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The Fast Track Course on How to Write a Nonfiction Book Proposal

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I have taught an adult education course called "So You Want to Write a Book" throughout New England since 1988 and have also worked one-on-one with more than 100 authors on their book proposals over the years. Originally I recommended Michael Larsen's book on how to write a book proposal, because it was the only such in-depth book available. However, I did not like certain things in his sample proposal and did not agree with some of his advice. When Elizabeth Lyon's book, Nonfiction Book Proposals Anyone Can Write, came out, I began recommending that enthusiastically because she takes the reader step by step through the process of writing the book proposal, and I thought her advice was better founded. Having looked at Stephen Mettee's book, I will now recommend his book to prospective authors who don't need the depth and handholding that Lyon provides. As you would want in any book on writing, it is highly readable, well-organized and to the point.

I am an attorney and literary agent so I make it a point to read books on how to prepare proposals. This is one of the shorter books on how to write a book proposal but the advice is very sound. Following the guidance in the book should result in an excellent proposal. One thing that distinguishes this book from most others on the subject is that it is written from a publishers perspective. If you are interested in writing a serious proposal,it would not be a bad idea to read more than one book on the topic since a proposal that looks professional and provides the information an editor considers necessary will garner extra attention.

A query letter and book proposal is the best place to start when considering writing a nonfiction book. Using the query letter and book proposal you can locate a publisher interested in printing your book before you spend all that time writing it. The purpose of a proposal is to give a very busy editor enough information to determine if they have an interest in the book and to have at least a basic level of confidence in you as an author.

In his book Mettee gives many detailed examples of what should be included in the proposal and well as example proposals and queries. In addition he covers contracts, agents, royalties and other factors that you will need to understand. Finally, he includes the very important information of what should not be in the proposal.

In "How to Write a Nonfiction Book Proposal" you receive a complete guide to writing a professional proposal that greatly increases the chances of getting your book published. A highly recommended read and a required read for any new nonfiction writer.

This short book goes to the heart of creating a book proposal. It includes information not easily available in other books such as a sample agreement from a literary agency, a sample book contract and detailed information about the shape of a query letter. As Mettee says, "The job of a query letter is to get an editor or agent to ask to see your full proposal." As an acquisitions editor, I know firsthand that too few writers invest enough energy into the query letter process.

In many regards, this book is an adequate introduction to the topic of book proposals. For other writers, it will leave you needing more detailed information than contained on these pages. From my perspective, it's important to study every single available resource on this topic. I recommend this book.

As a publisher and publishing consultant, this is the book I recommend to writers and new publishers. It is direct, concise, and engaging. Writers serious about professional nonfiction book projects would be wise to read and use this book.

This is an excellent and concise guide to writing a nonfiction book proposal. The author covers a lot of ground in less that 115 pages and does it in an entertaining and engaging way. In general, the book is very well-organized, has text boxes with useful tips, good cartoons used sparingly and powerful quotes that are offset in the margins.

The organization of the book is broken down into three chapters: 1) First Things; 2) The Query Letter; and 3) The Proposal. The rest of the book contains a sample book proposal, query letter, agency contract, nonfiction book proposal checklist, information on formatting a proposal, a section on author's rights and various references.

In reality, this is ALL you need to start putting out book proposals. In addition to high quaility information, the tone of this book is positive and encouraging. It also contains ALL meat and no FLUFF. You will learn a lot about the basics of getting published and be entertained at the same time.

Another book worth considering that iks also good, but geared more toward scholars is Getting It Published: A Guide for Scholars and Anyone Else Serious about Serious Books (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing). I have also found Writing for Story: Craft Secrets of Dramatic Nonfiction. The ideas in this latter book are excellent, but this two-time Pulitzer winner has somewhat of an arrogant tone to his writing. If you can tolerate this, you will save yourself a lot of trouble when you get down to work. (Personally, I have found him to be right with his suggestions, but I would have preferred him to be "right" from a position of more "equinimity."

I have never written a book before. I did have an idea for one though. I bought this book before approaching any publisher. I am very glad I did.

It forced me to focus on the things most important to an acquisitions editor: among other things, the scale of the potential audience, the book's "high concept", competing books, the credentials of myself and my co-author, and things we could do to help market the book.

Having thought about these things, in some cases doing further research, I then sent a "cold call" email to an editor at one of the world's biggest English language publishers in my field (finance). I distilled the aforementioned elements into a pithy, 1-page "pre-pitch", and asked to know whether the publisher would actively welcome a formal proposal - usually, as the author describes, a very long document.

To make a long story short, I got a meeting with the editor last week. I turned my "pre-pitch" into a slightly padded-out though still short PowerPoint presentation. At the end I asked the editor again, would she actively welcome a proper proposal. She said, essentially, "You've already done the formal proposal. We are enthusiastic about the idea. You've covered everything we need to know, except of course whether you can actually write this sort of book. Get us a sample chapter and detailed table of contents in two months; if they are as good as we think they will be, we'll make you an offer."

Wow - this from my first enquiry. I came across not only as a competent specialist in my field, but as commercial-savvy partner material for a major for-profit publisher. And all I'd done was follow the author's very clear advice, gleaned in an afternoon reading his lean, quite accessible guide. If I can, you can. If you think you have a winning idea for a nonfiction book, buy this one. It would be a great investment even if it cost 10 times more!

UPDATE July 2009: the book contract was signed!

The Fast Track Course on How to Write a Nonfiction Book Proposal is a solid, non-nonsense guide. It's gotten me off my rear-end to do my own book proposal, in large part because it makes the steps seem far less daunting.

The author, being a publisher, writes from experience as a person who reads book proposals all the time, and so you can bet that his advice will boost your odds when it comes to pitching your book. While it may be true that publishers will have their own quirky preferences, everything in the book just makes so much sense that it's sure to at least drive your own submission towards the top of the stack -- as long as you have something interesting to write about in the first place!

But we start with that assumption, don't we?

Mr. Mettee's book is practical, concise, readable, and attractive. My success will depend on how thoroughly I combine the advice contained in these pages with fingers-on-the-keyboard persistence.

It matters not if an author has a great book idea: if he can't write a proposal to market the idea to a publisher, the idea may never see print. The book proposal is actually a sales piece - and in How To Write A Nonfiction Book Proposal, authors receive a concrete course on how to produce one through this guide, written by a seasoned editor.