As publishing becomes increasingly competitive and publishers less willing to take risks, a good, persuasive proposal is more important than ever before. I came to realize that a book proposal is not a lofty, idealistic presentation of one’s brilliant idea, but rather a persuasive document meant to convince a publisher to spend their time-and, more to the point, their money-on your idea.
WRITING A BOOK MANUSCRIPT HOW TO
What writing book proposals taught me is how to effectively communicate a book idea to a publisher. It was not accepted-the sales team thought the project was too local-interest-but writing that proposal gave me the template and approach that I went on to utilize again and again, ultimately with much success. The first proposal I wrote was for a book about my favorite museum in San Francisco, Musée Mechanique, for Chronicle Books. I learned to write book proposals directly from the editors to whom I pitched my first ideas. And, I also did end up writing my own back-cover copy, and later, my own books. But I did go on to work in the publishing world as a book designer, editor, and publisher. Of course, that is not exactly how things worked out. When we grew up, we planned to team up to write and illustrate books of our own. For fun, my sister Donna and I even wrote back-cover copy for books of our own invention. My mother, an avid reader, kept the house stocked with paperbacks sourced from a local thrift store, so growing up we had at our disposal everything from Colleen McCullough’s The Thorn Birds to Simone de Beauvoir’s The Mandarins to Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot. When I was a child, our big weekly outing was a visit to the library where my sisters and I were allowed three books each.
0 kommentar(er)
