Anatomy of a Nonfiction Book Proposal
The YouCanWrite.com model is a good one to follow for most nonfiction books. You’ll come much closer to anticipating the agent’s and editor’s questions, and give them good reason to take you and your project seriously.
1. Executive Summary (also known as the Brief Synopsis or Overview): 1 page maximum
Like a book jacket blurb, the Executive Summary presents a high-impact sales pitch for your book using the marketing “hook” you’ve created. (More about the hook below.)
2. The Book and The Idea (also known as The Market and Audience): 3 to 5 pages
Identifies the audience in more depth and recaps the need for and benefits of the book in more detail, discusses how the book responds to that need, and shows why the audience will buy it. Describes features, timeliness, trends, author’s prominence, specifications (such as length and completion timeframe).
3. The Competition (also known as Complementary and Competing Works): 2 to 5 pages
Describes current competing books or categories of competitors, detailing both positive and negative traits and positioning your project in relation to the strongest competition.
4. About the Author and Author’s Co-Promotion Strategy: 1 to 3 pages
Establishes your credibility, authority (including media experience, education, clients, and other resources), and visibility and lists possible endorsements, organizational connections, speaking engagements, publications, syndicated columns, websites, newsletters, and so on. It should include a section called “Author’s Co-Promotion Strategy” detailing your experience with and plans for helping to promote/support the book.
5. Length and Schedule: 1 page or less
This very short section describes how long the book will be in book pages and how much time the author will need to complete it. You can tack it on to the table of contents page, if there’s room, or put it on a separate page.
6. The Book Table of Contents: 1 page
This is exactly what it sounds like — a list of chapter titles only (no subheads or topics). It’s designed to give editors or agents an “eye-gulp” view of what will be in your book.
7. The Chapter Summaries: 1 page per chapter maximum
Flesh out the table of contents with a one-half to one-page summary of what each chapter will cover, why and how it’s important to the overall purpose of the book, and what is distinctive about it.
8. The Sample Chapter(s): 50 pages maximum
Choose one or two chapters to show off the best and most distinctive qualities of your book.
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