In order to publish the book, the author should operate great marketing skills that would allow him/her to examine the current trends in the field of publishing and to find a specific approach to the literary agent. In this regard, writing a book proposal is an essential part of this process that sometimes plays an even more important role than the book itself. The reason is that the book proposal should persuade the publisher that the particular work worth to be published and may bring sufficient revenues. Therefore, each author has to know the specifics of writing a book proposal in order to introduce the work and, subsequently, gain considerable revenues by selling it.
The Main Purpose of Writing a Book Proposal
Generally, the authors write book proposals to sell their books, which may refer to both fiction and nonfiction. The first thing that each author should remember is that his or her writing work is a salable, or marketable, product. However, even if the work can be considered as the literary masterpiece and it reveals new extraordinary ideas, this is not enough to sell the product. To do so, it is necessary to know how to compose a powerful proposal would that directly address the literary agent and serve as the form of business plan. By introducing the most entertaining elements of the book, the author succeeds in realizing the key purpose of writing a book proposal, which is to encourage the publisher to represent the author. Since the literary work is the economic product, a book proposal should address the marketing aspects of the project and reveal its competitive advantages.
Marketing Side of the Project
Selling a literary work is an economic activity, in which the author serves as the developer, whereas the agent is the distributor. By writing a book proposal the author should answer the basic three questions that should spread light on the book’s content and tell the publisher about its marketing perspectives.
- What are the unique characteristics that set the book apart from other literary works in the market?
- What is the readership of the book that the author plans to introduce?
- Who is the author and does he/she has sufficient skills to write a book?
It is important to understand that the editor cares about the good idea, marketing perspective, and author’s ability to write a really good book. The agent expects that this person is able to bring the audience and platform for the future cooperation. It is important to consider that a number of authors did not see their work published since they were not able to present it in the appropriate way.
The Key Elements for a Book Proposal
Regardless of a fictional or non-fictional nature of the work, there is a basic platform that might help to develop a strong proposal that would address all the main points that the publishers are interested in. Therefore, while writing a book proposal, it is necessary to provide a title page, one sentence hook, a brief overview, marketing analysis, information on the author, competitive works, plot, and summary of the first 40-50 pages of the manuscript.