A Simple Proposal Formula

I wrote about fifty books with traditional publishers, including two proposals that got six figure advances—before I began working inside publishing houses over sixteen years ago. At this point, I’m acquiring books for my third publishing house and I have reviewed thousands of proposals and manuscripts (no exaggeration). There are many different templates and models to create a book proposal. Yet there are some consistent elements that need to be in every proposal to capture attention and get published.

After reviewing this wide variety of proposals and manuscripts, I’ve decided attractive proposals boil down to a simple formula. Your proposal needs to contain the standard sections detailed in my free book proposal checklist This formula works no matter what you are writing (nonfiction or fiction).

 Passion + Sales = book contract

Every writer must have a passion about their story or their subject. Possibly you are passionate about the life-changes from people reading your book. Or maybe the story is in the forefront of your mind and you are driven every day to write more pages. Whatever the topic you, will be thinking about it not only during the writing but the marketing process–and without passion you will not be motivated to complete the writing or work on the marketing of the book.

Maybe you’ve specialized in a certain skill or topic that you are writing about. This expertise is something you are ready to tell others about and it’s key to your success. An editor or skilled professional can improve the writing but passion can’t be instilled and must be in the heart and mind of the author.

Sales or potential sales is the second key ingredient for your proposal. Who will buy this book and do you have a reach to this reader? If not, can you create this reach? Whether you have a large or small publisher, in today’s market the author carries 80% of the marketing responsibility. Your publisher can sell your book into the bookstore but without the author’s marketing activity, every retailer can return the books for a full refund. You must have this reach, or the ability to generate this reach, or you will not have sales. Thousands of books (no exaggeration) are published every day.

To get a book contract, you must have these crucial elements.

W. Terry Whalin is a writer and editor who  lives in Colorado. A former magazine editor and former literary agent, Terry is an acquisitions editor at Morgan James Publishing. He has written more than 60 nonfiction books including Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams and Billy Graham. To help writers catch the attention of editors and agents, Terry wrote his bestselling Book Proposals That $ell, 21 Secrets To Speed Your Success. Check out his free Ebook, Platform Building Ideas for Every Author. His website is located at: www.terrywhalin.com. Connect with Terry on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.