Write the Perfect Book Proposal: 10 That Sold and Why Paperback – April 12, 2016

Co-written by veteran literary agents (and husband and wife) Jeff Herman and Deborah Levine Herman, this book is a must-read for writers at any stage of their careers and helpful for writing a proposal for practically any kind of nonfiction book. It introduces beginning writers to the process of pitching their book project to agents and editors. It is equally helpful to published writers who want to polish their proposals or wish to transition to a different kind of publishing house. For instance, generally speaking, the Marketing section of the proposal would have to be more developed if the book is intended for a big five publishing house than for a university press. This book offers guidelines about how to write a book proposal for a wide range of publishers: the big five, independent and small presses and academic publishers. It also gives helpful examples of ten successful proposals in the fields of business, self-help, psychology, spirituality and other areas, analyzing their strengths and considering where they could be improved. My favorite example was Brainblocks by Theo Tsaousides. In fact, I found that proposal so interesting that I bought the book!

If you have written a nonfiction manuscript and you are looking for either a literary agent or a publisher, you will get nowhere fast without knowing how to put together a proposal. A proposal does not mean an unfinished work, but is rather a formula that authors must use when sending out their nonfiction manuscript for consideration. I wish I had know this information long, long ago.

This book gives great examples. I had no idea how to write a nonfiction proposal until I read this book. Now I'm ready.

Good overview of proposal process but not one example of a fiction book proposal. 90 percent of book targeted at non-fiction writers.

I have known of Jeff Herman for many years and found this review of the proposal process helpful. The examples let me see what well-written proposals looks like. A solid book proposal is the first step in getting a publisher's or agent's attention and this book helped me there.

This book was very helpful for me. After reading this book and Andy Ross's The Literary Agent's Guide to Writing a Non-Fiction Book Proposal, I revised my proposal and soon landed an agent. Great information.

I found this while looking for live examples of nonfiction book proposals which won a contract. Very in-depth and brief. The book has 10 presentations of live book proposals, along with publisher notes. Every format question answered, along with insights into marketing approaches, title choice, etc...

Unless you have 50k followers on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, forget about getting your book published (at least according to these people). It might have helped as well if their examples of books that sold weren't almost all self-help books (I was actually trying to get in on the humor market). Plus, they don't really tell you why the books sold, but instead they give a critique of each part of the proposal. Not really helpful to me.