Mary Kole is a former literary agent, freelance editor, writing teacher, author of Writing Irresistible Kidlit, and IP developer for major publishers, with over a decade in the publishing industry.
This article on how to write a book proposal will take you through the steps of conceiving, writing, and pitching a book proposal. Information includes book proposal components, book proposal word count, and even the book proposal query letter. If you’re wondering how to sell a book on proposal, you’ve come to the right place.
Writing a book proposal means you create a relatively short document and writing sample for a book project, instead of completing the whole thing. You’ll spend weeks on this document instead of, potentially, years. Knowing how to write a book proposal can potentially save so much time, since you can try to sell a book on proposal much more quickly than you’ll be able to if you have to complete the manuscript first. Unfortunately, most things are not sold on proposal, especially if you’re a debut author.
Before you dive into learning how to write a book proposal, determine if you need one. For the most part, nonfiction books and memoirs are sold on proposal, though some publishers will want to see full memoir texts. That leaves largely nonfiction projects in categories like business, diet, lifestyle, finance, reference, parenting, etc. Novels are sold as complete manuscripts, unless you are an established writer. Then your literary agent or publisher may accept a proposal. The vast majority of children’s books are sold as complete manuscripts, rather than proposals.
This includes picture books (even nonfiction picture books), early readers, chapter books, middle grade novels, and young adult novels.
If you’ve determined that you need a book proposal, how to write a book proposal is the next question. Luckily, book proposals are very regimented. All contenders have generally the same book proposal formatting, and the same book proposal content. It will behoove you to follow standard book proposal format. Helpful books like How to Write a Book Proposal by Jody Rein and Michael Larsen and The Weekend Book Proposal by Ryan Van Cleave do a great job of summarizing and explaining every facet of writing a book proposal.
Since writing a book proposal is pretty formulaic, the writing sample that most book proposals include is really your chance to shine. For this, you can choose two or three chapters from your book that you feel will best represent the finished work. Complete them as if you’re writing the finished product. Include them at the end of your book proposal. While the proposal is, of course, important, this writing sample is often the make-or-break element.
