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Book Proposals: The Most Important Aspect of your Manuscript
Bringing your ideas to the market place is a unique process of communicating
the ideas you put on paper in a concise format so the publishers know at a
glance if your work is a good fit for their market. A
prospective publisher will not be interested in your ideas unless they are
communicated in a format which is clear, and speaks to the heart of the
publisher's interests, which ultimately is selling books.
For the publisher, their commitment to invest in your ideas, produce a
printed book, and then deliver those book into the retail supply chain is an expensive one.
A typical publisher will invest over
$50,000.00 on your book before the first copy is stocked on a book store shelf.
Consequently, your book proposal is the most important element of the process
which will deliver your ideas to print and then into the hands of the reader.
A professional book proposal is the single most important tool you can use.
A Book Proposal must:
 | Clearly deliver your message to the publisher |
| Tell the Publisher
| What is your book's content, and message. |
| Why there is a need for your book in the market
place. |
| Why you are the perfect author to write this book.
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| Be clear, concise, in a format the publisher expects when he or
she opens your envelope. |
| Targeted to a publisher who already sells book to the market who
will read your book. |
The links at the right contain samples of some of InkWell's book proposals which
have landed book contracts. You can click the link and read a successful
book proposal online. Also you will find two articles by
publishers detailing what they are looking for in a professional book proposal,
and an article written by InkWell's founder Tim Burns and published in the
Dorsch Editorial from a writers conference. The seminar speaker
answered the question "What does the Publisher look for in a book proposal?"
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| Denny
Boultinghouse; Howard Publishing
"There are not good writes,
there are only good re-writes." |
| Len Goss;
Broadman Holman Publishers.
"Without a well-focused and thought through, concise
proposal, you will likely not be published. An editors
first response to a prospective proposal is 'No.' The
writer must give the editor a reason to say Yes." |
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