How to Write a Book Proposal: Don’t
The first time I learned about book proposals, it felt like an unwelcome slap on the butt. I already wrote a book: now I have to write a proposal? (Actually, I didn’t even write the book yet.) So how to new writers learn how to craft a good proposal?
Write Sue Shapiro has some radical advice: don’t even worry about it.
“I actually advise against wasting time struggling with book
proposals, treatments, summaries and recaps. I tell my students that instead of writing about what they are going to try to write about, just write it. That’s because
#1.) even with a great 30 pages, most agents, editors and producers aren’t going to think an unknown writer can pull off a whole novel, memoir or short story collection
#2.) sometimes when you write the whole thing, you can’t get the original story to work and it turns out to be something else entirely
#3.) by writing the whole book you often teach yourself how to write.
#4) the more you have written, the easier it is to get an agent/editor/producer and the more it’s worth. So far I’ve sold four books this way and finished three others.”
What about, though, if you want to write a book that needs an advance up front? Like my idea of buying everything in the Neiman Marcus Christmas catalogue and writing about it?
“Yes, there are certain books that require proposals (biographies, for example),” Sue says, “Though I rarely recommend a first timer try that genre. My friend Ryan Harbage, an editor at Simon & Schuster, is speaking at my seminar and teaching his own mediabistro class on proposal writing in January [Ed. note: Sue inserted this plug on her own but we will keep it. In fact, Sue will be teaching some book writing and selling classes of her own, so check them out.]
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