What is a book proposal?
Your book proposal should be typed on white paper. Sample chapters should be double-spaced and all other material single spaced, with double spacing between paragraphs. Send a simple covering letter identifying your submission as a proposal for the publishing house’s consideration. On your first page give the title, your full name or the name under which you want to publish, the approximate word count you project as the length of the finished manuscript, the estimated time of manuscript completion (here you can note if the manuscript is complete already), and the genre (for example: general fiction, thriller, mystery, fantasy, sci-fi, woman-in-jeopardy, romance, historic romance, Regency Romance, western, or historical novel). Send literary fiction as general fiction. Please note that category fiction only sells if proposals get seen by editors. If you can categorize your manuscript, it will be given to an editor with knowledge of that category. Category or genre fiction does not mean
A book proposal is a document that comprises: • An overview that establishes what the book is about, plus the selling handle and positioning. • A discussion of the market for the book, including target audience, size of audience and other details that would interest a publisher. • A discussion of books that compete and analysis of each. • The author bio. • A description of how you will help promote the book. • A detailed table of contents. • A sample chapter.
