Publishing Monday: What makes a book proposal successful?

My last post hinted at the subject matter for my newest book (though it’s probably more accurate to describe this project as “think about the influence of pink” than just “think pink”. But wasn’t that a great Funny Face excerpt?). As I mentioned Friday, the new book is currently in nascent book proposal form. This means that I’ve:

~ Done enough research to convince myself (and hopefully my editor) that my book concept is sustainable for approximately 60,000 words.

~ Written a basic book outline. I know this will shift as I work, but it gives me a map to start my journey from.

~ Looked at lots of art and design, to help me finetune the look of my book. I know this is unusual — most authors aren’t also designers — but, strange as it may sound, it does help me to figure out how to structure the written content of my book. Despite that my initial idea for a book usually arrives accompanied by a clear vision of their physical form, I still have to do a fair amount of research along the way. For example, my novel The Lover’s Path led me to studying the history of early Venetian printed books; Doomed Queens was inspired by Victorian penny dreadfuls. This new book is no different. So far, it has me delving into some of William Morris’s Kelmscott Press volumes. It’s still early in the game, though — who know where else inspiration will lead?

Now I’m trying to get all of these above materials to congeal into the final book proposal. Yup, I’ve created many a book proposal before. Even so, each time it’s still a tricky process, like trying to tip the contents of my brain onto the page and arrange the mess into something coherent.

I know I’ve written about creating book proposals before here, but this seems like a good opportunity to reiterate the obvious: They take a lot of work. Way back when, when I was first working in children’s book publishing, I was often able to sell a book on the basis of a strong query letter and sample illustrations. Jump forward twenty years: Thanks to the advances of computer graphics and print-on-demand technology, it’s possible for me to make a book proposal that looks like a mini-book onto itself. And that’s exactly what I do.

Though my book proposals are more finished-looking than the average bear, I’m not guaranteed success. There are still many things for a publisher to consider before acquiring one of my books: marketability, my track record, production and distribution issues. To insure that my book proposals can successfully become books, I make sure to include:

~ My pitch, or unique selling proposition — what makes my book different from others previously published, and why this is a good thing.

~ Market information — what similar books are out there. Or not, preferably.

~ Promotion plan — how the book can be effectively marketed to the public. I usually break this down by media (print, online and others) and by retailers (catalogs, special markets).

~ Finally, author info — my bio and publication list.

This is on top of the book proposal itself. But even all of this won’t fly if the creative content of my book proposal isn’t extraordinary. And that is where the true struggle often lies.

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On Friday, I’ll be writing more about this process of creating book proposals, this time about designing with type (aka “playing with fonts”). Stay tuned!

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