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The nonfiction book proposal is a unique creature. It’s an essential package that you must create to attract the attention of publishers and “sell” them on your book, but most writers balk at the thought of spending weeks and even months developing and honing it.

But what if you could accelerate the process of creating your nonfiction book proposal? What if you could write a powerful proposal both quickly and professionally? Ryan G. Van Cleave shows you how with The Weekend Book Proposal, a practical, step-by-step guide to the nuts and bolts of faster, better proposal writing.

Here, Ryan shares three questions you should ask yourself as you start planning your proposal.

1. WHO ARE MY READERS?

Start with your mom, dad, spouse, and immediate family. Then expand this list to any aunts, uncles, and cousins who you can guilt-trip into buying a copy. Great—you’ve sold maybe a dozen copies to people who are buying it merely because they know you. Now the real work starts. Who else is going to be persuaded to buy the book?

Determine the Primary and Secondary Markets

Your primary audience is the ideal group of people who’d love to read your book. If your book is a Florida orchid-growing how-to, the primary audience is Floridians who grow orchids. If your book is a memoir about a forty-something using her renewed Catholic faith and positive thinking to create weight loss and overall health improvement, then the primary audience is health aficionados. But it might also be Catholic women’s groups. And perhaps priests. Most books have a clear primary audience, though books that cover a lot of ground (like the latter example) might have more.

Your secondary audiences are the groups of people beyond the obvious primary audience. For that orchid book? Secondary audiences might be gardeners in Florida or the entire Southeast. Landscapers. Organic farmers. Member groups of the American Orchid Society. Botanical garden gift shops. For that memoir? Any Catholic church. Catholic parenting groups. Fitness clubs. Fans of The Secret and The Law of Attraction. Active forty-somethings and senior citizens. And so on.

Books should always have quite a few reasonable secondary markets. Make sure to mention them, even if they seem fairly small. The primary market should be doing the heavy lifting, yet secondary markets that bring in a couple dozen or a few hundred sales add up quickly.

2. WHAT MAKES MY BOOK SPECIAL?

How are you going to convince a publisher that your book is special? Different? Noteworthy? Reader-friendly?

It comes down to being clear about your book’s features and benefits. But the way to do that is in the context of seeing what’s already available in print—your competitors.

Determine the Existing Titles That Compete with Yours

It’s best to start by gathering the information already out there, so early on in your proposal, include a list of the top four to six books that in some way compete with yours. Don’t be scared to admit that similar books already exist. Editors expect that. In fact, if you can’t find any books that are similar to yours, editors will be leery of taking your book on. The assumption is, if it’s a viable market, someone would’ve already tapped into it. So find and name your main competitors.

Determine Your Book’s Features and Benefits

Here’s the tricky part. Now it’s on you to think through what features or benefits your book has that the competing books don’t (or at least the ones they haven’t done as effectively as you will). Here are a few possible ideas:

• Thoroughness: If your book is the most comprehensive, authoritative book on a certain topic, you’re in great shape.
• Timeliness: Think about all the Y2K books or 2012 Mayan prophecy books that flooded the shelves before a specific calendar date. Dealing with the context of your book—the place and time—can help persuade your audience.
• Access: If your book provides special access to something or someone people want to know more about, that’s a real value.
• Skills: Are you teaching something useful, like how to safely shed two pounds a week by doing yoga in your office chair at work? I wouldn’t know how to do that without reading your book (and perhaps getting more flexible—ouch!).
• Knowledge: Are you making readers more knowledgeable? Are you promising to raise their IQ? Despite having no evidence to support the idea that they raised the intelligence level of children, the Baby Einstein DVDs sold like crazy when they came out. Why? Every parent wanted their kids to be as smart as Albert Einstein.

3. WHO AM I TO WRITE THIS BOOK?

Even if you have an amazing idea and a dynamite book proposal, you might still lose the deal if you don’t present yourself as the single best candidate to do the job. You’ll need to discuss the following in your proposal:

Your Writing Background

If you have previous training in writing or some of your writing has been published somewhere—anywhere—awesome! That’s terrific information to include. Having something you wrote that’s been published says a few things:

• You can complete a written piece.
• You can edit/proofread it to a professional standard.
• You understand how to submit work to a publisher.
• You have worked successfully with a publisher in the past.
• You take yourself seriously as a writer.
• You’re building a writing career.

All of these seem like valuable things to communicate to a prospective publishing partner, no?

If you don’t have professional writing credentials, you might decide to take a bit of time to generate some. Considering how many print and online opportunities there are these days, it’s easier than ever to get something accepted for publication. Begin with local publication opportunities to start racking up credentials.

Your Education

Here’s where you say you went to Stanford (unless, like me, you didn’t!). If you went to a number of different colleges and universities, don’t give the entire laundry list. Give the last one and/or the most prominent. If your education stopped at high school or before, leave that out entirely. Now calm down—I’m not saying you’re a dud because you didn’t go to college. People like John D. Rockefeller, Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Dave Thomas, and Henry Ford all did quite well without college, I realize. But it’s just too easy for an editor who’s never met you to have a negative reaction to your not having what’s considered to be the bare minimum of education. (If your book is about succeeding without a college degree, however, by all means, lead with that fact.)

A word of warning: Academic writers are trained to write stuffy, dense, reader-unfriendly works. So if you have advanced degrees, make sure that your entire proposal reads like you’re writing for actual people versus Socrates. Keep the massive, convoluted sentences and exotic vocabulary to a minimum. You’re writing for the twenty-first-century audience, not William Shakespeare.

Education, though, is more than just degree programs. Consider beefing up this area of your bio by taking classes at the local community college. You can find first-rate online classes through Writer’s Digest University (www.writersonlineworkshops.com), Stanford University Continuing Studies (continuingstudies.stanford.edu/courses/onlinewriters.php), and the Gotham Writers’ Workshop (www.writingclasses.com). If you go any of these routes, they’re worth mentioning.

Relevant Background Information

You might be inclined to add that you raise Yorkshire terriers or that you hold three Guinness Book of World Records records relating to bubble gum blowing. Good for you. Just don’t put it in your author bio because it’s not relevant (unless, of course, your book is on raising/hoarding dogs or bubble gum blowing, or if it’s a memoir on your life quest to get as many world records as humanly possible).

If you truly think something is interesting albeit a bit off the topic of your book, fine; just include no more than one of those factoids to give your life a little color. Such an addition might make you stand out from a slew of other authors’ proposals. It also might make sense if you don’t have much to say by way of education or writing background. You have to say something, right? I get that. Just don’t go overboard with hobbies, interests, and skills. This isn’t a job résumé or dating profile, after all.

If you choose to add a nice detail for flavor, see if it can also—on some level—suggest something that might help your cause as a writer. For instance, if you’re a freelance web designer, then you must be pretty creative and industrious. You also probably know how to use the Internet to promote yourself and your book. And if you say you get in at least three rounds of golf a week at the best country club in San Jose (Silicon Valley), it’s reasonable to assume you might have an in with high-tech innovators and dot-com entrepreneurs. If you’re writing a book about the dot-com bubble bursting, then this is crucial information to share.

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Looking for more ways to boost your proposal-writing skills and increase your chances of publication? The Weekend Book Proposal is jam-packed with proven strategies, sample queries and proposals, interviews with publishing experts, and “Hit the Gas” tips for speeding up the proposal process. Whether you’re proposing a nonfiction book, memoir, anthology, textbook, or novel, you’ll learn how to succeed and prosper as a writer—and sell your books before you’ve even written them!

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Rachel Randall is the managing editor of Writer’s Digest Books.

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To answer some of the questions from my last Muffin post, I'm going to detail the roundabout way I developed a nonfiction book proposal.

One of the many Idiot's Guide books available on the marketplace.  Photo credit | PGHumphrey

The seeds of my Idiot's Guide book that will be coming out in January 2014 were sown in 2008. Not only is that the year that I started eating gluten free, it was also the year I attended a writers' conference in Florida. It was a small group of writers with a good mix of agents and editors. (It has been held sporadically since then and 2008 was the only time I've gone.)

Because the conference was such an intimate gathering, I managed to speak with several editors and agents. I continued to follow up with several of the folks. One of the agents I was in contact with would intermittently float tantalizing subjects for which I would write a proposal.

The Idiot's Guide proposals are not for the faint of heart. At one time, I was working on a television project and developing an Idiot's Guide based on the concept. I researched my heart out, but did not get the book gig.  (The TV gig took me to Texas, but not into viewers' homes.) I tried another time, but lucked out. The subject of that book has been banished from my memory.

Try and try again...

Along the way, a friend submitted and wrote her own Idiot's Guide. This year, when I found out the publishers were looking for a gluten-free author, I figured I'd try again and I called my friend for advice. She asked me some smart marketing questions that really helped frame my approach.

I'm passionate about the subject of gluten-free eating, but I don't blog it and I've yet to pitch a magazine story around it. Another catch: the book calls for recipes. In all my bag of tricks, I have not yet learned to develop recipes. The agent paired me with an experienced Idiot's Guide writer who develops recipes.

Try, try, and try again...

I wrote a chapter, based on the agent's request and the Idiot's Guide information, built out a table of contents, and the rest of the proposal. My collaborator helped me find the tone for writing it and fleshed out a list of recipes. For a while it did not look like we would get the contract. When we did, I continued to pinch myself and tried to think what I'd done differently this time. I'm still trying to figure that out.

To answer some of the questions of readers from my last post:

• I'm still in the author's review process and the editors have been approachable and easy to work with all along.
• There is manuscript formatting throughout the writing that becomes second nature after the second chapter.
• It has been a fantastic project and I'm really excited to see it in print, especially because it is a subject dear to my heart.

Penguin and the Idiot's Guide folks have put a lot of information on the Internet (some of which I linked to above). Take a look and jump in!

I'll keep answering questions, so keep asking them! For next time, research.

Elizabeth King Humphrey is a writer and editor living in southeastern North Carolina. Besides working with words, she enjoys coaching writers and designing books. Recipe development to come!

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austinkleon:

Cartoonist Ivan Brunetti in his studio

Kidd, who says Brunetti’s relative obscurity is due mainly to the fact that he’s not much of a self-promoter, has been badgering the cartoonist to submit a book proposal for more than a decade. “He doesn’t have a defining book. That’s a big moment for a cartoonist,” Kidd said. “And Ivan has a masterpiece in him; it’s just getting him to do it.”

Yep.

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I only had 3 people enter the book proposal contest, so congratulations!  All three of you are winners!  I'll have your proposal critiques back to you by the end of the month.

I must confess to being a little surprised that there weren't more entries, but I'm going to chalk it up to the fact that I was overwhelmed by TLA the last 2 weeks and wasn't able to post a flurry of nagging reminders.

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The very last portion of a book proposal is your biography.  This is the chance to brag a little bit about yourself and to tell the editor/agent pertinent information about yourself.  For example, say you've written a middle grade novel where the kids are running around trying to outwit an ancient Mayan prophecy and you also happen to be the world's current leading expert on all things Mayan, that would be something to include in your biography.  Or perhaps, you run a blog with 1500 followers that offers advice to parents adopting children from China, and you wrote a picture book about a little boy going with his parents to pick up his new baby sister from China.  Again, that would be something to mention.

Also, this is the time to remind the agent/editor (you've already mentioned it in the cover letter) if you are a published author.  You can also enclose a one page list after your bio of your top publishing credits.  However, again, use your discretion.  If you've published 45 magazine articles, 12 short stories, 16 novels and edit an online journal, you don't want to list every single credit.  Hit the highlights.

To practice your bios, go to the Forum and post it.  No one will criticize what you've done, we'll just give you feedback so you can show yourself in the best light.

And that my friends, concludes Book Proposal March.  You have now read (and in some cases practiced) all of the elements of a good book proposal.  But don't stop practicing.  Remember, in a couple of weeks I will be holding a Book Proposal contest.  The top 5 book proposals will receive a free critique of their proposal (including the sample chapters/manuscript in the proposal), and ALL entries in the contest will be considered for publication by CBAY Books.  You can submit any genre, any age, anything -- even stuff you might not think is appropriate for the CBAY lists.  After all, you could still win a critique, and I'm also considering an ebook original imprint that will publish more than SF/fantasy.  I'm thinking of broadening my scope, so to speak, but I have to see what's out there before I decide. 

Rules, information, and deadlines for the contest will go up tomorrow.  So, keep posting on the Forum (in any of the parts of a book proposal, not just author bios) to get your book proposal in the best shape possible.

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The other major component of the marketing portion of a book proposal is where you detail out your marketing plans for your book.  This section consists of your:

• Promotion Plans -- Things you can do to get others to spread the word about your book.
  Examples would be things like blog tours, reviews (blog or traditional), small contests.
• Marketing Plans -- Things you can do to directly tell people about your book.
  Examples would be postcards, book marks, your blog or newsletter, book release party, school visits.
• Promotional/Marketing Opportunities -- Things that could be done that you do not personally have the resources or contacts to do yourself.
  Examples would be ARC mail outs, bookstore tours, advertising in major market publications.

This section can be simultaneously the most fun and the most frustrating section to work on. It can be fun because you get to put all of your not inconsiderable amount of creativity to use thinking up ideas to catch readers attention.  It can be frustrating because many of these ideas have already been used, and it helps remind you just how difficult it can be to stand out from the crowd.

When brainstorming for this, dream big.  If your picture book has a blimp in it, put "flyover town by blimp covered in jacket art" on your list.  However, when you actually go to write up your marketing ideas for your proposal, be more realistic.  You and your publisher probably won't have the funds to hire and deck out a blimp.  But, you might be able to "print jacket art on blimp shaped balloons to giveaway to kids."  Put that option on your proposal instead.

Now, it's time to practice identifying your markets and marketing ideas.  Go to the Forum, and post a small (1-2 sentence) description about your book and your potential markets and/or marketing ideas. At this point, we're still in the brainstorming stage, so put down anything you want.  All of us on the boards will then give feedback on how realistic we think your ideas/markets are. 

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There are two types of book series:

1. Set Series - the kind with a set number of books planned from the beginning.
   These are the series where every single book has a complete plot arc (or should), and then the overarching series also has a plot arc.  The best example that every one will instantly understand would be the Harry Potter books.  In each book there's a plot (Harry getting the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry saving Ginny from the Chamber, Harry competing in the Tri-Wizard Tournament, etc.), but the series itself has an overall plot (Harry vs. Voldemort).  From the beginning, there were going to be 7 Harry books, and by golly, (even if some of them got kind of long) there were 7 Harry books.  Other examples of series like this would be the Percy Jackson books, the Series of Unfortunate Events books, and locally, The Forgotten Worlds Series from CBAY.
2. Open-ended Series - the kind where each book is its own stand-alone adventure.
   In these books, you can have as many adventures as you can think up.  The only thing that carries over are the characters.  Beloved by book packagers and the ghost-writing teams, these series can literally go on indefinitely.  The most famous are the various series produced by the Stratemeyer Syndicate (Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Bobsbey Twins, etc.)  However, there are also modern day versions like The Babysitter's Club (who may or may not be written personally by Martin -- I won't pretend to know) and many chapter book series written by a single author like the Magic Treehouse Books and, my favorites, the Judy Moody books.

And just like there are two kinds of series, there are two ways you can write a series summary:

1. One paragraph summaries
   This is where you write a one paragraph summary for each one of your proposed books in the series.  In these small summaries you need to detail the major plot arc in its entirety.  So, yes, you will need to give the plot away.  This type of summary is appropriate for both set and open-ended types of series.  However, if you are doing an open-ended series and dream of some day producing 46 books, do not try to think up a summary for 46 books.  Limit yourself to around 5 for now.
2. Full page summary
   This is where you write a one page summary of your the overreaching plot of your series.  Exactly like a one page summary of a single book, this is a short-story summarized version of what the overall series plot arc will be.  Obviously, this style of summary only works with a set series.

Like one paragraph and one page summaries for books, series summaries can be difficult to write.  However, if you plan to do a series, at some point (unless you already have the entire series written and sometimes even then), you will have to do one of these.  No one is going to contract a whole series without an idea of where it is going or the kind of books you are going to do.

So, over at the forum I have set up a board for folks to practice their series summaries.  And even if you aren't working on a series at the moment, this might be a good time to make one up.  You never know when you might have characters you are so in love with that you want to keep writing about them.

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A long, long time ago (as the song says), I posted about one page summaries.  What I said then is still true now. 

A one page summary, or book synopsis, is a one page third person short story of your novel.  It's one of those few times that you can tell a story without a single scene, and obviously since you have one single-spaced page, in as few words as possible.  Your summary tells the entire plot and subplots of your novel, introduces all major and possibly a few minor characters, and introduces the major thematic elements.  Like your one paragraph summary in your cover letter, it also needs to be illustrative of your writing voice and give the editor/agent a sense of how the manuscript will read.  Not quite as difficult as a one paragraph summary (because you have more words), these can still be hard to write.  It can be hard to figure out what is important enough for the summary.  I find that the easiest way to write one of these is to make an outline of your novel with all the major plot markers listed.  Then you'll know what you have to include, and you can make choices from there.

More than any other part of a book proposal, the one page summary is where you really get to know your manuscript, where you can really evaluate what does and does not need to be in your novel. Do you find you have 12 subplots and can't fit them into the summary?  Then it might be time to reevaluate the necessity of all those twists and turns.

For the rest of the week, we're going to practice the one page summary.  Since Facebook did not have as sophisticated of a discussion board as I had expected, I have set up a new forum over at ProBoards: The Buried in the Slush Pile Forum.  It's not as pretty as the Ning forum was, but this one is free, and Ning no longer is.  I know.  Bummer. 

I have already started the one page summary board.  All you have to do is start a new thread in that group, and then paste your summary in.  (Don't worry about the character count.  You get 60,000 characters which is roughly 32 double spaced pages.  You are aiming for around 500 words which is around 5000 characters.) To leave feedback, just reply to that particular thread.  This way no one who wants to participate will be overlooked.  (I missed one yesterday, and even once I knew about it, I still had trouble finding it.  Hence the switch in forums.)  As always, general rules of critique etiquette apply, and on this forum, I have the power to remove comments and ban members for bad behavior.  This has never, ever been a problem in the past, but I will exercise that right if necessary.

Finally, a note for the picture book authors:  I'm sure you noticed that I kept referring to a one page summary of a novel.  Obviously trying to write a one page summary for a picture book would just be silly.  However, you can still participate if you like.  Feel free to use this time to perfect your one paragraph summary, and then take the additional space on your page to really explore your characters and get to know them -- their motivations, their wants, needs, etc.  Granted, very little of that will actually make it into your manuscript text, but it will help you to know these things.  For example using Becky's Don Quixote picture book wip, if the little boy's main motivation is to get Mommy's attention, then learning this would help Becky decide if the activities he participates in are helping him try to achieve that goal or if they are just silly for silly's sake.  When you're done, feel free to post your paragraphs (and maybe a sentence or two about what you've learned if you like) on the forum.  Just be sure to prominently feature Picture Book Practice at the top so we won't be try

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The first part of any book proposal (or submission for that matter) is the cover letter.  A query letter is also, in many ways, identical to the cover letter.  Basically, these are incredibly important things to be able to write.  Also, you're going to be writing quite a few of these over your professional career, so you might as well learn how to write them now.

Of course, I talked extensively about cover letters during the picture book submission process back in January.  To review that post where I talk in detail about cover letters (electronic, query, or otherwise), click here.  Today though, we are going to quickly review the parts, and then do a little practice.

Again, the parts of a cover/query letter are:

1. Introduction
   Where you explain how you know the editor/agent and why you are submitting/querying.
2. 1-2 paragraph pitch
   Where you sell the book.
3. Series Pitch
   Where you define and explain the series.
4. Biography
   Pertinent information about yourself.
5. Conclusion
   Thanks for allowing to submit/Ask politely to send the manuscript.

Again, for more detailed explanations, go here.

By far, in my opinion, the most important part of the letter is the 1-2 paragraph pitch.  You really have to make the book sound intriguing, yet not give away everything.  You don't want to rid the book of it's suspense.  You need to try to convey the voice of your writing, but still keep everything in a short 1-2 paragraphs.

Since I consider this section so important, I thought that for the rest of today and tomorrow we could practice writing these.  If you haven't already, join the Facebook Buried in the Slush Pile Page.  Click on the discussion link in the left hand box.  I've already started a One Paragraph Summary discussion thread.  To post your own one paragraph summary of the book you're building your book proposal for, click "reply to topic."  Although in the cover letter you can take 1-2 paragraphs, for this exercise, try to limit yourself to only one paragraph. 

After that, look at other people's summaries and offer them feedback.  You can do this by hitting reply just under their paragraph.  And if you don't want to post a paragraph right now, still feel free to offer feedback to others.  I'm sure everyone will appreciate it.

Of course, that being said, let's remember some critique rules while we're at it.  Positive comments are always encouraged, but of course negative comments are necessary for growth.  When posting a negative comment like "This summary doesn't work for me" always follow it with an explanation.  Was the plot arc unclear?  Could you not tell from the paragraph which character was the protagonist and which the antagonist? Things like that.  And at no time is flaming or general "this sucks", "your writing is terrible", "find a new pasttime" allowed.  Those types of comments are absolutely prohibited.  The children's writing community is about fostering new writers and supporting one another.  It is not about bolstering your own ego while tearing someone else's down.  Let's continue that tradition.

In the past I've allowed people to critique one another's work on this blog without incident.  Let's keep in that way.

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Just like queries and cover letters and even manuscript submissions, everyone does book proposals a little bit differently, especially in the children's book industry.   Since fiction children's book editors rarely see full out book proposals, we don't really have a hard and fast standard.  So, like when you are querying or submitting to an editor, you should find out what their specific book proposal guidelines are.  After all, some people might like to see a synopsis for each chapter of the book while others might be content with a one page summary.

However, on this blog we are going to discuss the most common, and in my opinion, most important parts of a book proposal.  They are:

• Cover Letter
• One Page Overview
• Series Overview
• Chapter Summaries (or Outline)
• Potential Markets for the Book
• Author Biography
• Promotion/Marketing Plans/Opportunities
• First 3 Chapters (occasionally full MS)
• SASE (if physical submission)

Next week I'll do general overviews into each of these parts, and then the week after that, we'll get into the nitty-gritty or actually working on each individual part.  (Instead of book proposals, tomorrow I'm posting a status update on the picture book submissions.)

And, if you would like to read ahead, so to speak, everything I learned about book proposals came from this fantastic book, Author 101 Best Selling Book Proposals.  A few years ago I needed to put together a nonfiction, adult book proposal for a freelance client, and this book was a wealth of knowledge.

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Ah, it's March.  And that makes me think of spring (it's firmly spring here), basketball, green beer, and book proposals.

Wait, what?

Okay, so March doesn't inherently make me think of book proposals.  I'm not sure any time of year particularly inspires that line of thought.  And frankly as a children's book editor of fiction books, book proposals rarely cross my mind at all.  After all, you will rarely need to write out a book proposal for a fiction book, and there are many well-established children's authors who have never written one at all.

And that, my friends, is a shame.

A book proposal is one of the best ways to get to know your book, I mean really get to know your book.  An invite-your-book-back-to-your-place-for-a-drink kind of way to know your book.  To "know" it in the "biblical" sense.  By the time you have finished every section of a book proposal, there's not much about your book you haven't considered.  And looking at your book in this kind of detail can only help you make it stronger.

Besides, a book proposal is the perfect project while waiting to hear back from critiquers with your first draft.  It allows you to continue working on your current project without obsessively revising.  (Remember what I said about over-revising yesterday?)

So, I propose that we spend this glorious month of March dedicated to all things book proposals.  We will discuss every aspect of the proposal, we will practice proposals, and in the end we will have a grand contest (details of which I have not thought out yet, only just now having had this scathingly brilliant idea) with 5 Grand Prize winners recieving the chance to submit their book proposals to me for critiquing and to CBAY for official consideration.  (In other words you'll submit to CBAY, and if I reject the project, I'll provide feedback.)

Sound good?

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Selling Your Message From the Get-Go

It’s no secret that you know your book best. So from the moment you consider going after publication, it’s important that you take a proactive role in developing the marketing language for yourself and your book.

Here are five ways how:

1. Write a killer query. Long before an agent can work to sell a book to your publisher, you’ll have to sell your book to that agent. Your query is the first opportunity to develop effective “sell language” for your book. Your sell language can include a crafty title, an effective tagline that summarizes your book or concept, or a key word or phrase that you’ve coined or adapted as your own.

Some of the sell language that I’ve used in my queries has included:

· Nanny to the Rescue!
· 112 of the Most Practical Lists for Moms to Live By
· How to Manage Kids, Career and Home

2. Pen a standup biography. We’ve heard it a million times but it’s true. When it comes to getting published, your platform matters. Your professional biography is your opportunity to sell yourself and your platform. It’s your chance to tell a potential agent, publishing house and readers what makes you special—and qualified to write your book.

As a parenting author, I often wondered if people would be surprised to learn my first three books hit the shelves long before I ever had a child of my own. When I started asking, I realized people hadn’t even noticed because my biography was so strong. I had over a decade of professional child care experience, I was a member of several related professional and non-profit organizations (and served on the Board of Directors of a few) and had won awards that resulted in media attention. This stuff matters!

3. Draft a proposal an agent can’t turn down. Your proposal is the driving force in demonstrating the strength of a non-fiction book. A thorough and well-written proposal leaves the reader with no question about how sellable your book is.

A thorough non-fiction book proposal includes:
· proposed title
· a one-sentence description
· author biography
· target audience
· author publishing history
· author marketing history and plan
· competitive & comparable books
· a proposed outline
· sample chapters.

I remember after my agent submitted my first book proposal, the acquisition editor commented that she had never seen such a thorough and well-thought out proposal. I believe we made it hard for her to say no!

4. Be involved in writing your cover copy and marketing materials. It would be unimaginable to expect that the marketing person at your publishing house has the time to read every single book from cover to cover. Sometimes the person writing your copy relies on the information that you’ve provided in your proposal to write the cover copy for your book and marketing materials.

The person writing your copy may not know your audience like you do, or know the phrasing nuances that may hook those in your market, so be sure to speak up and let the powers that be know you’re interested in being involved. I am always pleased when I see phrases and taglines that I’ve used in my proposals make it to the back cover. It helps assure me that the true message of my book is what’s getting sold.

The success of your book is important to all of those who are involved with it and it’s everyone’

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"[I]t is harder today than ever before to get into a selective college. Harvard College turned down almost 21,000 candidates--including thousands of valedictorians and students with perfect SAT scores--in 2006-2007. That same year, Columbia University denied admission to about 16,500 high-achievers. And Stanford University sent out approximately 21,500 rejection letters." 

Those are a few depressing statistics from Joie Jager-Hyman's new non-fiction book about the mind-numbing struggle to get into an Ivy League school. In Fat Envelope Frenzy, she followed five students from the application process to the final acceptance and rejection letters.

Jager-Hyman is our special guest this week, explaining how she used her experience as a college admissions officer to pitch, research write and promote this captivating book. 

Welcome to my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality conversations with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.

Jason Boog:
How did you go about proposing this book? What did you do to make your idea stand out in the field of college-prep books? Any advice for journalists looking to propose a larger project?

Joie Jager-Hyman:
I hadn't seen any books that talked about the college application process from the students' point of view, so I guess I'd tell other writers to look for something that hasn't been done. Continue reading...
 

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Debut Author of the Month: Crissa-Jean Chappell...

YA novelist Crissa-Jean Chappell's debut Total Constant Order, which was just released from HarperCollins, focuses on Fin, a teen who's got a lot to deal with. She's recently relocated to Florida, started at a new school, and her parents split up. And all these things put Fin's OCD in overdrive.

Chappell, who grew up in Miami, holds an MFA in screenwriting and an interdisciplinary PhD in film theory, philosophy, and literature. In addition to writing, she also teaches creative writing and cinema studies at Miami International University of Art and Design. Here she talks about writing her first novel, finding her agent, blogging and more and offers some advice to unpublished writers.

You've published a number of short stories and your debut book Total Constant Order started as a short story collection. Tell me about that evolution--what led you from short stories to novels?

My first "books" were 90-minute audio cassettes that I mailed to my cousin in Massachusetts. I'd write the epic script and act out the voices, not to mention the music (my totally awesome ghetto blaster, cranked to ear-piercing decibels in the background) and the cheesy sound effects--footsteps, falling rocks, etc. Sometimes I would Zip-loc my tape-recorder in a plastic bag and splash around in the pool. (Kids, don't try this at home).

In college, my creative writing professors focused on short stories. I grew used to thinking in terms of shorter formats, much like my old-school cassettes, and the thought of writing a full-length novel terrified me. I started out writing a collection of interconnected short stories. After a series of false starts, I threw that project out the window and began working on Total Constant Order, featuring Frances Isabelle Nash (Fin for short), a character that I had created years ago.

Total Constant Order was sold at auction to HarperCollins imprint Katherine Tegen Books. How did you find your agent Kate Lee (of ICM), who orchestrated said auction?

I met my agent in a very postmodern way: over the Internet. At the time, I had grown frustrated with licking stamps, sending out snail-mail queries, and receiving rejection letters months later. I decided to kick-start my agent-quest and fire off a round of emails. Kate responded to my cyber-query in a flash. I didn't realize that she had a reputation as the "agent to the bloggers." To this day, we correspond primarily through email.

What was the publication process like for you? From reading your 21 Steps to Publishing a Novel, it sounds long/exhausting/exciting. What would you say surprised you the most?

After working as a freelance journalist, where everything moves at light speed, I've learned that the book-publishing business is turtle-paced by comparison. My book was sold back in 2005 and it's finally hitting the shelves two years later. I've learned that it takes time to establish a marketing plan for a first-time author. HarperCollins has been so cool about sharing the process with me. For example, an author usually has little say in the cover design of their book, but they listened to my suggestions and I'm thrilled with the result.

Fin, your main character, talks about having a voice in her head "ordering me to listen." As a writer, do you have such a voice guiding you?

I bet most writers would admit, "Yeah. I hear voices in my head." I hear the sound of my characters talking to me. They spill their guts and whisper their darkest secrets. That's what makes writing so much fun. It's like dreaming with your eyes open. Every morning, I roll out of bed and stumble over to the computer and plug myself into an imaginary world. When I was a kid, I used to keep Trapper Keepers full of descriptions and drawings of my "invisible" friends. I still think about them and wonder what they're doing.

Tell us a little more about Fin and your book.

For the past two years, I've been secretly writing as my main character, 15-year-old Fin, in a Diaryland blog called "Sunshine State." I didn't want to write about myself (What I ate for breakfast. Or: What I bought at the grocery store). There's a lot of pressure on authors to blog as a way of reaching out to their readers. I'm a big fan of Megan McCafferty's "retro blog," in which she posts hilarious snippets of her high-school diary. Sarah Dessen's Livejournal features her favorite TV obsessions. I also love Blake Nelson's minimalist musings on his subway encounters with Prada-clad rock bands or the Zenlike nature of cows, etc. But I'm too shy to reveal large chunks of my private self: so I've kept an online journal under my real name, which is mostly about my publishing journey (because I'm obsessive and I like to keep track of things). At the same time, I've been blogging as Fin as my alter-ego in cyberspace.

At first, I shunned the idea of blogging. I shrugged it off as a distraction. Then, as Fin's readers began to respond to the stories, drawings and pictures I posted online, I realized that it is a valuable experience. Instead of sitting in my room, pecking away on a keyboard, I was connecting to people in an interactive universe. Writers live a very solitary life. For once, I didn't feel so alone.

You said that in college you were known as "the-chick-who-writes-about- teenagers." Why do you think you're drawn to creating teen characters? Why do you feel that "teenagers are the most interesting people on the planet"?

I still don't feel "grown up." In a kid's point of view, a day moves by slowly. They're always experiencing new things. Adults often complain that a week will fly by and they barely notice. I believe that it's easy to fall into a routine as you grow older...the daily grind of driving to work and all the responsibilities that fall on a person's shoulders. Sometimes when I talk to adults, it seems like their world has become so small. They chat about their jobs, the car they just bought, their mortgage, etc. As a college professor, I spend my days talking to teenagers. They haven't quite learned how to hide themselves yet. They blurt out their thoughts and opinions. They're desperate to have someone listen and take them seriously. (I get the feeling that they're used to being shooed away). I never grow tired of listening to them.

You've said Total Constant Order is based your own experience with OCD and that you are displeased with how the disorder is portrayed in the media. Why do you think it's misunderstood?

It's difficult to portray obsessive-compulsive disorder in TV or film because the action is primarily taking place inside the character's mind. Fin feels like a volcano. On the outside, she is sitting quietly at her desk. On the inside, she is ready to blow up. Thayer feels the same way when he takes Ritalin. I wanted to show that OCD is not a punchline to a joke. It's not about funny rituals: like tapping a light switch or counting footsteps. It's about feeling as if your life has slipped out of your control. I think that many teenagers can relate to that experience.

One review said that Miami is like a character in your novel (certainly a more interesting Miami character than the one in a certain David Caruso program). Here's another chance to tell us how Real Miami and TV Miami differ.

Miami must be the most misunderstood city in the United States. Those postcard-images of palm trees, pink flamingoes and sunny beaches are a mirage. Most often, you get a glimpse of a few neon-soaked avenues on South Beach (which is an island) and not the city itself. I wanted to depict the "real Miami," from the cookie-cutter McMansions of the Kendall suburbs to the graffiti-splattered industrial wasteland of downtown, the manatees hovering in canals and the hip-hop kids with the souped-up Hondas, fast food joints like Pollo Tropical, and Cuban coffee stands, a schizophrenic mix of urban sprawl and primal swamps. That's the Miami I know.

Megan McCafferty told you the YA community is filled with kindred spirits who remain forever teen, and it's important to help each other out. In that spirit, any favorite YA novelists you'd like to mention?

The blogging authors that I've mentioned are some of my favorites. I grew up devouring a lot of sci-fi and fantasy (think: Ursula K. Le Guin and Zilpha Keatley Snyder). In fact, the video game based on Snyder's Below the Root was one of my first experiences in thinking about interactivity and the way we read books.

(One more question since you don't like odd numbers). If you could give unpublished writers two pieces of advice, what would you tell them?

Everybody has a different story about their path to publication. If you listen to those stories, you'll hear a lot of conflicting information. I've learned that rules are meant to be broken (For example, many literary agencies say, "Don't query via email," and yet, that's how I met my agent). I was also told that teens don't like to read a lot of description. After hearing this a few times in my rejection letters from literary agents, I cut out some of my descriptive paragraphs. Then, when I met my agent, she encouraged me to put back what I had deleted. So my two cents would be: Write the book you want to read. And don't give up, no matter how many times you hear the words, "Not for me." Maybe it's not for them. It's for somebody else.

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