was going to suggest Terry’s book, but you’re several steps ahead of me already. Haven’t been through a book proposal OR marketing as yet, and will probably need your advice when the time comes. Just wanted to stop by and say hello. It’s been crazy busy in the Gaines household. Keep up the good writing!
Hi Vicki.
Thanks for the encouragement and for visiting.
I love this site! Thank you so very much! I have been so confused over this proposal format. My agent says she wants a synopsis and that it should be between 50-100pages. I thought that was called a proposal. Anyway, thanks a million for taking the time to offer help to fledgling writer’s like me!
Hi Francine! Thanks for stopping by and I’m pleased to know you’ve been able to make use of some the stuff here.
As to your agent’s desire for a 50-100 page synopsis – that sounds like a very detailed synopsis that she is requesting. Perhaps the synopsis is all she desires. I would ask her to clarify it for you and if she hasn’t given them to you I would ask for her proposal guidelines.
Each agent or publisher will more than likely have specific requirement on the type of proposal structure they want and the synopsis is part of that structure.
I know it’s very frustrating that there isn’t a common structure. I’ve got several for my novel, Sins of Our Fathers. And the fact is that I’m going to need to write another one.
When I was at the recent FCWC I used a short proposal that I had put together based on what an acquisitions editor for Kregel wanted. I reworked it making it a bit more generic for the purpose of pitching to all the editors and agents at the conference. When I pitched it to one agent he was interested and desired to see a more in depth proposal and asked me to email and request his agency’s proposal format and rewrite my original proposal to send to him.
So everyone is different and we writers must work at presenting our works using the guidelines of those to whom we submit.
Most houses and agency don’t do it to be mean, they do it to stream line their time and be more efficient because they all get so many queries and proposals and manuscripts on a weekly basis.