Demystifying the Nonfiction Book Proposal: The Overview

I work with a lot of aspiring authors and authors on their nonfiction book proposals. Despite the many great books written on how to write a book proposal, I’m always amazed at how little these clients know about how to write a book proposal. Most proposals I see contain little or nothing of what they need to sell the great idea the writer has in mind.

Therefore, I’m going to spend the next few weeks going through the different sections of a book proposal and trying to help you understand what actually goes into writing them. Please note that I do have two products that will help you compile the information necessary for a proposal and write a proposal. They can be found here and here.

Let’s start at the beginning with the very first section: The Overview. This section falls under the first part of the proposal, called the Introduction. There are two parts to a nonfiction proposal, the Introduction and the Outline. Here are the sections that go in each part:

Introduction

• Overview
• Markets
• Subsidiary Rights
• Spin-offs
• Promotion
• Competing Titles
• Complementary Titles
• Resources Needed to Complete the Book
• About the Author
• Mission Statement
• Author’s Platform
• Chapter Summaries
• Sample Chapters

Outline

• List of Chapters
• Chapter Summaries
• Sample Chapters

The first section of a book proposal, the Overview, includes a lot of information in very condensed form because it provides a concise description of your book. This section has a hook (similar to a lead paragraph to an article–it might be several paragraphs), a pitch (sometimes called the “book hook”) followed immediately by details about the number of pages, illustrations, as well as the backmatter (glossary, appendix, etc.) you expect to include in the printed book. It also includes information on your book’s unique features and benefits. You might discuss the timely nature of your topic as well. You will do all of this in no more than three pages–hopefully in two pages.

The overview for your book proposal covers the full scope of your book’s concept and helps an agent or acquisition editor see your book in  totality. Also, just as the lead to an article or the first chapter to a book entices a reader to continue reading, the overview of a book proposal entices an agent or acquisition editor to read the rest of the document and to consider publishing the book. The Overview entices them into your proposal like the first page of a book entices a reader to continue until the last page. It is also a sales document; be very clear on this fact. When you write your Overview, you are creating a marketing document that hopefully will sell your book “idea” to an agent and a publisher.