Always Cover the Basics

From reading many submissions, I’ve seen numerous misspellings of my first and last name. This small but significant mistake makes an immediate negative impression for reading the rest of the proposal. Your professionalism needs to shine through your proposal to a literary agent or an editor.

For a minute,. Imagine yourself as an editor or agent receiving submissions. You are actively looking for wonderful writing and solid authors that you can publish. This fact is good news for authors who wonder if anyone even reads their submissions. The important truth for authors to recall is that you receive hundreds of submissions. The little known truth is writers have only seconds to interest the agent or editor in their work. If that professional opens your submission and sees a glaring error, then that submission is rejected and they press on to the next submission. Rejection can mean receiving a rejection letter or not receiving anything or silence because of the large volume of material the editor or agent is receiving

Here’s some important basics to cover in your submission:   

1. Address a specific person. Never send an email addressing “Dear Agent” or “Dear Editor.” Besides looking funny, it makes the editor wonder if you are sending this material to thousands at the same time (and normally not saying it is a simultaneous submission). Editors and agents will change positions in the industry. It can be cause for rejection if you address someone who is no longer at that business. Check the agency or publisher website for their guidelines before sending and make sure you have all of the correct details.
2. Double check every word of your submission is correctly spelled. This point is one of my 21 Secrets in Book Proposals That Sell. I’ve had readers say, “Obvious.” Often submissions contain typos.
3. After you write your proposal and sample chapter, put it aside for several hours (or several days). With fresh eyes read your submission aloud and use a pencil to immediately adjust errors. The ear is less forgiving than the eye and you will pick up on more details reading aloud. Your goal is for every sentence to make sense.

Recently I’ve updated my free book proposal checklist: http://terrylinks.com/bookcheck Use this checklist to know you have sent a complete proposal. It is time-consuming for the editor to have to write an email asking for a missing section or missing address or _____.  Almost daily I write these emails to authors but I recognize I’m different. Because of the high volume of submissions, many agents and editors will not write for the missing information and instead they will never respond or send a quick rejection.

As a writer, you want to rejection-proof your submission and give it every possible opportunity to get their approval, interest and excitement. Every editor is looking for the next bestseller. Will it come from you? I hope so.

W. Terry Whalin, a writer and acquisitions editor 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. He answers to your proposal questions at: www.AskAboutProposals.com.

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.