Book Proposal Demystified – How to Write a Book Proposal for Fiction

Once you’ve been published multiple times, you may begin sending out book proposals before you’ve written the book. But for now, after will do.

What Goes in my Book Proposal?

Now we get into the fun part—making sense of all those myriad terms and boiling them down to one template that actually does work.

The template I’m going to give you will cover all your bases. What it will not do is check the guidelines of your particular publishing house or literary agency for you. You will need to check the guidelines and format your proposal to meet their standards.

For real. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP.

They can tell the differences between a slip up (which won’t get you rejected) and someone who hasn’t read or respected the guidelines (which will get you rejected). If you can’t follow guidelines on something like a proposal, then what promise do they have that you can on a whole book?

However, with this template, you’ll have all the material you need and you’ll simply have to copy and paste the sections to wherever the house prefers and possibly change a few headings. Or if they don’t have many guidelines at all, you can feel confident that you addressed everything that needed to be addressed.

Query/Cover Letter

Why It’s Important: This short version makes it easier for them to weed out ones that just don’t fit. For instance, maybe their historical section is all full for the coming year. They can easily see your book is a historical, so they send you an email explaining that they’re booked on that genre, but encouraging you to try again later.

Usually a publishing house has already requested this before they asked for the proposal, so I’m not going to go into too much detail here. Another topic for another time.

However, in some cases, they will ask you to put your query letter in the email and then attach the proposal.

A query letter is like the Norm’s Notes version of your proposal. (Am I the only one who calls Cliff’s Notes Norm’s Notes because of VeggieTales?)

You start off with your one sentence pitch, add a short synopsis, a short bio, and one short paragraph about audience, manuscript length, genre, all that good stuff.

Ideally, though, they’ll get past that query letter. When they actually click on your proposal, what should they see?

The sections below can be put in whatever order makes the most sense to you and fits the guidelines of whatever publishing house you’re sending to.

Author Bio

Why It’s Important: What are they looking to see in the author bio?

    -That you are human. They don’t want to work with writing robots. Include little touches of             yourself here and there.

For instance, in mine (which you can see a bit of at the bottom of this post), I mention some of my interests that are relevant to the genre I’m writing, and that I work as an elementary paraprofessional teaching reading. That gives them a little bit of my vibe.

Not only does this make you real to them, but this also makes it harder for them to say no to your book. I mean, really, who wants to write a rejection letter to that fun writer that loves cats and parkour whom they now have pictured in their mind?

-That you can write well. Don’t include all the things you’ve ever written here—but do name drop some of the biggest ones. For instance, in mine, I mention the number of articles I’ve published, but only name drop some of the biggest ones, such as Kingdom Pen, Story Embers, and Clubhouse.

This is the one time it’s okay to brag on yourself!

Make sure that any big wins or accomplishments of yours make it in here, too. For instance, I included that I was the 2021 Story Embers winner, a member of the Young Writers’ Workshop, and that I write frequently for Kingdom Pen. I also sneak in there that I have other novels written—which editors love to see, because that means if they do pick your book, there will be more to come.

If you don’t have a lot of accomplishments or bylines yet, that’s okay. These things take time and effort. Just be humble and be yourself. Tell the truth about what you have done—but when it comes down to it, editors are going to choose humans. Make sure they know you.

Comparative Titles

Why It’s Important: The idea of this section is to show the publisher that people are interested in your topic, but also to show how your book is different and not just a copycat.

This section can be remarkably fun, but don’t get carried away. You only need about three titles, although you can go up to five.

Comparative titles are books that are similar to yours.

Each title that makes it on your list needs to have been published within the past five years of whenever you’re writing your book proposal. Why? This shows that your topic is popular now.

Sure, Wayne Thomas Batson’s Isle Chronicles would be a great comparative title for my Piracy Era Little Mermaid retelling, but just because pirates sold in YA in 2008 doesn’t mean they will now. Whereas if I put something like Catherine Jones Payne’s Breakwater, it shows the pirate and mermaid vibe is still alive now.

For each title, try to include one way it’s similar and one way it’s different than your book. (For instance, Nadine Brandes’ Romanov is similar to my book because they’re both about Anastasia. However, mine is different, because it’s not a fantasy.)

Include title, author, publishing house, and release year. This allows them to look up those books and see if they did well. If the book won any awards or has five stars on Goodreads or Amazon, be sure to include that too.

Audience

Why It’s Important: The publisher is looking to see if you know who you’re writing for. If your audience descriptions are muddled or unclear, that might suggest the tone of your novel will be too, since you don’t know who you’re writing to.

This also helps them out immensely in marketing, because the target has already been set for them. Not only do you need to know who you’re writing for, but the publisher needs to know, too. By looking at this section, they’ll be able to tell if your audience is part of their house audience already. This helps you as well—because they can then direct you to another house that might better suit your audience.

Fast forward in your mind a little, to where your book is published. Picture a reader picking it up off the shelf or checking it out in their library. What is that person like?

This is what the publisher wants to know in your audience section. While they have a little bit of an idea from your comparative titles, this is where you lay it out, no holds barred.

   -How old is your reader?

   -What is their education experience?

   -What is their home life like?

   -What is their ethnicity?

   -What are their hobbies?

   -What are some things they like—movies, fandoms, games, etc.?

You’ll likely have a couple different answers to those questions. Start with the reader who will be the most perfect fit for your book. This is your primary audience. For my historical novel based on Anastasia, my ideal reader was a sixteen-year-old girl who loved the movie Anastasia when she was younger, loves Disney, and is struggling to know where she belongs.

But she’s not the only one I wrote for, and publishers want to see more than one audience. That way, if one audience doesn’t gravitate towards your book, they can market to a new one that might. So include a secondary audience. In the case of my historical novel, that was a sixteen-year-old boy who enjoyed mechanics and robotics, and was looking for an interesting book that wasn’t too girly.

And I even went further and included a third audience—a twenty-year-old trying to make their way on their own who is still a child at heart.

And there I had it. Beneath that, I also included a few groups who might enjoy the book, such as fans of the Broadway show Anastasia, people who love history’s legends and mysteries, and people who would enjoy the culture of the book.

Marketing/Platform

Why It’s Important: What’s the point of all the numbers and stats? It’s about the writing, isn’t it? This is where the publisher finds out whether the book will pay off for them.

Unfortunately, as much as some publishers would probably love to take every book that comes along, they still have to buy groceries. Which means they can only take the books that will pay off for them (and for you!).

We have arrived at marketing. The scary page.

It’s not as hard as you might think.

This is the section where you prove you can get this book where it needs to go. What are some things that might prove that?

   -email list subscribers

   -blog/social media followers

   -names of authors you know who might endorse or promote the book. These might be people         you know through writing workshops, met at conferences, authors who mentor you, or                    authors you’ve corresponded with through email or social media.

   -names of writing groups who might promote your book (in my case, the Young Writers’                    Workshop)

   -contacts at local bookstores and libraries

   -bloggers or influencers you know who might promote your book

   -publications or websites that might promote the book

   -any ideas or tactics you have for how to market the book (blog tours, giveaways, book signings, speaking engagements, podcast/YouTube appearances, etc.). Make it clear that you will do your part to get this book as far as it can go.

Like your author bio, don’t say it if it isn’t true. If your numbers and contacts just aren’t there yet, focus instead on ways you could get those numbers and what else you could do to market the book.

Long Synopsis

Why It’s Important: This is where the publisher gets to see your book! You lay it all out on the table. This allows the publisher or agent to know the main plot of your story without having to read a three hundred-plus page novel every time.

For a nonfiction proposal, you’ll go chapter by chapter and outline what each chapter holds.

For a fiction proposal, that gets very boring, so you’ll simply write a three-page synopsis of your book.

I call it the Wikipedia synopsis. This is my least favorite part of writing a proposal.

The important thing to remember here is to stick to the main plot. Not every little detail or side character needs to make it in. Simply stick with your main characters and plot, and only include the important stuff.

It will feel boring and sacrilegious and, well, like you’re writing those horrible Wikipedia articles describing the synopsis of a book or movie.

Do your best to have fun with it. Your writing style can still shine through on this. And if you can find ways for it to do so, you’ll definitely wow a publisher. I mean, if you can make a Wikipedia article sound good, then what might you do with a book?

If you’re having trouble narrowing your focus, try using a beat sheet for three act structure. (K. M. Weiland’s Story Structure Database uses a beat sheet to outline books and films in this manner.) Only write what happens on those beats.

Then go back and connect only the dots necessary to understand those beats. Anything else is usually filler and can wait for when they request the whole manuscript.

Make sure to lay out the entire book, beginning to end. Spoil it completely. They have to know as much as possible to make the best decision they can.

And always get feedback and do a reread on your synopsis to make sure it all makes sense and hangs together.

First Three Sample Chapters

Why It’s Important: By this point, they know about you. They know they serve your target audience, and that they can market your book. They love your story based on the synopsis. Now they’re looking to see if the writing can follow through. This is the make or break stage.

This is also the easiest part, because these chapters are already written!

Please note that it is the first three chapters IN ORDER. If you skip around and give them chapters one, seven, and fourteen, they’re going to wonder why you didn’t send them chapter two. Does that mean you can’t deliver on your chapter one promises?

Conclusion:

There you have it! You have all the material you need to send your masterpiece to a publishing house or literary agency and help them make the best decision they can, which will ultimately get your book into the best home it can.

As I stated before, each publishing house and literary agency is different, so be sure to check their guidelines. They may want your marketing before your author bio, or they may want to see your marketing section called platform specs.

But do remember—one little mistake isn’t going to kill you in the literary world forever. Editors and agents want to accept your book. They are willing to overlook a tiny mistake if they can tell you put in the effort and got the majority right. They only start side-eyeing when they spot numerous mistakes, and it’s obvious you didn’t do your homework, that they say no.

I think completing that Wikipedia synopsis earned you another chai. What do you think?