Non-Fiction Proposal, and do I need help!

Kimmi,

Take a look at this - Jenna covers pretty much everything you need to know:
http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showpost.php?p=395053&postcount=5

I gave you the link to the most relevant post, to save you from having to read all the posts. You'll find it all in the thread "Learn The Nonfiction Book Publication Process With Momma Jenna." I could give you the link, but you need to be able to find it again yourself. Here's what you do:

Go to the Writing Nonfiction forum. The thread we are currently exchanging posts in is part of that forum. The easiest way get to it from here is to scroll to the top of this thread and click on the link Writing Nonfiction Books (it's just above the title of the thread). Once you get there, look at the very first thread in the forum. Surprise! It's "Learn The Nonfiction Book Publication Process With Momma Jenna." It's stickied at the top so it's always there. The post I originally sent you to is #5 in this thread.

Hope this helps.

ETA: You could also have gotten to the complete thread directly from the post I linked to. At the top on the right is a link to the full thread.

ETA more: Post #15 contains some excellent points and Jenna continues with "The Market" in post #156. You'll just need to keep working your way through the thread to find all of her posts.

My understanding is that the comparative titles gives you a chance to indicate on the one hand that similar books have sold (i.e. people will actually buy them). So you might want to find something along the same lines, but not about the same people, just a memoir with some aspect similar to yours.

And on the other hand it gives you a chance to talk about how it's never been done before and how special yours is.

P.S. Are you just in a hurry, or do you need a little tutorial on its/it's and their/there?

The phrase "There aren't any books like mine" is a big sign to a publisher that you didn't do your research.

Find something and make it like yours, if not by events (in the case of a memoir) then tone, background, or some similar element.

Just make a list of the most successful of them and compare and contract yours. I don't think there's any need to go into lengthy detail. You just want to make sure they don't overlook the obvious.

Have you checked out Bowker's Books in Print? If not, please do so.

Kimmi,
The reason you're being asked to find comparative titles is for potential publishers to see where your title might fit into the market. Absolutely, positively DO NOT say that there are not comparable titles. that means there is no market for your book. Rather, take some of the more well-known books that might be kind of like yours (yours is a memoir, right? so of course there are other memoirs out there, and very likely on your topic, as well). Then talk about why those books are different from yours. You don't need to bad mouth them (probably not a good idea, even if you want to), but just explain why that market has space for another good book (yours).
Good luck!

kimmi 57 said:

I can't find any books like mine to compare...the ones that are close are too far off from mine.... There is none like mine because it hasn't been written...yet. I went online, bookstore and library...

Click to expand...

From everything I've ever read one of the last things any agent wants to hear is "There's never been a book quite like this one." What that may mean to an agent is there's never been a book like this that's ever sold.

I'm not trying to be critical, Kimmi57, but there is always a book similiar, if not identical to whatever you've written. There are lot of original ideas, but not nearly as many unique ones.

I would bet you if you described your book to a good librarian they could find something kinda/sorta like yours. Research. Research. Research.

Kimmi, this might be too late to serve your purposes, but for my nonfiction proposal I initially followed the guidelines on this site: http://www.foliolit.com/sub-nonfiction.php.

My overview was two pages, roughly one thousand words, that basically summed up my narrative nonfiction subject and tried to jazz up its/his relevance to today's world. If you want to see it, holler. Good luck.

I had really good luck with my non-fiction proposal. My agent said it was the most professional proposal she had ever received. Of course I worked like a dog on it.

I followed each and every rule and covered everything required in depth. Here is my TOC. Also, for book comparisons, I had a picture of the cover of each book, all ten, that I compared my book to. It gave the proposal more interest.

Here is the important thing to remember when you get frustrated writing your proposal: If they don't like your proposal, and it isn't compelling, they will never see your book. The proposal is the gatekeeper--or opener.

Table of Contents

I. Summary…………………………………………………………………………….3-4
II. Book Comparisons…………………………………………………………………..5-7
III. About the Author…………………………………………………………………….8-10
IV. Market and Promotions………………………………………………………………11-14
V. Prologue, Chapters One and Four…………………………………………………….16-44
VI. Chapter Summaries……………………………………………………………………45-54
VII. Epilogue………………………………………………………………………………55-61
Full 70,000 word manuscript available upon request.

Good luck
Jajik