The moment arrived. I had wanted to meet with this particular author for a long time. (I’ll keep the author anonymous to protect her privacy, but she’s well known in some circles.) The door opened, she greeted me, and I handed her two loaves of bread.
“You never get a second chance to make a first impression,” I said, and she smiled.
The same goes for your book proposal. You never get a second chance to make a first impression, and wouldn’t it be great if your proposal made the publisher’s reviewing committee smile? That’s not a bad thing to shoot for.
Writers know this intuitively, which is why they often ask me, “What’s the best way to format a book proposal?” They want to know how to structure the book proposal, what to include, how important design is.
Substance over Style
Before I write about things like book proposal format or design or structure, I want to underscore the importance of substance. More important by far than things like format and design is content.
Recently my son used his hard-earned allowance money to buy a remote control helicopter. It was sweet looking! But after two days the helicopter started collecting dust in a toy bin because it hit a wall and broke. Hugely disappointing, and we’ve all been there.
That was a $30 toy. We typically pay quite a bit more than that for books we publish.
A shiny well-designed proposal for a flawed book is like a sweet-looking ‘copter that breaks in its first days of flight. Why bother?
Substance: Concept, Platform, Writing
So what’s your concept? Is it unique somehow? Does it meet an actual need people have?
What’s your ability to help us move books when it’s published? What’s your promotion plan?
Are you a good writer? Do your words grab us? Would a reader rather read your book than go to a movie?
Those things—concept, platform, writing—are paramount. Design, structure, and format are not unimportant, but they’re not nearly as important as the actual book you envision.
I recall reviewing a gorgeously designed book proposal. This thing was breathtaking. A professional designer had obviously put some major TLC into it. But you know what? Neither the concept nor the writing grabbed us, and we decided quickly to decline it.
Here’s the the thing to keep in mind: We’re not publishing the proposal; we’re publishing the book it proposes.
And I could point to numerous examples of plain-looking proposals (think Courier font on about 5 pages of paper) that led to books we were quite happy to publish. Why? Because the concept or the writing or the platform or some combination thereof was amazing.
Book Proposal Design
Having stressed the importance of substance over style, we can move to the more visual aspects of the proposal because ideally your proposal will have both!
Once you have the text in tip-top shape and you don’t have any further corrections to make, it’s probably worth sending your proposal to a professional designer to make everything look terrific. Consider having a mock-up cover created for the title page, noting somewhere that it is merely a mockup. For the rest of the proposal, shoot for something simple, elegant, and (this is important) easy to read.
Hiring a designer need not cost an an arm and a leg. Services like Fiverr and Upwork can connect you to designers around the world who do solid work very reasonably.
The writing sample need not be designed. A simple look in MS Word is fine. But you’ll probably need to send it to the designer to have everything in one file. Publishing pros are perfectly capable of opening multiple documents, but every second they spend closing and opening documents is a second they are not actually reviewing your proposal!
Writers often ask, “Single spaced or double spaced?” Go with what looks best to you. I like a single-spaced look for everything but the writing sample. I like the writing sample to be double-spaced.
Book Proposal Format and Structure
Following are the major elements of a book proposal in the sequence I prefer:
- Title page
- Alternative titles
- Bio
- Brief Description
- Table of Contents
- Chapter-by-chapter synopsis
- Platform/Marketing Plan
- Writing sample
Want to know more about how to create each of these elements?
Click here to read my article “How to Write a Nonfiction Book Proposal.”
Question: Are you working on a nonfiction book proposal or thinking about it? What questions do you have? I’ll do my best to help. You can leave a comment by clicking here.
Hi Chad, I am working on a non-fiction book proposal and I’m finding your wisdom to be quite helpful, thank you! Question: how much of the book should be completed before submitting the proposal? Do I leave a lot of wiggle room or have it mostly put together? Along the same lines, how much of a writing synopsis are you looking for? Thanks!
1. Your book proposal should include one to three chapters (often the intro and first chapter). That’s all you need to finish before submitting a proposal. 2. Your synopsis should be your best shot at an outline of your book’s content. We all understand that things sometimes shift a bit in the writing process. 3. We need a chapter-by-chapter synopsis. Do a search for that on my blog here to find one of my most popular articles ever!
Hi Jenny! Your proposal should include two to three chapters, often the intro and first chapter. That’s all you need to finish before submitting your proposal. Your synopsis should be best shot at the structure for your book. We all understand that sometimes things shift a bit in the writing process. We need a chapter-by-chapter synopsis for the whole. See https://www.chadrallen.com/2013/01/25/how-to-write-a-chapter-synopsis-for-your-book-proposal/ for more info!
Thanks Chad!
Hi Chad, I am loving your guidance, thank you so much. Here’s my question: I want to do a non-fiction book that is more a series of essays than chapters. I feel that I’m a better writer in shorter form and so I’m trying that approach. Should I still format a proposal with chapter titles and sub-titles?
Yes, I think you should, or at least section titles if a batch of your essays fly under a banner instead of each one. But i generally would favor a title/subtitle per essay-chapter.
I am working on my first non-fiction proposal. I’m less nervous about the actual substance or design and more hesitant to actually jump in and finish it!
I know all agents and publishers have different preferences about wanting to see something in print or digital. What is your preference?
I like digital, and another little hint: Provide a version we can edit if need be. SOmetimes I want to do a little editing before I bring it to pub board. This isn’t possible if your’e submitting a designed pdf, but if not i think it’s a good idea. Sometimes agents will give me both a designed pdf and an editable Word file. Uber helpful. And hey, congrats on starting the process. Keep after it!!
Hi Chad.
Great points!
I once spoke with an author about a concept he pitched me at a conference. I told him I thought he was on to something with his idea and that I’d like to see a proposal.
He later emailed me and said if I couldn’t sell it without a proposal, he wouldn’t want me as an agent.
I took a deep breath, then pushed back (his idea warranted my response, otherwise I would have igored it and moved on) and pressed him to do the work, reminding him that a proposal is not just a bunch of hoop jumping, but a business plan.
He then called me and explained that he hated forms and couldn’t be bothered to fill them out. Exact words. Hated forms.
Well… that’s one of the worst forms of self sabotage (making it the best, actually) I’ve encountered as an agent. Write a complete book, but don’t bother with a proposal?
Drove me crazy.
I know writers just want to write, and not be bothered with the mundane business tasks of publishing, but a proposal is not something authors should try to skip, or attempt to farm out completely. If authors don’t understand their pitch, the market, and their reader demographics, they’ll sink when it comes time to collaborate with the publisher on production, marketing, and sales of their book.
And they’ll likely never find an agent willing to attempt to sell a book without one.
Unless, of course, they’re already a succesfull and well published author. Which didn’t happen without a proposal….
Amen! Preach it, Sandra!! Couldn’t have said it better myself!!
Yes. I am working on a non-fiction book proposal and I’m terrified. My question is this–can a writer propose to turn a series of blog posts into a book? Are publishers looking for something that is enhanced from the original posts, or completley reworked?
Hi Anita: I wrote a blog post on that! See here: http://bloggingyourpassion.com/how-to-turn-your-blog-posts-into-a-book-that-publishers-will-love/