Welcome to our blog. Our first post will not be about book cover designs (we’ll have plenty of time for them in the future!), but laying out to aspiring authors, a successful road map to getting published.
How to send a book proposal
Your book might be the next great American novel, but no publisher will have the time to read it when you send it to them. To the established publisher your manuscript is just a manuscript – and they receive hundreds of them every month. So writing a book proposal is a fundamental step to the path to get published. Your book proposal is your opportunity to sell your book to the publisher. They will expect you to have done some research into your genre and your target audience. You need to tell them why your book will appeal to them, and why people will buy it.
Ironically this step is a good practice for you too. Try asking yourself the following question:
Why is my book important? Be not just objective, but also self-critical. Not just readers, but agents and publishers too, need to be convinced. Imagine someone looking at you, shrugging and saying ‘so what? who cares?’ That’s what you are up against. You need to get attention! Typically, your proposal should also include a synopsis and sample chapters from your manuscript.
Secondly, think strategic and be organised when sending your manuscript. Make a list of all the publishers that are right for your manuscript. Sending a childrens book to a publisher that focuses on scientific papers is not going to be the best approach. Keep in mind it will take them many months to get back to you, so be patient. You don’t need to send to one publisher at a time though. Send it to a group of publishers to begin with; if it turns out negative, try another group of publishers.
And when one of them gets back to you, just don’t forget, you only have one chance to impress. If necessary, have a professional editor read the manuscript before sending the entire work. After that, if the publisher asks for amendments, keep an open mind.