wordpress-seo
domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init
action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /srv/users/sandra/apps/sandra/public/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114Jenna Glatzer is one of my favorite writer friends and humans. I admire her for many reasons, but one is that she’s an accomplished and successful author. Jenna <\/span>is the author or ghostwriter of more than 30 books, including Celine Dion\u2019s authorized biography<\/a>. She\u2019s written for all five of the \u201cBig Five\u201d U.S. publishers, mostly in the memoir, true crime, business leadership, and health categories. Learn more about Jenna\u00a0on her website<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Your book proposal determines your publishing fate. <\/span><\/p>\n Write a stellar proposal about a nonfiction book concept with mass appeal and you\u2019ll have no problem landing a literary agent and getting a significant advance from a major publisher. <\/span><\/p>\n But writers\u00a0<\/span>often\u00a0<\/span>make mistakes in a few common areas when working on this essential marketing tool.<\/span><\/p>\n Here are seven of the most common book proposal mistakes I’ve seen and tips for fixing them.<\/p>\n Often, new writers believe their book idea is so amazing that literally everyone is going to want to read it\u2014so that\u2019s what they say. <\/span><\/p>\n But publishers don\u2019t want to hear that. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cEverybody\u201d is not a target audience. <\/span><\/p>\n In your \u201cMarket\u201d section, you must define who is most likely to read your book and why. <\/span><\/p>\n Don\u2019t bother listing the outliers. List your core audience and any secondary audience that passes the BS test. <\/span><\/p>\n For instance, the audience for most books about parenting a baby is pregnant women and new moms in their 20s and 30s. <\/span><\/p>\n Will dads read it, too? Sure, some will, so they can be your secondary market. Will grandparents? No. You may get a few, but be real: if large numbers of them aren\u2019t going to spend the money on a book like this, don\u2019t mention them.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/a>Here\u2019s the corollary to that: A writer sent me her pitch to critique, and the target market was so detailed and specific that I couldn\u2019t think of more than two people who fit all the qualities she described. (\u201cThis book is for athletic entrepreneur women in their 20s who are fashion-conscious and attend religious services regularly\u201d is an approximation of her description.) <\/span><\/p>\n If you\u2019re aiming for a traditional publisher and bookstore sales, you need to show that your book has a sizable, proven market. Something ultra-specific, like \u201cHow to Start an A Cappella Group,\u201d is probably better suited to self-publishing.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s counterintuitive\u2014you\u2019d think publishers would love hearing that your book is going to be the first of its kind, but nope. They want new twists, but mostly on tried-and-true topics. <\/span><\/p>\n If you say there\u2019s never been a book like this, publishers are going to question why. Does that mean there\u2019s no market for it?<\/span><\/p>\n Sometimes writers try to downplay the competing books by pulling up things they think will seem outdated. <\/span><\/p>\n And sometimes it\u2019s legitimate that the closest books on the topic came out a long time ago. <\/span><\/p>\n That’s not good. As much as possible, you\u2019ll want to include books published in the past 10 years that are still in print, even if they\u2019re not perfect matches.<\/span><\/p>\n You don\u2019t need to (and usually shouldn\u2019t) bash the competition. <\/span><\/p>\n The idea of the competition section isn\u2019t to show that other books on your topic are terrible. It\u2019s just to show that yours is going to be different and\/or better in some way. <\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s not smart to put down successful books. For one thing, editors play musical chairs and you don\u2019t know if the editor you\u2019re submitting to had a hand in that successful book or is a big fan of the author.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/a>One problem I\u2019ve encountered with several of my memoir ghostwriting clients is media over-saturation. <\/span><\/p>\n They were in the news at one time, and then thought, \u201cHey, I\u2019m on Oprah . . . I should probably write a book!\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n But the problem with that is that publishers see it and presume your media time is over and your story has passed. <\/span><\/p>\n Be strategic about the media you do before your proposal: Do one national appearance if you can, but limit anything else. <\/span><\/p>\n You want to work on your platform for sure: social media, radio shows, public speaking, writing articles, etc., but you <\/span>don\u2019t<\/span><\/i> want to go on “The Today Show” before the book deal or give away the juiciest parts of your book before it\u2019s a book. <\/span><\/p>\n Save all the media requests and use them in the proposal to show you will have lots of media opportunities when the book comes out.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/a>Conversely, you can\u2019t expect a publisher to believe that you\u2019re going to be a media smash if you\u2019ve done nothing to prove that. <\/span><\/p>\n Everyone<\/span><\/i> thinks his or her book is a shoo-in for all the big talk shows. <\/span><\/p>\n Nearly all of them are wrong. <\/span><\/p>\n Rather than banking on this lottery, show a publisher that you\u2019re ready to promote your work in other ways. Have someone record you giving a presentation, doing a local TV interview, teaching a seminar, and so on. <\/span><\/p>\n Learning how to write a killer proposal can make all the difference between a big sale and no sale at all. Good luck!<\/span><\/p>\n Want more? Jenna teaches a course on how to write a nonfiction book proposal called <\/span><\/i>“<\/span>Your BIG Book Deal: How To Sell Your Book to a Major Publisher.” I’ve taken it — I even provided a testimonial — and highly recommend it.\u00a0<\/span><\/em>Get a special discount for our readers at my affiliate link for “Your BIG Book Deal<\/a>.”<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" <\/a>Jenna Glatzer is one of my favorite writer friends and humans. I admire her for many reasons, but one is that she’s an accomplished and successful author. Jenna <\/span>is the author or ghostwriter of more than 30 books, including Celine Dion\u2019s authorized biography<\/a>. She\u2019s written for all five of the \u201cBig Five\u201d U.S. publishers, mostly in the memoir, true crime, business leadership, and health categories. Learn more about Jenna\u00a0on her website<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Your book proposal determines your publishing fate. <\/span><\/p>\n Write a stellar proposal about a nonfiction book concept with mass appeal and you\u2019ll have no problem landing a literary agent and getting a significant advance from a major publisher. <\/span><\/p>\n But writers\u00a0<\/span>often\u00a0<\/span>make mistakes in a few common areas when working on this essential marketing tool.<\/span><\/p>\n Here are seven of the most common book proposal mistakes I’ve seen and tips for fixing them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,11],"tags":[1032,1033,1034,1035],"class_list":["post-11492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guest-columns","category-tactics","tag-book-proposal","tag-book-proposal-mistakes","tag-jenna-glatzer","tag-publishing-contract"],"yoast_head":"\nGet a publishing deal by avoiding these common book proposal mistakes<\/h2>\n
By Jenna Glatzer<\/span><\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/h2>\n
1. This book is for everybody.<\/h2>\n
2. This book is for, like, five people in Canada.<\/h2>\n
3. There\u2019s never been a book like it!<\/h2>\n
4. Okay, there have been books like this in 1982!<\/h2>\n
5. . . . but the other books are all terrible!<\/h2>\n
6. I\u2019ve been all over the media.<\/h2>\n
7. I haven\u2019t done jack squat in the media but I know Ellen will love me.<\/h2>\n
Get a publishing deal by avoiding these common book proposal mistakes<\/h2>\n
By Jenna Glatzer<\/span><\/h3>\n