Write a 300-Word Introduction to Your Proposal That Hooks Agents & Publishers

Honing Your Idea

Decide your kind of nonfiction
Decide what kind of nonfiction you're writing -- memoir? journalism? history?
Find books that are similar to your idea
Find books that are similar to your idea, which you can use as guides throughout the process.
Talk to others about your idea
Talk to others about your idea, if necessary, to figure out the most exciting, salient, salable part of it.
Share your elevator pitch
Tell us your idea in one sentence: your elevator pitch.
Pitch your idea
Pitch your idea in just a sentence. If you can get it down to this length, expanding it to 300 words will be a snap!

Writing Your Intro/"About the Book"

Gather your elevator pitch
Gather your elevator pitch and any notes you have about your idea.
Do your research
Do any other research you need to put together the intro to your pitch.
Look at the backs of those books you chose as your models
Look at the backs of those books you chose as your models. The marketing copy there is the approach and tone you likely want to take with your proposal intro.
Make an outline
Make an outline, even for this brief part: It's 300 words, so you'll need something dramatic and catchy at the beginning, then you'll need to flesh out the idea a little in a way readers immediately get it, then you'll need to wrap it up in a conclusive way that says, "This is what this book will be about, and this is why you should buy it/represent it." Don't actually say that sentence, though. Fill it in with actual details.
Write your draft!
Write your draft!
Write a draft of your book proposal intro
Here you'll start drafting your 300-word proposal -- the project that will be your final goal in this class.

Selling Yourself/"About the Author" and "Marketing"

Look at other author bios out there
Look at other author bios out there, and figure out which ones you'd like to model yours on -- maybe they're from those books you chose in the beginning.
Write your own bio
Write your own, highlighting your connection to the subject matter, your writing experience, and your personality.

This is a short bit -- a paragraph or so -- highlighting why you're the perfect person to write this book.

Marketing

Determine your "competition"
Determine your "competition": other books similar in approach or genre.
Write up 3-4 sentence capsule book reports
Write up 3-4 sentence capsule book reports on each of those books, briefly summarizing them, and then highlighting how your book will be similar, as well as how it will be different.
Start listing any brilliant publicity and marketing ideas you have
Start listing any brilliant publicity and marketing ideas you have. Focus on the unique: Your publisher knows it would be great to get you on the Today show. He/she may not necessarily think of hosting a trivia night or giving away books at a specific niche convention -- that's where you come in.
Write your marketing section
Share your progress in your project section to get feedback from other students

Sample Chapters

Start a list of possible chapter topics
Look at all the work you've done so far, and start a list of possible chapter topics.
Forge these topics into an outline
Forge these topics into an outline that makes sense in terms of story flow or logic.
Fill it out by looking at those model books you have
Fill it out by looking at those model books you have -- what do they cover that you could do in an analogous way for your topic? Also dive into a little more research to add further meat to your outline. This will morph over time, most likely, but will give you a good start.
Choose 2-3 chapters for your proposal
Start thinking about which 2-3 of these chapters could work well as sample chapters for your proposal.
Start an outline
We won't be doing whole sample chapters here -- that's what you'll do once you finish this class, so you can focus on making them awesome. But you can start an outline here so you know where you're going with your proposal.

Finding an Agent

Tweak your original draft
Go back to your original draft and tweak it according to what you've learned throughout the class and any feedback you've gotten on it.
Write your marketing copy
Look at those model books' back covers again: Does your intro measure up to their marketing copy?

Make sure you've focused this passage on the juiciest, best part of your idea. What would make people really want to read this book? Is it a unique, dramatic story? A new approach to something, like weight loss or dating? Exclusive access to a story that hasn't been told?
Go write the whole proposal
Congrats, you're done ... with this part! Now go write the whole proposal.
Finalize your intro
Write a 300-word introduction to your book proposal, focusing on what we learned about honing your idea and giving it a marketable hook. Think of this like the snappy few paragraphs you'd see on the back of a book cover that's meant to hook you into buying it. Tell readers the juiciest, biggest, best part of your book -- what they'll learn, what they'll get out of it, the great story they'll experience.

Additional Resources

Paula Rosenberg

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