We recently had a conversation with author, book proposal writer, and founder of the ghostwriting agency WriteGeist about book proposals. Here's the transcript of our Q&A.

Q. What is a book proposal? 

A. Think of a book proposal as your book’s first impression and its business plan. It showcases not only your genius writing talent and topic idea but also the book’s saleability to prospective agents and publishers. The proposal essentially explains who you are, why your book should exist, why it will succeed in the competitive market, and why a publisher would be bonkers not to make an investment into you!

Book proposals are also the not-so-fun part of becoming a traditionally published author. While lengths can vary tremendously depending on each project, most book proposals land somewhere around 30-50 pages double-spaced, not including sample chapters, and it’s not unheard of for a book proposal to top out at 75 pages once sample chapters are included. 

In other words: writing a book proposal is no small endeavor! Because of their length, tediousness, and gravity when it comes to selling the book, many people hire industry consultants, editors, or ghostwriters to ensure theirs has the best odds.

Q. Who needs a book proposal, and why?   

A. An aspiring author asking “Do I need a book proposal to write a book?” is a lot like an aspiring business mogul asking “Do I need a business plan to start a business?” Do you need a business plan to launch a business? Only if you’re looking for investors. Should you have one, even if you’re a solopreneur with a lightening-bolt idea who is just going to pop up a quick website and give it a go? Yes! The same goes for books and book proposals. Having a strategic blueprint for businesses and books alike is going to make the odds of their success that much greater.

Sticking with the analogy: just as any business that is looking for financial investors needs a business plan, anyone looking to publish a nonfiction book with a “big 5” traditional publisher (and many popular indie publishers these days as well) needs a book proposal. If you’re aiming for the big leagues, here’s how it works: you absolutely need a book proposal to score an agent, and you absolutely need an agent to score a traditional book publishing contract. Therefore, a book proposal serves as the gatekeeper to play with the big book dogs, no short cuts—unless, of course, you’re of the B.Obama or T.Swift variety.

But again, even if you don’t plan reach for a high-profile book deal, I still recommend crafting a book proposal, or at the very least mulling seriously over the questions inherent to one: 

• who is this book for (audience)?
• what else is out there (competition)?
• how am I going to make sure it’s successful beyond just the stellar writing (promotional plan)?
• what is the flow and story arch of the book (chapter outline and summaries)? 

If you are on the self-publishing, hybrid publishing, or indie publishing path, writing a book proposal is only going to strengthen your entire book writing and book selling process, whether you need one or not. So, that’s my ultimate recommendation!

Q. What's the most often-overlooked element that can make or break a great book proposal?

A. Honestly, simply, editing. It may sound like a no-brainer, but it’s ground zero of literary success. In the traditional publishing world, nothing goes if your first impression isn’t polished. If you submit a book proposal rife with errors or that comes off as amateur, no agent, and therefore no traditional publisher, will take you seriously. And it’s easy to do, even if you’re a great writer, because it’s such a robust document and the publishing industry is so enigmatic. At the very least, you need your super-smart literary friend to put eyes on it; best case scenario, you hire an editor familiar with book proposals to polish it like the important piece of work it is.

4. Why is it so hard for many authors to write a really solid book proposal? 

Because they simply don’t know how to! The publishing world is built to be mysterious, and it’s difficult to know what is what when it comes to the shifting industry standards. You can have every element in place to legitametly score a big book deal—idea, talent, platform—but if your book proposal doesn’t grab, and sustain, the agent’s interest, or, again, if you come off as an amateur, you’ll get no where fast. It’s a cut-throat industry at the top, and you need to either seriously self-study how to make that cut, or hire an expert to do the dirty work for you.

5. Once the book proposal is complete, what is the next step?

If you are looking to publish with a traditional publisher, the next step is to start querying literary agents who are aligned with your project. All major publishing houses, and even some popular indie houses, require a literary agent to serve as the broker in book purchases. If you get picked up by an agent, the odds are high that your book will sell. Therefore, getting an agent, via a solid book proposal, is the most significant hurdle in between your wild dreams of becoming a big-shot author and the reality of it coming true. 

Once a literary agent picks up your book and takes you on as a client, they will help you polish the proposal even further and then start “shopping it around” to various publishing houses—while you sit back and cross all your fingers and toes for good news! Note that a legitimate literary agent never asks you for money up front. They work on commission and the industry standard is 15%

About Arizona Bell

Arizona Bell is the author of Soul Magic: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Mystics (Macmillan), a bestselling ghostwriter, and founder of Writegeist, a bespoke ghostwriting agency for visionaries serious about success.