4 Things to Keep in Mind When Sending a Book Idea to an Editor or Agent

I recently received this question from an aspiring writer:

“I have a contact in book acquisitions who is willing to look over a proposal. I have ideas and draft work for like 4 books. How do I decide what to send him?”

shutterstock_153002693

Friend and author Michelle DeRusha and I are in the middle of a training program on how to get published. This question came from a friend of Michelle’s who registered. To respond, I recorded the screencast below:

4 Things to Keep in Mind

  1. If you have a contact, send brief-paragraph descriptions of multiple book ideas, not just one.
  2. Assure your contact that responding with a preference does not in any way signal a commitment to sign you.
  3. Make sure your email isn’t too lengthy. The idea is to make it easy to read and respond to.
  4. If you’re worried self-publishing will do more harm than good, maybe you’re not ready to publish anything yet? It’s worth pondering.

What If You’re Declined?

If the editor or agent ends up declining, that just means this one opportunity is closed for now. It’s not even closed forever necessarily. We at Baker regularly decline proposals we later accept when the author does more work. Author Mark Batterson taught me this: Sometimes God closes one door so that we’ll look for another one. <Tweet that!>

Remember: your call to write is bigger than this one opportunity. <Tweet that!>

Want More Publishing Advice?

I mentioned that Michelle and I are in the middle of a training program on getting published. We did our first call last week, and two more are coming. Click here to sign up for any or all the calls, including recordings.

Question: Are you trying to decide which book idea to pursue? Are you disappointed by a recently closed door? Let’s talk about it! You can leave a comment by clicking here.

Posted on
Categories: Book Proposal, Life, Platform, Publishing, Work Habits, Writing

Please note: I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive or off-topic.

4 thoughts on “4 Things to Keep in Mind When Sending a Book Idea to an Editor or Agent”

  1. Thanks Chad.

    What you describe sounds like turning the letter away from a formal query or propsal and toward a written consultation — sort of equivalent to a 15 minute appointment at a writer’s conference. Is that something to make explicit in writing to an editor?

    The reason I ask is that some agent and editor blogs bemoan prospective queries from writers who sound too wide open. That is, I’ve heard some say they dislike “Tell me which of this bunch of ideas you like and I’ll write that” and prefer “Here is the book idea that I am deeply invested in, and that only I could write.”

    On the other hand, in describing conference meetings I’ve heard agents say “Be sure to have several more ideas in your back pocket since the fourth one you pitch may be the one they like.”

    Thoughts?

    • Good questions! In my post here I was responding to someone who already has an acquisitions contact. I’m assuming some level of willingness to dialogue on the part of the acquisitions contact because of how the questioner phrased her question. “I have a contact in book acquisitions…” So this is not a “cold call” situation. If you are in a cold call situation where basically you have an email address and nothing more, better go the straight-up query route, and if you get a “Yes, send me the proposal,” then in the proposal you can list other ideas. Make sense?

Comments are closed.