CHAPTER 49

OUTSTANDING BOOK PROPOSALS

BY DON PRUES

Many writers attempting to find an agent to represent their books perceive themselves to be a diminutive David staring down a monstrous Goliath. Even worse, they think no weapon exists to slay the giant and prove their book is worth publishing. Such folks are wrong. An effective weapon does exist: It’s called a book proposal. The hitch, however, is that writers must build this weapon themselves.

And therein lies the problem: Most writers don’t know which materials to use nor how to put the pieces together to stand a fighting chance. That’s where this chapter comes in. We’ll show you what you need to include in your proposal and how to assemble it, ultimately equipping you with the necessary weaponry to conquer even the most colossal rejection pile.

Before we get into the specifics about composing and organizing your proposal, we need to get one fact out of the way: The proposal you create depends upon what the agent wants. And the most nonintrusive way to know what she wants is to follow the submission specifications to a tee. Do nothing more, nothing less. Remember, you must play by each agent’s rules if you want that agent to represent you.

THE NOVEL PROPOSAL

The golden rule in publishing fiction is your novel must be completed before you solicit an agent. Will you be permitted to send your entire novel upon initial contact? Probably not. Unsolicited manuscripts are ignored, returned, and sometimes even thrown away when sent to an agent who does not accept them. That’s the catch with fiction: You need to have your novel finished before soliciting an agent, but rarely are you allowed to send the complete manuscript. Don’t waste your time, energy, paper, and postage sending material to an agent who doesn’t care about it.

Many agents prefer to receive a one-page query letter first, and only ask for the proposal or the manuscript after having their interest piqued by the query letter. Check the agents’ guidelines to see what they accept—rarely will it be a complete manuscript, but often it will be a novel proposal.

Novel proposals are easy to put together. You can anticipate sending a cover letter, a synopsis, three consecutive sample chapters (almost always your first three chapters) or the first fifty pages, possibly an author biography, and an endorsements page. These are by far the most important—and most requested—parts of your proposal. Some agents require only a cover letter and three sample chapters because, with fiction, the writing itself (your sample chapters) matters most. Again, what you send is determined by what the agent demands.

THE COMPONENTS

Cover Letters

The type of cover letter you compose depends on whether you’re sending a blind (“unsolicited”) proposal or a requested (“solicited”) proposal.

If the agent accepts or even prefers a blind proposal upon initial contact (instead of a query letter), you’ll need to tailor a sharp cover letter to hook the agent and encourage her to dive eagerly into the rest of your proposal. A cover letter accompanying a blind proposal submission is like a tightened version of a query letter. Similar to the query letter, your cover letter lets the agent know who you are and what you have to offer. You don’t need to spend much time arguing that your proposal is worthwhile because what you have to offer (the proposal) is actually enclosed.

If you’ve already sent the agent a query letter and she has requested a full proposal, keep the cover letter short—just a paragraph or two will do. Simply let the agent know what material you’ve enclosed, and mention whether any other agents are considering the same proposal.

Cover/Title Page

Although the title is but a small part of a large book, a telling and catchy title can be so important. The difference between an adequate title and a superb title can mean the difference between mediocre book sales and gargantuan ones. Think about some of the successful titles you know—most are under five words (excluding the subtitle) and emit something unique about the book.

For fiction proposals, the cover page, or “title page,” follows your cover letter. When formatting the cover page, be sure to put the book’s title in all caps about a third of the way down the page. Include your contact information (name, address, phone number, fax, e-mail) with the date in the bottom right corner. Put the word count in the top right corner.

Table of Contents

Your contents page lets the agent know precisely what’s in your proposal package, and lends order and organization to all the disparate proposal elements. Be sure to list every item you’re sending and the corresponding page numbers in the order they appear in your proposal. You obviously need to make your contents page neat and easy on the eyes. It should be double-spaced and organized according to its sections. The contents pages should not be numbered.

The Synopsis

A synopsis is a brief, general overview of your novel, sometimes referred to as a “short summary.” The goal of your synopsis is to tell what your novel is about without making the agent read the novel in its entirety. You need to supply key information about the primary elements in your novel (plot, theme, characters, setting), then show how all these aspects work together to make your novel worthy of publication. The trick with the synopsis, however, is doing all of the above quickly.

How quickly? Well, that depends on the person you’re soliciting. There are no hard-and-fast rules about the synopsis. Some agents look at it as a one-page sales pitch, while others expect it to be a comprehensive summary of the entire novel. Not surprisingly, there’s conflicting advice about the typical length of a synopsis. Over the years, I’ve contacted numerous agents to get their take on just how long it should be, and nearly all agents prefer a short synopsis that runs from one to two single-spaced pages, or three to five double-spaced pages. Because every novel is different—with its own number of important characters, plot twists, subplots, and so on—there is obviously some disagreement among agents about the specific length of a typical synopsis. Nevertheless, every agent agrees there’s one truism about a synopsis: “The shorter, the better.” That’s why one to five pages is generally the preferred length for a novel synopsis.

That said, some plot-heavy fiction, such as thrillers and mysteries, might need more space, and can run from ten to twenty-five double-spaced pages, depending on the length of the manuscript and the number of plot shifts. If you do opt to compose a longer synopsis, aim for a length of one synopsis page for every twenty-five manuscript pages (a 250-page manuscript should get a ten-page synopsis), but attempt to keep it as short as possible.

A few other important aspects of your synopsis:

• Write in third person (even if your novel is written in first person).

• Write in present tense (even if your novel is written in past tense).

• Only focus on the essential parts of your story, and try not to include sections of dialogue unless you think they are absolutely necessary.

Make your story seem complete. Keep events in the same order as they occur in the novel (but don’t break them down into individual chapters), and be sure your synopsis has a beginning, a middle, and an ending. And yes, you must tell how the novel ends.

Chapter-by-Chapter Outline

An outline describes each chapter as its own entity; the descriptions range from a few paragraphs to two pages per chapter. In short, you’re expanding and specifying what you’ve generally written in the synopsis.

Few agents want chapter-by-chapter outlines with fiction (most just request a cover letter, a short synopsis, and a few sample chapters). Therefore, you should never submit an outline for your novel proposal unless an agent specifically asks for it. Chapter-by-chapter outlines will be requested occasionally with genre fiction, which often has numerous plot shifts. When possible, limit the novel outline to one paragraph per chapter.

Author Biography

If you think aspects of your life are important and relevant to the salability of your book, then include an author biography. The goal of your author bio is to sell yourself in ways that complement the proposal. Don’t include information that doesn’t directly help the pitch. Do tell about your profession, particularly if it’s pertinent to your book, and always highlight noteworthy publishing credits if you have any. Try to keep the author bio to one page.

Endorsements Page

An endorsements page is not essential, but having one can improve the salability of your manuscript. Your endorsements must come from noteworthy people, typically prominent industry insiders (well-known authors, agents, experts on the topic) who’ve read your manuscript and commented favorably on it. Unless you have contacts, though, it is difficult to obtain a quote from someone noteworthy. But don’t fret if your proposal doesn’t have an endorsements page—few authors include one.

A Reply Postcard

If you’re a bit paranoid about whether or not your material actually makes it to the agent or publisher, you may send a reply postcard with your proposal package. Having it signed by the agent or someone on the staff and sent back to you will alleviate any worries that the package didn’t make it to its destination. Two caveats: (1) Not all agents are gracious enough to send your reply postcards back, but most do, and (2) Just because you receive a postcard reply, you cannot assume your proposal has been read or will be read in the next few weeks. Your reply postcard’s only function is to let you know your package has been received.

Now you have all you need to know to craft a powerful proposal. Just be smart, target the right agent, honestly acknowledge the commercial viability of your proposal, and send the agent what the agent wants to receive. Sound doable? Good. Go do it—Goliath is waiting.

  DON PRUES, former editor of Guide to Literary Agents, now freelance writes and edits from home.