I speak, teach, and meet with writers at a number of quality writers conferences every year. (Conference directors and conferees haven’t yet realized how little value I offer. Please don’t tell them.)
Among the most common nuggets of wisdom (only nuggets, seldom more) I offer is this: “It’s never too early to write your book proposal.”
Developing writers often express surprise, but here’s why:
If you just set off, willy nilly, helter skelter, higgledy piggledy (I can go on like this for quite some time) writing your manuscript, chances are high you’ll create something with fatal flaws, something that will at least require major rethinking and revising down the line … and may even need to be scuttled.
Writing a strong proposal early in the process, however, will force you to define things that steer your project down more promising avenues: an irresistible hook, the correct genre, an appropriate word length, even a solid (if nascent) platform to support such a work. Writing a comparisons section, for example, will teach you loads about your genre and help you refine your approach. And so on.
You may, as many of us do, realize along the way that your idea as you initially envisioned it won’t quite work, or that your platform-building efforts need to become more strategic if this project is going to take flight. Such rethinking can be deflating at first, but it will save you hours—days, weeks, months, even years, perhaps—of futile effort. I promise.
Speaking for myself, a proposal is about the first thing I do when undertaking a new project. I may not pitch it until I’m farther down the writing road (especially in the case of fiction, since editors all want the manuscript to be complete before they consider a proposal), but the work of crafting a proposal makes the rest of the process—writing, revising, editing, pitching, shaking my head at editors’ lack of vision, etc.—much easier.
That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.
Very helpful, Bob. And your secret is safe with me.
Thank you, good to know!!!
Thank you for this helpful post.
This . . . yes! Totally agree and what I preach to writers I teach and coach.
You gave this good advice during a Zoom call to the 540 Writers Group a few years ago. Thank you.
I now approach writing by planning what I can do for my audience—rather than fixating on how important and urgent my Big Idea is. This advice empowered me to make more of my time. Again, thanks.
Great advice, Bob!
Would this apply to works of fiction? Do you work with or know people who work with authors who write clean fiction? I’m querying in the commercial fiction space, and, unfortunately, despite my goal to write a family friendly thriller with broad appeal, I’m having difficulty finding representation.
Jen, yes, of course. The above does apply equally to fiction, with the proviso that both agents and editors want the manuscript to be complete before they consider a proposal.
I’m taking the hands-on book proposal workshop at Write-to-Publish this year. I’m really looking forward to it!
Took this the hard way, then the right way. Wrote the manuscript first, built the proposal second. The proposal is what showed me where the book actually stood, and the comparisons section did the most work. It sold the book to me before it sold it to anyone else.