Designing a Proposal

When I got serious about writing I thought all I had to do was write a book. My first half decent book was a huge learning experience. I made tons of mistakes, just about every single one the professionals say not to do.  After several rewrites and revisions I realized I needed to put it aside. As much as I would love to get it published, I feel it's just not good enough and I need to work on an other book that haunted me more.

ReGeneration started out as a short story, but as I wrote the characters seemed to come alive and I couldn't help, but want to hear from them. As I worked on each character, they seemed to develop into a friendship. I got sucked into their world. Instead of leaving it a short story I needed to write. I had to know more about them and as I did I started to love even the villains. (after all they're just misunderstood)

Rewriting the story over and over has made me wonder if I'll ever feel it's complete? As my writing has changed and evolved so has my understanding of the business aspect for it. By now it's well known that I'm a class junkie. I take a lot of classes about writing and I look forward to taking more in my future. My latest class was about rewrites, but it also offered a business perspective towards the end.   

My fellow class mates and I worked on; themes, plots, narration, dialog, punctuation, self editing, format, and options for publishing.When we got into the business aspect I realized I knew very little about marketing. This is where writing a proposal came into view for me.

A proposal is a business plan for a agent.  Let's say, you wrote a query letter and an agent say's send me a summary. Instead of just a summary, make them realize you have a grasp on what they're looking for. Give them your Marketing plan with it. Basically that's all a proposal is. Letting them know, "I'm marketable."

For fiction a book proposal is four parts. Summary, market plan, bio, and sample chapters.

Summary- Tell them the story you wrote in short form. Even the ending, don't leave any surprises, but keep in entertaining. From 3-5 pages. (it's best to keep it short.)

Marketing Plan- Help them out by showing them how you plan to get your book to people. Statistics and ideas for promoting it can help them see your perspective. 1-2 pages

Bio- Who are you? What do you do? Why did your write this book? If you won a writing award write it down. Try to keep it about 1 page.

Sample Chapters- Put the first 2 or 3 chapters in. About 50 pages worth.

Of course this is all just suggestions, but realize that agents and publishers like it a certain way. (I think the word is orderly) Take this as a opportunity to move forward, even if they say, "thank you, but no-thank you." Every turn down(rejection) is a chance to learn and to become the better writer you already know you are, now you're job is to convince them.