Hi writers! Thanks for joining me today.
Well, the time has come for me to talk about one of the—if not THE—most important part of getting a scholarly book contract.
And that is the book proposal!
A couple of weeks ago, I did a workshop for faculty at Rutgers University on this topic, and it was amazing how many questions people had about it.
This is also an area that I work with my clients in a very hands-on way.
Typically, after someone gives me a full rough draft, it still takes 3-4 more rounds of tailored feedback and revision to get it to a place where it’s ready to be sent out to presses.
This is concerning because most people don’t have this kind of support, which means that they’re likely underselling the importance of their projects and potentially not getting a contract.
It’s clear that this is an area where there’s very little clarity.
I think it’s confusing for two different reasons.
First, there’s actually a fair bit of guidance out there on how to put together a proposal.
As I’ve done in the past, I highly recommend you purchase Laura Portwood-Stacer’s The Book Proposal Book to go really in-depth on this.
And of course, I’m sure you’ve all have had mentors, advisors, and peers publish sole-authored books who have offered you advice.
When it’s something that many people around you have done, it’s natural to assume that you’ll somehow know what to do when the time comes.
Second, even with all of this guidance, when you’re a first-time author it’s still hard to know exactly what to do.
So, on today’s episode I’m going to break it all down for you piece by piece.
What is the Book Proposal for?
Before diving into the details, I need to mention that everything I’m going to say is pertinent to scholarly books for academic presses and not trade books for a more mainstream, popular audience.
These are two very different trajectories.
With that said, I want to spend some time talking a bit about what a book proposal (or what some call a prospectus) is and how it differs from anything else you write.
The most important thing for you to know is that this is a MARKETING DOCUMENT!
Now what do I mean by that?
Essentially, this piece of writing is used primarily for one purpose, which is to convince an acquisitions editor at a press that your project is worthy of investment.
Acquisitions editors are looking for unique and innovative book projects.
But they do not want (or need) to know every detail about your project and all the nuanced findings you uncovered along the way.
Keep in mind that acquisitions editors are completely pressed for time and usually don’t have more than a couple of minutes to scan through a proposal.
This means that you need to make your contribution crystal clear.
You need to state your overarching argument and research questions early on.
You also need to show that your project helps to shine light upon or draw needed attention to an important phenomenon.
And, I would add, you should never take-for-granted that other people will find your topic important.
This means you need to clearly set up the stakes of your case.
Some authors get confused when I ask them what the stakes of their book are, so here are two questions you can ask yourself to discern what they are:
What does the world stand to gain by reading this book? And, what opportunities might be lost if it’s never published?
I can’t tell you the number of my clients whose proposals do not set up the stakes, the argument, and the contribution right away.
Instead, they usually start way too specifically for a non-expert audience and they spend a lot of time pointing out the gaps in the literature that this project will fill.
For a dissertation, filling gaps was often good enough (and often the expectation), but a good book goes beyond that.
So I encourage you to make some bigger and bolder claims.
What are things only you could know or theorize about because you’re a world-leading expert on this topic?
If you’ve got ideas you can back up that others might disagree with, then good! That’s how knowledge moves forward.
At this point I hope it’s clear to you that your proposal is not meant to be a scholarly essay or a summary of everything about your topic.
To sum up, it’s a succinct marketing document (and by succinct, I mean about 8-10 single-spaced pages) that points out the originality of your ideas and persuades presses to consider your project worthy of investment.
The Elements of a Book Proposal
Now, I’ll turn to talking about the major components of a book proposal.
In order to know exactly what to include, you’ll need to look at each press’ website.
But I want to give an overview of the things that are typically expected.
Bear in mind that these can sometimes be ordered differently.
I’m basing this off of the proposals I’ve written for my two sole-authored books, which were, in turn, modeled after many examples from peers who published books with top presses.
And let me just note that before you try writing a proposal, you need to get ahold of at least three different examples from people whose work you trust and model yours off of theirs.
Getting back to the proposal elements, I’m going to spend a couple of minutes addressing each of these separately, but let me introduce them first.
The first thing you’ll put is a working title, followed by an abstract of the project.
Then there’s the overview of the book, or what some presses call the project description.
Then most of you will include a methods section.
Then you’ll give the manuscript specifications and status of the manuscript, followed by the table of contents and chapter summaries.
Next comes the audience section and the comparable books section (which can also be called the market section).
And finally, you will include a short author bio.
Working Title and Abstract
So let’s start by talking about the title and abstract.
Why call it a working title? It’s because it will likely change over time as you get more input from the press.
This means that you should avoid getting too attached to a particular title.
For my first book, I had a title I really liked but the press ended up changing it (with my input, of course) not long before it went into production.
As I’m sure you know, scholarly book titles are usually two parts: an evocative description or phrase followed by a subtitle that encapsulates what the book is about.
The title should give a nod to the main contribution and/or the main argument of the book.
The abstract is a 150-250 word paragraph that summarizes the argument, methods, and overall significance of the book
My best tips for the abstract are to save this for last once you are really clear what your book is about!
And also, when you’re ready to contact editors, make sure to include your abstract in your email along with your proposal, CV and one or two sample chapters.
If you have more questions about how and when to approach an editor, listen to Your Words Unleashed episodes #6 and #7, which cover these topics thoroughly.
Project Description
Next comes the project description, which is arguably the most important part of your proposal other than the chapter summaries.
This section is 1-2 single-spaced pages that hooks the reader and sets up the stakes and larger contribution of your project.
I always advise authors to try to put your argument within the first couple of paragraphs.
You need to strike a balance between giving a non-expert reader enough context that they can understand your case but not spend too much space doing so.
Some authors choose to start with a historical incident that highlights the main themes of the book.
Others start with debates in the scholarly literature.
It’s really up to you.
Methods
Next we get to the methods section.
Being that most scholarly authors gather large amounts of data and conduct extensive fieldwork, you’ll want to include all of this in a separate methods section.
This is quite similar to a methods section for an article, where you give a run-down of things like how many people you interviewed and the different fieldsites or archives you visited, when and for how long.
One thing I’ve noticed is that first-time authors tend to downplay their methods.
Don’t do this. If you did something innovative, own it!
If you have original, difficult to access data that took major effort to obtain, state that!
Some of my authors are working with thousands of different pieces of archival data they gathered and analyzed.
Others conducted over 100 interviews plus long-term ethnographic fieldwork in different sites.
I’ve noticed that junior scholars have a tendency to assume that everyone is familiar with what they do, so they downplay the significance.
Never assume that people will understand your methods or their significance!
My point is that you can even use your methods section as a time to shine.
Table of Contents and Chapter Summaries
Next comes your table of contents and chapter summaries.
I always advise people to list their entire table of contents BEFORE their summaries so editors can see the whole structure of the book at once and see the chapter organization and flow.
One of the biggest mistakes I see authors make is with their chapter titles.
Make sure that your titles are understandable to someone who has no idea what your book is about.
This means that your titles should probably each have two parts similar to the book title.
When it comes to your chapter summaries, you will list your chapter title followed by a one paragraph description of which questions this chapter seeks to answer, the stakes, and the chapter’s main argument.
My big tip for this section is to keep in mind that chapter summaries are NOT just a list of what’s in the chapter.
A lot of times, authors will write, “this chapter does this, then it discusses that, and then it ends with this.”
No! The paragraphs should synthesize the chapter as well as describe how it supports the overarching argument of the book.
Competing Books / Market Section
Are you still with me? It’s a lot, I know.
Now we get to the competing books or market section.
This is where you place your book in conversation with other books that have similar readerships.
A good approach to this section is to provide roughly 3 different thematic areas that your book addresses, allocating one paragraph to each.
Within each paragraph, you should list a few of the recently published books that overlap with your own in some way.
You should list the title, year, and press of each book.
A good way to do it is to write one sentence about each book that describes its general content and contribution.
Then you follow this with one sentence that talks about how yours extends or challenges or is just plain different from that book.
You’re not looking to slam your competitors you’re just wanting to show how your book is unique.
My top tip for this section is to remember that this is NOT a lit review!
This is a not a long list of related works.
Instead, it’s a key way to convince the press that your book has a clear market with competing titles that are related, but not too closely related, to your own.
Another tip is to only mention books published within the last 5 years.
Again, presses are looking at the potential for sales so they do not need a comprehensive list of everything that’s ever been published on your topic.
Audience Section
Now we get to the audience section, which is another important part of marketing for your book.
This is a couple of paragraphs that addresses exactly who will be reading (as in, purchasing) this title.
You should list which courses and disciplines this book could be adopted for at both the undergrad and grad level.
And also, because every accessibly-written book should have some cross-over appeal, you should also state which other groups of non-scholarly readers might be interested.
This could include policy makers, organizations, schools, targeted groups like parents, etc.
Manuscript Specifications and Status of the Manuscript
So next comes the manuscript specifications and status of the manuscript.
A lot of people put this before their table of contents, but it’s up to you.
These are often written together in one paragraph or two adjoining paragraphs.
Specifications refers to things like the overall number of chapters, estimated word count, and the number of images or illustrations you plan to use.
The manuscript status refers to how much of the manuscript is already written, along with an HONEST estimate of the completion date.
Let me read to you this section from the proposal of my second book:
“Chasing the American Dream in China is divided into six chapters, including an introduction,
four substantive chapters, and a conclusion.
The entire completed manuscript will be approximately 65,000-70,000 words in length, including references and endnotes.
A full revised version of the manuscript will be available for review by August 31, 2018.”
And when we’re talking about completion dates, you really need to factor in the human tendency to vastly underestimate the amount of time it takes to do something.
It’s hard enough to find the time to research and write during busy semesters.
However, other things like illnesses, vacations, conferences, family issues, and more will probably extend your timeline much longer than you imagine right now.
So if you think your manuscript is going to take a year to write, it will probably take more like a year-and-a-half minimum.
Author Bio
And finally, we get to the author bio section, which is a one-paragraph-long description of your background and qualifications.
This section should include: your name and position, your main area of study, select publication venues, and any other notable achievements, such as fellowships.
Again, this is not a summary of everything you’ve ever done.
It’s a space to highlight WHY you are uniquely qualified to write this book.
Summing It All Up
So there you have it—all of the elements of a scholarly book proposal.
Let me reiterate that there’s no one way of writing a strong proposal.
However, there are MANY wrong ways to approach this.
As I mentioned earlier, one strategy you can use to make sure you’re on the right track is to work off of the examples of other people in related areas and fields of study.
I believe it is literally impossible to write something like this without using examples.
I can tell right off the bat if a client has written their proposal completely on their own, because it’s usually too long, formatted incorrectly, and doesn’t get right to the point.
Save yourself the time and effort of having to completely overhaul your draft!
Ask your advisors, peers, and colleagues who have successfully published books with presses you might want to pursue if they would be willing to share them with you.
I have no clue as to why these kinds of documents that everyone has to write are kept under wraps.
And, you should know that I’m always happy to share my own two book proposals with anyone who’s interested as long as you agree to use them ethically.
If you’d like a copy, email me at Leslie@nullYourWordsUnleashed.com and I’ll send them to you.
I hope this episode has helped shed some light on a fairly non-transparent process.
Of course, there is so much more involved in putting together a succinct, persuasive, and compelling proposal.
So if you want to find out more about how I can help you do this, check out the Work With Me page on my website.
That’s all for now. I’ll catch you next time.